By CHRISTINE HOPKINS
Staff Writer
 

In January 1998, confidential sexual assault report forms will be collated into an "official Federal statistic" report," according to Director of Health Services Chris Tisdale.

Prior to January 1997, there was no confidential report form for statistical purposes.

The information is to be used primarily for reporting purposes. In the instance of a repeat offender, the Health center can inform the victim that there have been other incidents reported, but no names will ever be provided.

Tisdale said that the forms were available, but unused until January 1997. The change to Federally compliable confidential report forms "was initiated by the Deans' office and reviewed by the Sexual Violence Committee," said Dean of Students F. Celeste Branham.

The change meant that instead of waiting until the next semester to report assaults, the crime was reported within a few weeks in "an immediate transfer of information," Branham said.

"People would look at the security reports and not see something that they knew had happened. This was a point of criticism," explained Tisdale.

In response, the Sexual Violence Committee recommended a policy to more rapidly release information. This policy was implemented with the exception, as Tisdale emphasized, "that the student [reporting the crime] has the ability to decide" how to best keep the report confidential.

While students can still request to not have an assault included in the statistics report, it is no longer omitted indefinitely. Under the Student Right to Know Act the assault report can not be with held from the statistics compilation for more than one year.

While the policy is expected to boost figures of assaults and other crimes slightly, according to all departments, "there is still a lot of under-reporting. Looking at other colleges, if you see zeros across the board, you know they're playing with their numbers," said Branham.

Director of Security Larry Johnson agreed. "Statistics are a pretty poor indicator of crime," he said. At Bates, only crimes reported to the Security Office or noticed by Security Personnel end up in crime statistics. Johnson said that "it's a struggle" to find ways that make statistics reflect what is actually happening not only at Bates but in other residential areas as well.

With the new reporting procedures, assaults reports which in the past have not gone beyond the red door of the Health Center, will be anonymously included in the Security Office's compilation.

The Health Center, the Security Office, and the Deans' office await the first report after a year of using the new confidential reporting procedures. Everybody involved hopes that these reports will give a clearer indication of what is actually occurring on campus.