Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study, Final Report

Data highlights indicate that (1) 13.7 percent of undergraduate women had been victims of at least one completed sexual assault since entering college and 4.7 percent were victims of physically forced sexual assault; (2) 7.8 percent of women were sexually assaulted when they were incapacitated after voluntarily consuming drugs and/or alcohol; and (3) 0.6 percent were sexually assaulted when they were incapacitated after having been given a drug without their knowledge. Detailed data were collected on the context, reporting, and consequences of sexual assault. Self-reported rates of sexual assault victimization and perpetration among males were very low. The primary implications of the Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study are the relative rarity of cases of drug-facilitated sexual assault (DFSA) and the need to incorporate alcohol and drug messages into sexual assault prevention and risk reduction programming. Sexual assault is a public health and public safety problem with far-reaching implications. Although a substantial body of research on sexual assault exists, additional data are needed to help document the current magnitude of the problem, the extent to which certain subpopulations are impacted, the consequences and reporting (or non-reporting) of victimization incidents, and strategies for preventing and reducing the risk of sexual assault and effectively responding to victims. RTI International received funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to conduct the CSA Study. The objective was to document the prevalence of distinct types of sexual assault among university women, as well as the context, consequences, and reporting of distinct types of sexual assault among a large sample of undergraduate women from two large universities.