New England Colleges Lead List of Schools with Most Reported Rapes

Photo by Olga Khvan

Six of the 10 colleges and universities with the highest number of reported rapes were located in New England, according to recent survey of federal campus safety data.

Brown University and the University of Connecticut were tied for the highest number of rape reports in 2014 with 43 each, followed by Dartmouth College with 42, and Wesleyan University with 37. Harvard was sixth with 33, and the University of Vermont, ninth with 27.

‘‘The fact that 43 incidents were reported indicates that we are building trust among our campus community members in how the university responds to reported incidents of sexual and gender-based violence,’’ Brown spokesperson Brian E. Clark told the Washington Post.

UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz, meanwhile, said the public flagship ‘‘works very hard to cultivate a culture of forthrightness so this traditionally under-reported crime can be addressed and our students receive appropriate services and support.’’

The Post‘s survey also analyzed the rape report data in the context of each school’s enrollment to determine the number of reports of rape per 1,000 students. Wesleyan ranked second with 11.5, while Williams College came in fifth with 8.9.

Last June, the Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation published a national poll that found one in five women who attended a four-year, residential college said they had been sexually assaulted. This week’s survey revealed that nearly 100 schools had at least 10 reports of rape on their main campuses in 2014.