A new study of National Crime Victimization Survey data shows that women in college now report more instances of sexual violence than women who are not in college, a shift from the 2000s and early 2010s.

The study, conducted by researchers at Washington State University and published in the Journal of American College Health, found that from 2015 to 2022, the risk of sexual violence was 74 percent higher for women enrolled in college. During each six-month period in that range, an estimated one in every 100 women living on campus reported experiencing sexual violence.

In contrast, from 2007 to 2014, the risk of sexual violence was about equal for women in and not in college, and before that, women who were not in college were at higher risk.

“To an extent, I was surprised,” said Amelie Pedneault, an associate professor in WSU’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology and one of the study’s authors, in a press release. “These comparisons had always shown that women who were not attending college were at higher risk. This was cited in multiple studies beforehand. Now it’s the opposite.”

The researchers are unsure what caused this shift.