McCaskill Presses Agencies Opposing Improvements to Sexual Violence Data Collection Efforts

Following watchdog report that found no collaboration in data collection across government—including 23 different description terms—Senator questions two agencies’ opposition to recommendations

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, a former prosecutor of sex crimes, is urging the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Management and Budget to reconsider their opposition to recommendations from a watchdog study undertaken at McCaskill’s request. The report found vast differences in data collection efforts—including the use of 23 different terms to describe sexual violence.

“Without good data it is impossible to tell if we are making much needed improvements in preventing and responding to incidents of sexual violence,” wrote McCaskill in a letter to Director Shaun Donovan, in response to his agency’s opposition to convening an interagency forum to better coordinate data collection efforts. “It makes sense for [the Office of Management and Budget] to take action now, rather than waste more government resources on inefficient data collection efforts that yield fragmented and confusing statistics.”

McCaskill continued in a letter to Secretary of Education John King, Jr., “While the needs of different agencies may differ, an interagency forum on sexual violence data collection will offer federal agencies an opportunity to discuss their data collection needs, learn from one another, identify areas where agencies’ data collection needs diverge, as well as where collaboration will produce higher quality data. I urge you to reconsider the Department’s position on an interagency forum on sexual violence data.”

The study found that four federal agencies—the Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice—manage 10 different efforts to collect data on sexual violence, which vary widely in target population, terminology, and measurements. McCaskill is encouraging efforts to make collection information available so the public can understand what it means, and requesting that the Office of Management and Budget—which has oversight over data collection—works with agencies to develop better ways to collect sexual violence statistics.

McCaskill is also leading a bipartisan coalition in advancing the Campus Accountability and Safety Act—her legislation to combat sexual assault on college and university campuses by protecting and empowering students, strengthening accountability and transparency for institutions, and holding perpetrators accountable. The legislation is informed by feedback McCaskill heard when she traveled across Missouri, visiting 10 different campuses and speaking with representatives from nearly 50 colleges and universities. Last month, McCaskill joined a group of 30 colleagues to urge the Departments of Justice and Education to ensure schools receiving federal funds are compliant with new Clery Act legislation requiring crime and sexual violence reporting.

In 2014, McCaskill announced the results of her unprecedented nationwide survey of how sexual assaults are handled on college campuses, which demonstrated a disturbing failure by many institutions to comply with current law and with best practices in how they handle sexual violence against students. The survey found that more than 40 percent of schools have not conducted a single investigation in five years, 21 percent of schools provide no training to faculty and staff, and 31 percent provide no training for students. The 440 institutions represented in the survey are currently educating more than five million students across the country.

McCaskill’s letter to Office of Management and Budget is available HERE, and her letter to the Department of Education is available HERE. The full study on sexual violence statistics in the federal government can be found HERE.

Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/violence to see more about McCaskill’s work to curb domestic and sexual violence.

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