Sexual offenses on campus have decreased and remained steady since 2007, according to the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Report, also known as the Clery Report and information released by the CSUN Police Department.
Crime statistics in the Clery Report and information given by Christina Villalobos, special assistant to the CSUN chief of police and public information officer state that in 2007, there were five forcible rapes on campus that were reported and four were reported in 2010.
Forcible sodomy and sexual battery have remained the same between 2007 and 2010 and have remained at zero and four, respectively.
Reported forcible sexual assault has substantial ly decreased. According to the report, in 2007 there were three sexual assaults and zero in 2010.
The Clery Report and information released by Villalobos show that non-forcible sexual offenses such as incest and statutory rape have also remained steady.
No incest cases were reported and statutory rape dropped from two to zero from 2007 to 2010.
According to the security report, sexual assault at CSUN is defined the same way as it is defined in Section 67385 of the Education Code.
“Sexual assault includes (but is not limited to) rape, forced sodomy, forced oral copulation, rape by a foreign object, sexual battery and threat of sexual assault,” the document states.
CSUN’s policy on sexual assault states CSUN does not tolerate any form of sexual assault.
“It is important for all members of the community to know that anyone can be a victim or perpetrator of sexual assault,” the policy states. “It is therefore extremely important to know that the campus sexual assault policy applies to all registered students and all faculty, staff, student assistants, graduate assistants, teaching associates, interns and volunteers employed at California State University Northridge or any of its authorized auxiliary organizations.”
Throughout 2009, the CSUN Police Department offered 176 crime prevention programs to the campus and surrounding communities, 14 of which were about sexual assault prevention and awareness, according to the 2009 safety report.
Another program that was offered and still exists is the Rape Aggression Defense Training (RAD) women, which is co-sponsored by the kinesiology department.
Raquel Lenhart is the instructor of the class and said RAD class sizes have increased.
“It gives women options for self-defense,” said Raquel Lenhart, instructor of the class in a telephone interview.
A normal class of 20 students is now 25 with a waiting list of 15 students, she added.
She said there are usually 10 to 15 women on the waiting list.
However, RAD is not only for women. Lenhart said classes are also available for men.
She said the classes differ in the techniques. The female classes focus on techniques that empower women, while men who are more likely to get in physical contact, focus on different techniques.
Students can take the class for credit, no credit or grades, Lenhart said.
