A student reported she was raped in a Central Campus apartment May 14, Duke Police said Monday.
The incident occurred from approximately 2:30 a.m. to 3 a.m Friday May 14, according to the Duke University Police Department website. The student reported the incident anonymously to DUPD Saturday morning at about 10:09 a.m., according to the site.
Police declined to describe any details about a suspect, including whether any suspects are in custody.
“It's really too early for us to say that sort of stuff,” said DUPD Chief John Dailey.
DUPD did not issue a DukeAlert e-mail or text notification about the incident. Officials released an e-mail update to the Police News listserv at 11:29 a.m. Monday.
As of about 6 p.m. Monday, Dailey said there was not enough information to determine whether this was a one-time incident or a continuing threat to the University. According to the federal Clery Act, DUPD must notify students and employees of crimes that "pose a serious or continuing threat" to the University community.
“It’s still very much under investigation right now,” Dailey said.
The report was a “blind report,” which grants anonymity to the complainant, said DUPD Assistant Chief Gloria Graham.
The University’s sexual misconduct policy allows students to file blind reports with both Duke and Durham’s police departments. Duke police declined to say whether the Durham Police Department is involved.
“The University will make all reasonable efforts to ensure the preservation of confidentiality, restricting information to those with a legitimate need for it,” the policy reads.
Duke police also declined to comment on whether the victim is working with support groups on campus, including the Office of Gender Violence Prevention and Intervention or the Women’s Center.
Reports of rape are not common on campus. According to the 2009-2010 annual Clery Security Report, 17 instances of forcible sexual offenses were reported on campus from 2006 to 2008. Of these offenses, seven were reported to have occurred in residential facilities.
Five to seven forcible sexual offenses are reported each year, according to the three-year data in the Clery Report. The most recent data is from 2008, in which five forcible sexual offenses were filed. None of these were reported to have occurred in residential units, according to the report.
The report defines a forcible sexual offense as “any sexual act directed against another person, forcibly and/or against that person's will; or not forcibly or against the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving consent.”
Forcible sexual assaults include rape, but the report does not specify how many of the assaults were rapes.
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