LARAMIE – Sexual assault and rape statistics at the University of Wyoming are much higher than crime reports suggest, and more in line with national trends, UW psychologists found in a wide-ranging survey of student experiences and perceptions.

More than one in four students — 27 percent — experienced at least one instance of sexual assault during their time at the University of Wyoming, according to the survey commissioned by UW and conducted during the Spring 2018 semester.

“Sexual violence and sexual misconduct are a major problem, significant and extremely prevalent at all institutions and all universities,” said professor of psychology Matt Gray, who co-wrote the survey with graduate student Tess Kilwein. “These numbers are not atypical. They are tragically high and unacceptably high, but they aren’t atypical.”

UW President Laurie Nichols said the prevalence of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape at the university depicted in the survey is “completely unacceptable,” but added the new data confirms a “hunch” she had that UW is comparable to other institutions of its size.

“When you’re talking about sexual assault or rape, I think any numbers are too high,” she said. “I hate to see us at 27.1 percent … but on the flip side, it’s probably to some extent about where I thought we might be.”

The Sexual Misconduct Climate Survey was conducted in part because of the discrepancy between large-scale studies and federally mandated reports under the Clery Act – which enumerate only crimes committed on campus and formally reported to law enforcement or UW employees.

While large-scale empirical studies conducted across the United States suggest about one in five college women will be sexually assaulted during their college years, UW — with a student population greater than 12,000 — reported 19 on-campus rapes to the U.S. Department of Education in 2016.

“Faced with these seemingly discordant statistics, it is tempting to perceive either that sexual assault is something that largely happens ‘elsewhere’ or the estimates gleaned from research studies are exaggerated or spuriously high,” the study’s introduction reads.

The survey lays the groundwork for developing an action plan to reduce the occurrences of sexual assault through education, Gray said.

“The things I think universities everywhere need to start doing a better job of – and UW is no exception – is just really being more aggressive about prevention programing and also provide substantive support for survivors post-assault,” he said.

Nichols added the detailed data would allow UW to target specific problem areas.

“We’re taking it seriously and this will be really good information for us to plan our work going forward,” Nichols said. “I think we can be much more diligent and targeted with some of the things we do now that we have this.”

One in 4 students experience assault, 1 in 5 women experience rape

While 27.1 percent of overall respondents reported experiencing at least one instance of sexual assault during their time at UW, 34 percent of women, 12.8 percent of men and 50 percent of gender non-conforming respondents reported the same.

Roughly 21 percent of respondents — 26.8 percent of women, 8.9 percent of men and 46.2 percent of gender non-conforming respondents — reported experiencing an attempted or completed rape, at least once, during their time at UW. Some 15 percent of respondents reported experiencing a completed rape.

“The rates of assault outlined above are unfortunately typical,” the study states. “These numbers are not spuriously high or atypical, but rather, indicative of the pandemic of sexual violence among college students across the nation. They also attest to the aforementioned reality that the great majority of sexual assault survivors do not report their experiences to campus authorities, faculty, or staff.”

The study found just a slight majority — 53 percent — told anyone at all about the assault before taking the survey. The majority of this 53 percent told close friends, roommates, romantic partners or parents.

“Only 13.1 percent of those experiencing an assault reported their assault to a UW faculty or staff member,” the survey states. “And only 9.9 percent indicated that they made a complaint or filed a report with the Dean of Students office or through formal UW reporting mechanisms.”

The high, previously unknown, figures above might come as a shock to some, but they were unsurprising to the people who work to prevent sexual misconduct, investigate claims or comfort survivors.

“The survey confirms what we’ve suspected for a long time and that is that sexual misconduct occurs here at pretty much the same rates as what we’ve expected with the national averages,” said Jim Osborn, UW’s Title IX Coordinator and co-chair of the No More Committee, which commissioned the survey. “The numbers are higher than what most people are aware of, I think, but it’s why we’ve been working on these issues for so long.”

Osborn said the hard data — and what it confirms about the problem of underreporting — shows that UW needs to educate students on the resources available to them. He added survivors should know they can seek help without necessarily starting a full-time investigation.

“It’s a reminder of why we do what we do, a reminder that we can always be doing more and we can always be doing better,” Osborn said.