While the campus crime reports do not reflect rape on Belmont’s campus, this act of violence often goes unreported because of the stigma it carries.

This hasn’t changed over the decades, said Peg Leonard-Martin, director of counseling at Belmont. “It makes me sad that it has remained the same since I was college-aged.”

The media has only helped to perpetuate it, she said. “I think the society continues to objectify women as sexual objects.”

Many victims fear reporting the violence, she said. “Usually the event is so traumatic, a person is violated in so many ways, that all of her senses are overwhelmed,” Martin said. 

“The trauma is just on so many levels from the act of violence all the way through the recovery process. When you’re a victim of an act of violence you lose complete control of yourself and your life,” she said.

Sometimes the stigma can be even more prominent on a religious campus, but it seems to stretch across all communities, Leonard-Martin said.

“Some students I have worked with have expressed how deeply ashamed they feel because of their religious beliefs. The self-blame victims experience can be exacerbated by not wanting anyone to know in a Christian community,” she said.

Counseling services is well equipped to help a rape victim, and they don’t have to report the rape if the victim doesn’t want to. “The bedrock, the foundation is confidentiality. We know a victim is terrified about people finding out,” she said.

“We also get a fair amount of anonymous calls from students who don’t want to report it but want help,” Martin said. She gives these students resources outside of the Belmont community. 

This means the students who decide not to report aren’t added to the crime report. The counseling center does not have the number of rape victims it helps available because it doesn’t separate the different students who come in.

“No matter what the numbers at the counseling center are, they would be underreported,” Martin said. “I just can’t imagine that Belmont can be immune to something that is happening in every community across the country.”

The counselors, including Martin, work with the victims to bring them through the recovery process including addressing the pros and cons of reporting the rape. “It’s whatever the person can tolerate,” Martin said.

“Our initial response is to comfort and attend to all the trauma that has occurred and to repeat over and over that it is not the victim’s fault,” she said.