One in six female students raped: report

Updated June 10, 2011 18:49:00

The survey of 1,500 women found 17 per cent had experienced rape. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin, file photo)

Australian universities are promising to redouble efforts to improve women's safety in light of a survey in which one in six female students said they had been raped.

The National Union of Students (NUS) Let's Talk About It survey of 1,500 women found 17 per cent had experienced rape, 12 per cent had experienced attempted rape and 11 per cent had experienced assault by penetration.

It found 67 per cent women had experienced unwanted sexual encounters and only 3 per cent had reported them to their universities. Only 2 per cent reported incidents to the police.

NUS spokeswoman Courtney Sloane says the findings are unacceptable.

"The results confirm what student organisations had been hearing anecdotally for years: that violence against women is happening at unacceptably high rates," she said.

"The level of violence against women outlined in these results is unacceptable in this day and age."

Eighty-six per cent of women surveyed had experienced sexual harassment in the form of someone making sexual noises or comments.

More than three quarters said they felt unsafe after dark, while one in six said they had experienced stalker-like or obsessive behaviour.

But Ms Sloane says she is optimistic about the future of campus-based anti-violence initiatives.

"Now that we have a clear picture of the issues and a framework for addressing them, I am hopeful this blueprint will begin a process that will see universities and students working together to end violence against women at their institutions," she said.

The NUS is calling for better surveillance, staff training and awareness campaigns.

Universities Australia spokesman Glenn Withers says reform requires "millions of dollars" in government funding.

Dr Michael Flood, from the anti-violence group the White Ribbon Foundation, supports the report's 30 recommendations, but says measures that educate men are the most effective.

He says mandatory rape-prevention classes, like those in the US, would reduce toxic attitudes.

Tags: community-and-society, education, university-and-further-education, law-crime-and-justice, sexual-offences, women, australia, nsw, sydney-2000

First posted June 10, 2011 18:48:00

Chat about this story w/ Talkita

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/10/3241348.htm

us canada australia politics bush