A much-needed supplement: Alert Carolina should fill the gaps in its revised guidelines

With its latest policy revision, Alert Carolina seems to have found a pragmatic solution to the perpetual question of what, exactly, merits an alert.

Unfortunately, the new policy also suggests the dangerous idea that some types of rape or assault are better or worse than others, since it dictates that students will only be notified about a sexual assault if the victim did not know his or her attacker.

To demonstrate that they appreciate the seriousness of all forms of sexual assault, Alert Carolina should work to create a user-generated online reporting map that would enable victims to anonymously report where they were assaulted.

There would be some obstacles to making such a system effective, but they are not insurmountable.

The most obvious drawback is potential for abuse, since a map that gives the specific address of each crime could be used to defame an innocent person. It would be easy for a malicious person to falsely identify someone as a rapist if the map gave specific street addresses.

In order to eliminate this possibility, the map could be more general about the locations it displays.

Those reporting crimes could still be as specific as they wanted to be, but site administrators would be able to ensure the locations displayed are general enough to protect privacy.

Though it would take a long time to aggregate it, this information would be immensely helpful to the general population. A student walking late at night could choose the safest route home based on where assaults are concentrated.

The system would also offer an outlet for victims who don’t wish to report their assaults officially but still want to help others avoid potentially dangerous situations.

According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, 77 percent of rapes are committed by non-strangers, but only 2 percent of these victims report the crime.

Among college students, it’s even worse: One out of eight women is raped, and 85 percent of them know their attackers. Under Alert Carolina’s new guidelines, students will be entirely in the dark about 85 percent of the rapes at UNC.

An anonymous, user-generated reporting map would give agency to those whose reports aren’t communicated by Alert Carolina — and to those who don’t tell anyone at all.

A victim’s first priority is and should be his or her own recovery. If a victim doesn’t want to go through the process of filing an official police report, that is his or her prerogative.

But the University should provide a plurality of avenues for reporting, and a system like this would be an important supplement to the channels already available.

A user-generated map would increase overall knowledge and awareness about a crime that remains unaddressed all too often.

Though the system may never be perfect, if this improvement could prevent even one rape, it would be worth it.