Sexual Assault Disclosure by College Women at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Predominantly White Institutions

Abstract

Due to the Title IX law, administrators at institutions of higher education (IHE) in the United States must promptly investigate reports of sexual assault. In addition, the Clery Act requires IHEs to publicly disclose annual sexual assault statistics. However, it is unknown whether—or how—sexual assault disclosure differs by type of IHE. This study, a secondary analysis of data collected from students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and predominantly White institutions (PWIs), examines the role of incident, offender, and victim characteristics in whether women disclosed experiencing unwanted sexual contact (due to force or incapacitation) and to whom they disclosed, by type of IHE. Significant differences in the characteristics of their experiences and factors associated with sexual assault disclosure were found between samples of women attending HBCUs (n = 327) and PWIs (n = 760). However, as expected, the multivariate analyses indicate that factors associated with the culturally reinforced stereotype of “real rape”—that is, the use of force, presence of injuries, and perpetrators who were not an intimate partner, friend, or acquaintance—were positively associated with disclosure for both samples. Overall, the probability of disclosure was higher for sexual assault due to force than incapacitation. In addition, White students had a higher probability of disclosure than Black students for both forms of sexual assault regardless of type of IHE.