According to the 1998-99 Emory Women's Handbook, one in six women will be the victim of rape or attempted rape in their college years. Unless Emory is vastly atypical, students looking to the crime statistics to determine the safety of this campus should take the results with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, rape is a part of every college campus. But the best defense against it is education. Because it is usually impossible for police to know about rape without the victim coming to them, it is imperative that incidents of reporting increase if potential rapists are to have a reason to fear the consequences of their actions.
Education also means being aware that there is a problem.
It isn't EPD's fault that it statistics are misleading, but they should make sure to emphasize in their report that these statistics only include reported crimes, and are almost certainly gross underestimates of actual crimes. Pretending that there were five or fewer rapes on campus last year isn't doing anything to improve campus safety. Nor is it beneficial for potential Emory applicants to be given an inaccurate picture of the realities of Emory. Unfortunately, rape is one of these realities. Information is the key to both preventing rape in the future and helping victims report their attackers.