One out of every 10 college women is raped every year.

The majority of these women know their rapists by name, but, confused or upset, they do not report the incident to the police or tell other people about the incident.

At Harvard, as elsewhere, women are unsure when the boundary has been crossed. The transition from familiarity to harassment and date rape is not clearly defined, so a victim may be left with only a vague sense of unease, discomfort or abuse. A woman goes out on a date with a man she knows well or casually, and against her will they have sex. She did not say no loudly enough, or she yelled no, or she wasn't really asked, or she was too scared to say no. She was, as experts are beginning to say, "date raped."

She feels that she has been psychologically or physically taken advantage of, but she forces herself to suppress the feelings of guilt and anger associated with that victimization, experts say. She says to herself that she is being hysterical, that it was her fault, that she didn't say no forcefully enough.

Since many cases are never reported to authorities, Harvard experts agree that it is difficult to find out how many women have been victims of date rape.

A 1983 survey of 2000 undergraduates, half of whom were women, revealed that 3 percent of the undergraduate women polled said they had received unwanted pressure for sexual favors, and 10 percent said they had been subjected to unwanted pressure for dates. The statistics, however, did not indicate whether the pressure was from peers or others, nor did the study ask about date rape. The study, conducted by two undergraduates through the office of the dean for undergraduate education, provided the first clues of the extent of peer harassment, particularly among undergraduates.

National studies indicate that more than 50 percent of rapes are date rapes and that one in eight women will be raped in their four years of college.

Responding

In spring 1983, a peer counseling group named Response was formed to provide support for victims of molestation. "We filled a great need because there was a significant amount of rape and harassment on this campus, and there wasn't an organization specifically trained to deal with it," says co-director Judy A. Zachariasen '86.

Response has both drop-in counseling hours on the weekend and a confidential hotline. Nadja Gould, a clinical social worker at University Mental Health Services and supervisor of all peer counseling groups at Harvard, says, "Response has been invaluable in labeling date rape as such and helping women to recognize and give validity to their experience."

In addition to Response, Room 13 provides general advice; Contact offers counseling on sexual orientation; and Peer Contraceptives Counseling answers questions about contraception and pregnancy.

Two or three of Response's 17 hotline counselors field from one to two phone calls a night, and the counselors are often themselves survivors of rape or sexual harassment. One became involved after her roommate was date-raped freshman year. Another said her interest was prompted by a section leader who continually invited her on weekend trips. Both agreed that the majority of calls concerned rapes, and that the majority of rapists were other Harvard students.

"Unfortunately, most of the time it's not worth prosecuting because the incident happened too long ago, and there's just no proof," says counselor Lisa I. Backus '86. "If it's date rape or there's any hint that alcohol or drugs have been involved, forget about the Ad Board."

One student counselor says the Administrative Board, which handles student discipline cases, is "notorious for inaction," and Ellen Porter Honnet, assistant dean of the College for coeducation and a sexual harassment hearing officer, says she agrees. She says that a new ad hoc committee has been formed within the Ad Board to hear special cases that relate to issues of peer harassment. The problem, she says, is that "two students with different interpretations of the same series of events make it very difficult to determine blame, even though one's sympathies lie with the victim."

Zachariasen notes that while the actual number of incidents has probably not increased, "in the past decade there's been greater awareness and recognition of the problem. The reason [Response is] getting more calls is because we're becoming better known and people feel more comfortable talking about it. Harassment is finally being acknowledged in the community as real."