Athletes Seen Involved in More Campus Sex Crimes

A new study suggesting that varsity athletes are more likely than other college men to commit sexual assaults on campus raises serious concerns, an NCAA spokeswoman says.

“I think we all recognize that there is some evidence that there’s a problem involving male student athletes and sexual assault,” Kathryn Reith said from NCAA headquarters in Overland Park, Kan. “It’s an indication we need to take it seriously.”

Todd Crosset, a University of Massachusetts sports management professor, and Jeffrey Benedict, a Northeastern University graduate student, studied 107 cases of rape, attempted rape and fondling at 30 schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division I.

Judicial affairs office records from 10 of the schools showed male student athletes were more likely to be perpetrators in on-campus sexual assaults than non-athletes.

Figures from 1990 to 1993 showed student athletes made up 3.3% of all male students but 19% of those who carried out assaults.

Campus police records from the other 20 schools showed no significant difference. Those figures, from the 1992-93 academic year, showed male student athletes made up 3.7% of male students and 5.3% of the perpetrators.

The schools were not identified.

The researchers said they couldn’t explain the difference between the two sets of statistics, but when they were looked at together, “athletes appear to be disproportionately involved in sexual assaults on college campuses.” They said more study is needed.

“I think there’s enough evidence out there to say: ‘OK, we’ve got a problem. How do we fix it?”’ Crosset said.

Don Sabo, a sports sociology professor at D’Youville College in Buffalo, N.Y., said the study is the most rigorous of its kind so far.

But he emphasized that a small percentage of student athletes commit sexual assaults.