Connecticut college safety reports show low sex crime numbers, one school a statistical outlier | #schoolsaftey #kids #parents #children

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (WFSB) – Campus safety has come under scrutiny since a woman accused seven Cornell University students of raping her in 2024, and this week marked the deadline for most U.S. colleges and universities to release their annual security reports.

Each year, colleges and universities across the country are required to publicly release reported crime statistics from their campuses in what’s known as the Clery Report. Reports of sexual assault are often underreported, and most of Connecticut’s major colleges and universities report relatively low numbers of serious crimes like rape and fondling.

Most of the state’s larger public universities received reports of rape and fondling in the single digits since 2023, with some years showing no reports at all. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, more than two-thirds of sexual assaults are not reported, raising questions about the accuracy of the numbers in these reports.

Cara Cavallari, an attorney with Gerace and Cavallari who has worked with both victims and the accused in sex crime cases, said the Clery reports offer transparency but not the full picture. She said the allegations at Cornell are prompting schools to examine their prevention efforts.

“I think colleges, especially with this Cornell situation, are going to be under a microscope and are really going to have to take a look at things like frat life, sorority life and college sports,” Cavallari said.

Cavallari said the reports also serve a purpose for victims and for institutional accountability.

“I think that they’re valuable. They’re important. I think it’s really going to curb the way a lot of these colleges and universities implement their code of conduct, policies, and things like that,” Cavallari said.

University of Hartford shows sharp increase

One Connecticut university stood out as a statistical outlier: the University of Hartford. Over the past three years, reports of rape went from nine to five, then to 37 last year. Reports of fondling in those same years went from one to zero, then to 14 last year.

“It’s definitely an alarming uptick in the numbers,” Cavallari said.

The university said in its report, “A significant number of these crimes resulted from one incident report. The University took immediate action, including commencing an independent/outside investigation which resulted with insufficient information to proceed further.”

Reporters reached out to the University of Hartford to clarify what that means, but had not heard back.

The University of Hartford, in its report, encourages anyone to report crimes on campus and to download the LiveSafe app, which allows users to communicate directly with campus police.