What's CSU doing to address the rise in domestic violence incidents?
Hi, Coloradoan subscribers.
This is education reporter Molly Bohannon.
In early October, all colleges and universities that receive federal funding — including Colorado State University — are required to publish annual fire and safety reports detailing crimes and fires that occurred on campus during the previous calendar year.
Many of us who watch these institutions closely were waiting patiently for this report to see just how much of an impact remote learning and other elements of the pandemic affected on-campus crime.
It made a big difference: Overall crime decreased on CSU’s campus by 20%.
But one category on the crime report jumped out at me right away as the only of 28 that saw an increase. Domestic violence incidents increased almost six-fold on CSU’s campus, rising from three reported incidents in 2019 to 17 in 2020.
CSU isn’t alone in this increase. In fact, experts and providers are seeing it nationwide, even worldwide: The increased isolation and stay-at-home orders that were abundant in the early days of the pandemic likely led to huge increases in domestic violence incidents, many of which continue to go unreported.
College campuses weren’t an exception, especially considering women between the ages of 16 and 24 are the most common victims of intimate partner abuse.
So I wanted to see what — if anything — CSU was doing to address the rise and prevent it from becoming a multiyear trend, and if the university attributed it to similar reasons that experts across the country cite.
To learn more about what experts on CSU’s campus, locally and nationwide are attributing the increase to and how they’re addressing it, read my subscriber-only story coming Monday morning.
As always, thanks for subscribing. We simply couldn’t spend time digging into lengthy crime reports and tracking down answers without your support.
— Molly Bohannon, mbohannon@coloradoan.com
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: What's CSU doing to address the rise in domestic violence incidents?
