Cambridge University has revealed than in the nine months since introducing its anonymous reporting system, it has received 173 complaints of sexual misconduct. Of these, the overwhelming majority were student-on-student accusations, with only seven reported instances of staff-on-staff misconduct, and two allegations by students against staff members.
The anonymous reporting tool was launched in May as part of Cambridge’s Breaking The Silence Campaign, which also saw a tightening of sexual harassment and misconduct procedure and policy, and the introduction of prevention and support initiatives and training events. Considering only six instances of sexual misconduct were formally reported at Cambridge last term, the large number of allegations is testament to the effectiveness of anonymous reporting which, as Cambridge’s pro-vice chancellor for education, Graham Virgo, points out, can give victims of sexual misconduct a voice 'in a way that is free of the fear of consequences, but also free from accusations that complaints are vexations as neither perpetrator nor victim can be named'. While clearly true, this also means that no disciplinary action can be taken against the perpetrator. It would also be nice if we could foster a culture where victims of sexual misconduct are automatically believed and don’t need to fear such 'accusations'. But maybe that’s too much to ask of 2018.
Graham Virgo, anyway, seems quite pleased himself: 'we expected high numbers, and view it as a metric of success. It appears victims have confidence in our promise that these figures will be used to judge the nature and scale of sexual misconduct affecting students and staff, and to act on it accordingly.' And to be fair to him, Cambridge are making headway in acknowledging the scale of this problem (and publishing these results, which other Universities who have implemented similar systems are yet to do), and taking action to try and to something about it. It’s difficult to see this as genuine progress, however, when success is measured by an increased number of anonymous reports. A more appropriate metric of success will surely be a time when victims feel they can come forward without fearing accusations of dishonesty, or even, if such a future is conceivable, when these assaults don’t happen in the first place.
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.