New site saves student sexual assault reports
In Greek mythology, Callisto was a nymph and follower of the goddess Artemis who took a vow to remain a virgin. But, as ancient legend has it, Zeus disguised himself as Artemis herself to lure Callisto into his embrace. Once she found out Callisto was pregnant, the real Artemis was enraged and turned her into a bear.
This myth inspired the name of a new site, Callisto, which launches this fall with the intention of empowering survivors of sexual assault.
During college, 25 percent of women and 7 percent of men will have unwanted sexual experiences. Conflicting statistics exist about how many students will report these assaults, but the fact remains that most won’t. A recent report by the U.S. Department of Justice said 20 percent of student rapes and sexual assaults are reported to police.
Right now, Callisto is only being used by two colleges in its pilot programs: the University of San Francisco and Pomona College. But the developers hope it will expand to more universities, and even address workplace sexual harassment or sexual assault in the military.
It works like this: Survivors log in to their school’s specific Callisto site and complete an incident report. They can either decide to submit the report to school officials right then and there, or they can save it for a later date. The information will be saved with a time stamp and then will be encrypted, so neither universities nor Callisto administrators can access the specifics.
“We’re asking student survivors to enter some of the most private details they’ve ever had in their lives online,’’ said Kate Lazarov, a project officer for Callisto. “But a lot of college students feel more comfortable doing things online. Right now, at most schools, the only avenue to reporting is physically walking yourself to an office or to the police and telling someone in person. This gives them the power.’’
Only the person who filed the report will have access until it’s submitted. But that doesn’t mean colleges can’t learn from the accounts.
Callisto’s creators believe the site will give colleges unprecedented access to the true number of assaults that occur on campus. At the end of the year, Callisto, which was developed by the nonprofit Sexual Health Innovations specifically for universities, plans to send colleges information from its database.
The administrators might be able to see, for instance, that though 10 cases were officially reported at a school, 200 were saved into the database. Even if school officials can’t see the specifics, they’ll be able to know the prevalence of sexual assault with more accuracy than they would have been able to otherwise, which can better inform their policies.
The website is also the first of its kind to give attention to the issue of repeat offenders. Most rape survivors know their assailants. And many campus assailants are repeat offenders. One study, cited by the White House Council on Women and Girls, said that of men who admitted to committing rape or who attempted rape, about 63 percent said they committed an average of six rapes each.
In interviews with survivors, Callisto found that many women who might have been otherwise hesitant to report would be more willing if they knew their assailant had attacked someone else. They kept this in mind while designing a specific feature of the site that addresses common assailants.
After saving a report, a user can choose to have it automatically submit if another user names the same assailant. Both students’ names, as well as the perpetrator’s name, will be sent to the school. The students then have the option, but no obligation, to share the rest of the information from their profiles with the school to provide more details about the assaults.
Jim Hopper, an independent consultant who teaches at Harvard’s Medical School, is part of the site’s higher education advisory board. He said the team made sure the language used is comfortable to both men and women, and would make sense to people who have undergone a traumatic incident. For instance, Title IX policies are translated into approachable language that doesn’t use the term “complainant’’ and explains what a “hostile sexual environment’’ is. It also addresses other concerns they might have, such as how many people they need to tell, and whether a friend can come with them to the proceedings.
There are other online resources for survivors of sexual assault. Many colleges run their own sites. But Callisto is unparalleled in that it’s a third party that stores information with survivors in mind because it protects and timestamps their information, and can also be accessed years later if survivors decide to press charges at a later date.
Jane Stapleton, co-director of the Prevention Innovations Research Center, who also advised the Callisto team, said that Callisto also differs from other assault reporting sites in that it was evaluated by hundreds of members of its target audience. Over the course of a year, developers interviewed 43 college sexual assault survivors and more than 100 other individuals aged 18 to 30 about the reporting process, all with the intention of making it more empowering for users.
“It’s kind of comical, but a business executive will develop an app and say, ‘Well I thought it was a good idea,’’’ Stapleton said. “But he’s not an 18-year-old college student. Callisto is blazing the trail here.’’
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