IU report finds Indiana has high rates of sexual violence

The state of Indiana has one of the highest rates of sexual violence in the country, according to a report by the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at IU.

Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction; Jonathan Plucker, CEEP director; and Katie Cierniak, CEEP graduate research assistant, wrote the report together.

The report shows the amount of sexual violence both nationally and in Indiana.

It offers recommendations to researchers, school officials and policymakers about how to prevent sexual violence.

“These figures are a sobering signal we must do more earlier to avert sexual aggression,” Heiman said in a press release.

“Prevention is so crucial and underappreciated nationwide as a tool to reduce rape and sexual abuse.”

Raising Awareness of Interactions of Sexual Encounters is an IU student-led organization.

The organization focuses on teaching students about sexual assault.

“I was really shocked by these statistics,” RAISE Co-President Pamela Cawford said. “At RAISE, we’re more about peer education to teach about consent and sexual assault to try to combat those kinds of statistics.”

— Katie Dawson