Cracking Down On Campus Crime

Lee Cowan On Demands For Fuller Disclosure Of Risk, Better Protection

(CBS)  College administrators from across the country gather in Denver on Tuesday to discuss campus security, amid growing calls for better disclosure of campus crime statistics and more thorough investigations of crimes that occur.

CBS News Correspondent Lee Cowan reports that, while the number of violent crimes at colleges and universities is down, those charged with keeping students safe are coming under more and more fire for not doing enough.

Cowan spoke with University of Virginia student Kathryn Russell, for whom the dark side of living on campus hit home hard.

"I was paying the university money to get an education, not to become a victim of a crime," Russell laments.

She was raped on campus last year. But, Russell says, the ensuing criminal investigation, done by campus police, never went anywhere, even though she identified her assailant.

"The university police completely mishandled my case," she asserts.

While UVA has since changed its policy on handling sexual assaults on campus, Russell's story is not unique, Cowan points out.

Russell has switched schools, but her alleged attacker, who was allowed to stay on campus, is now being investigated in a second rape case.