Peg Langhammer of Day One
WPRO News and The Associated Press
Senators want to know why only a fraction of campus sexual assault victims go to the police.
A Senate Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing Tuesday on the role of law enforcement in these cases.
The hearing comes after Rolling Stone magazine published an article describing a gang rape alleged to have occurred at a fraternity house at the University of Virginia. The magazine later acknowledged mistakes in its reporting.
The subcommittee’s chairman, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, says he hopes the hearing will shine a light on steps to protect victims.
He cites statistics that 1 woman in 5 is assaulted in college, but the vast majority of cases go unreported.
Peg Langhammer, Executive Director of Day One, the Providence-based group that helps victims of sexual assault, called for better cooperation between police and campus authorities, to give rape victims confidence that if they come forward, their stories will be heard.
“What we are advocating for does not universally exist today. We have to create it,” Langhammer said.
“If we expect victims to report these crimes, we need a system that works for them, one in which they are believed, supported and can be confident in a just outcome,” she testified.
