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Violence Against Women on the Internet

Legislative Guidelines

(by Gilia Smith, from "Higher Education Sexual Assault Policy", Women, Violence and the Law, Harvard Extension School 2002)

The Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act of 1990 requires that institutions publish and distribute an annual security report containing campus security policies and crime statistics ("Jeanne Clery Act"). In 1992, this act was renamed after Jeanne Clery, who was raped and murdered in her residence hall at Lehigh University ("Complying with the Jeanne Clery Act"). This legislation mandates that each institution issue a statement regarding its sexual assault prevention programs and the procedures to be followed once a sex offense has occurred. Minimal compliance requires that the following information also be provided: the importance of preserving evidence, options for the notification of law enforcement, the existence of counseling, mental health and student services, possible sanctions to be imposed following a disciplinary procedure and options for altering academic and living situations. Institutions must make this information available to all students, employees and to any applicant for employment or admission upon request ("Jeanne Clery Text"). Information regarding institutional police department's response mechanisms to incidents of sexual assault are explicit and, for the most part, easily accessible via the Internet. The degree to which institutions comply with the spirit of the law, however, varies widely. In the sampling of ten higher educational institutions used for this paper, for example, web-accessible information regarding campus sexual assault policies ranges from two to 18 pages in length. The intricacies of disciplinary procedures, in particular, tend to be shrouded in bureaucracy and difficult to access.

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