Jump in Federal Probes for Mishandling Sex Assaults

The number of federal investigations into colleges' handling of sexual assault on their campuses has jumped 50 percent in the past six months, according to government data provided to The Washington Post.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is now working on 89 active cases at 85 colleges and universities, The Post reports. Federal investigators are looking to see whether those institutions violated the federal anti-discrimination law known as Title IX in handling reports of sexual violence.

When the Obama administration in May first began disclosing the names of colleges under investigation, there were 59 cases pending at 55 colleges.