Madigan leads summit on college sex assault

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan led college officials, police and victim support groups at a summit to combat sexual assault on campuses.

They heard powerful words from a woman who was raped as a college freshman.

"The hardest call I ever had to make was to my dad... I don't want anyone to have to go through that," Julia Dixon, sexual assault victims advocate, said.

The numbers are staggering. About 20-percent of women undergraduates say they were victims of rape or attempted sexual assault and about 6-percent of men say that, too. However, fewer than 5-percent of rape victims in college report the crime to police.

"There is the unfortunate belief, and at times reality, that you will not be taken seriously, not supported. You'll be re-victimized and there will not be justice for you," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said.

The attorney general is now backing a proposed law in Illinois that would require all colleges and universities to have a comprehensive plan for handling sexual assault, including making students aware of their rights as victims. Those rights involve changing dorms and class schedules; getting an order of protection; and having confidential advisors available for a victim's needs.

Madigan says it's astonishing that 40-percent of colleges say they haven't had a sexual assault investigation in the past five years when the incidence of the crime is so high.