Federal Probe of Penn State on Handling of Sexual Assaults

The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has started an investigation into how Pennsylvania State University has responded to allegations of sexual assault (beyond allegations involving the former coach, Jerry Sandusky, who has been convicted for abusing numerous boys), The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The OCR investigation was prompted by data the department analyzed, not a complaint. One question of interest to federal investigators is why the university reported 56 instances of forcible sex offenses in 2012, more than double the 24 reported the prior year.