Oct 17, 2014 03:59 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

The U.S. Education Department has expanded the Clery Act, a federal law mandating transparency with campus crime.

According to the Associated Press, colleges and universities are now required to report crime statistics on stalking, dating violence and domestic violence. Whereas schools are required to properly adjudicate crimes of sexual discrimination under Title IX, the Clery Act requires full transparency.

When President Barack Obama reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act in 2013, the action also amended the Clery Act. Schools are now required to disclose statistics of crimes committed near campus, such as at residence halls and apartment buildings off-campus.

Sexual assault and rape survivor advocates have maintained that crime transparency on the schools' part is an important part of curbing sexual violence. Currently, about one in five women in college experience sexual assault, but it is a crime that victims more often than not decline to report to authorities.

Previously reported by the Huffington Post, sexual assault and related crimes are showing up on more colleges and universities' Clery Reports than ever. Since sexual misconduct often goes unreported, this means more victims are coming forward thanks to heightened awareness.

Occidental College represented one of the biggest turnarounds, reporting 12 instances of sexual assault in 2011, 11 in 2012 and 64 in their 2013 Clery Report.

"We believe this substantial increase over last year's number is primarily due to increased awareness of Title IX issues and of reporting and support options at the College," the school said in an official statement last week. "Of the 64 reports made in 2013, 34 involved conduct that occurred prior to 2013."

The law was passed in 1990 and named after Jeanne Clery, who was raped and murdered in 1986 when she was 19 and a student and Lehigh University. Currently, the Education Department classifies an investigation into whether or not Penn State University officials reported Jerry Sandusky's sex crimes against children as the most extensive Clery Act probe to date.

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