California

UC Unveils New Task Force to Crack Down on Campus Rape

Students and staff will work together to enforce the university system's new sex crime policy

The University of California unveiled a new task force on Friday that aims to further the sex crime prevention policy across its 10 campuses.

University officials and students will work together to prevent sexual assaults and enforce investigation across all UC campuses, according to a news release.

“We aim to be the national leader in combating sexual violence on campus,” UC President Janet Napolitano said.

The UC system revamped its policy on sex crimes earlier this year and set out new definitions for consensual sex in response to a letter from Sen. Barbara Boxer that asked what the University of California was doing to prevent rape.

From 2011 to 2012, 31 rapes were reported across the UC campuses, including 10 at UCLA, according to UC.

UCLA in total reported 30 forcible rapes between 2010 and 2012, not including attempted rapes, according to the university.

The UC Merced reported no occurrences of forcible rape during those time periods.

Other universities outside of the UC system were investigated earlier this year for failing to abide by federal regulations regarding the disclosure of rape on their campuses.

The University of Southern California disclosed that it failed to report 13 sex crimes in 2010, and Occidental College said that it failed to report 23 cases to federal officials in that same time frame.

<a href="http://">Students at both USC and Occidental formed organizations and committees last year in aims of changing their university’s policies on rape and sex crimes.

Colleges are required by the 1990 Clery Act to report criminal activity so that parents and students can gauge the safety of a campus.

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