University of Missouri sees decline in sexual assault cases over the last 5 years
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The University of Missouri reported 121 sexual exploitation/misconduct/assault between 2020-2021, which is down from 162 in 2019-2020.
According to its 2020- 2021 annual report from it's Office for Civil Right and Title IX, there were 121 reported assaults.
- 15 - Non-consensual Sexual Intercourse
- 18 - Sexual assault: Rape
- 3 - Sexual Assault: Attempted Rape
- 2 - Sexual Assault: Sodomy
- 2 - Sexual Assault: With an Object
- 44 - Unclassified Sexual Assault.
Christian Basi, a University of Missouri spokesman, said there are multiple resources available on campus for people to report sexual assault or sexual discrimination.
"All faculty and staff with a few exceptions, are mandated by the university policy to report any kind of sexual assault or sexual harassment, or sexual discrimination that they become aware of," Basi said.
The university also has a Counseling Center, the RSVP center, and MU Health Care has a nurse dedicated to sexual assault survivors, according to Basi.
National Organizations like SAFEBAE, and Nightcap are doing their part to help prevent sexual assault cases.
SAFEBAE is a national organization whose mission is to end sexual assault among middle and high school students. The organization aims to promote awareness and create a culture change teens can carry with them when they go to college or join the workforce.
SAFEBAE's founding executive director Shael Norris says their goal is to educate the next generation on how to be a responsible bystander and to educate students about consent.
"It isn't, you know, a survivor's fault, but at the same time, if we're not doing proper consent education and proper healthy relationship work with kids in high school, there are going to be a lot of unwitting perpetrators out there, because they think they understand consent, but they don't," Norris said.
Norris said one of the goals they have is to educate people on how to be a good bystander. They want designated friends to become synonymous with designated drivers.
"I think that there really wasn't this understand of, if alcohol is involved, if somebody becomes inebriated, they cannot give consent," Norris said. "We need kids to understand you can be a bystander to that, you can say hey, this is not a good look for you. We're gonna go home together, get their (snapchat) and reach out later."
Shirah Benarde is the CEO and Co-Founder of Nightcap, which is a scrunchie that turns into a cover, to protect drinks from being spiked.
"Our mission is to prevent people form being roofied, we are trying to combat the issue of drink spiking since we know it is such a common problem on college campuses, and we just want to make the world a better place," Benarde said.
