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Rape Reporting Remains a Delicate Balancing Act

CASV members say they feel the College does not do enough to encourage victims to report incidents of rape.

In 1999, there were 2 formally reported on-campus sex offenses, 3 formally reported public sex offenses (in areas geographically surrounding Harvard) and 9 confidentially reported cases. In 1998 there were 11 formally and 5 confidentially reported sex offenses, and in 1997 there were only 3 formally and 0 confidentially reported sex offenses.

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But Jennifer C. Price '02, a CASV member, says she questions the administration's responsiveness to rape survivors.

"There's a sense that if you go to the Ad Board nothing will come out of it except a long and painful process," she says.

One of CASV's primary goals is to pressure the administration for a central resource like a women's center, that would be able to guide victims through the medical counseling, the Ad Board and the courts.

But Veronica Reed Ryback, director of the Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center Rape Crisis Intervention Program, says she is unsure whether centralized help would be more effective than the individual groups, like Response, that already exist.

Ryback also says does not think it would be in University Health Services (UHS) best interest to try to provide the "rape kit" used to collect evidence from a victim.

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