<p>As a parent of daughter's I follow the forum's discussions about this issue with dismay. I haven't read many of the details about the legislation but I find the attention that it is getting in the news to be heartening.</p>
<p>Hopefully even if it doesn’t get passed, it will raise attention to the issue. It is interesting that this is simply codifying what already was out there before this point, basically summarizing what was supposed to be the law. I think the biggest part of this is schools being forced to release the data, one of the things that is important is that we have actual numbers. For example, in the article they say that 1 in 5 women going to college will be assaulted, but those numbers are often based on polls or guesses, with mandatory reporting hopefully we see the reality. It isn’t because I don’t believe this is going on, it is because without concrete figures, reported figures, there is a certain body of people who will call this hysteria or hype, for example comparing it to the hysteria about kids going missing (claims of 50,000 kids disappearing each year, etc) where the claims and reality were quite different, or the abuse claims in daycare back in the late 70’s that turned out to be more myth than reality. I unfortunately stumbled onto Fox News one night, and they had one of their talking heads talking about this issue, and he was saying it was hype, that a lot of this was young women getting drunk then having regrets and so forth (and sadly, the host was a woman who sat their nodding in agreement)…hence the need to at the very least get the stats out there. </p>
<p>It also sadly doesn’t surprise me, I don’t think this is a sign of the times, I don’t think that young men have gotten any worse, what I think is this is another case of where behavior that was once swept under the rug, like child molestation by priests or child molestation in general, has been forced out of the shadows that existed because of shame and by parties wanting to cover it up; with sexual assault, because often these are cases involving consensual sex gone wrong or involve alcohol or drugs, too many people in effect who knew about it said “it is their own fault”…in any event, hopefully this will at the very least open eyes and force some changes. </p>
<p>Your tax dollars and tuition dollars hard at work…</p>
<p><a href=“campus rape culture activists | fight against each other”>http://collegeinsurrection.com/2014/07/campus-rape-culture-activists-form-circular-firing-squad/</a></p>
<p>Welcome to my world of regulatory burden. The Violence Against Women’s Act is already imposing regulations on colleges in this area. There are required policies and procedures that must be implemented, and they must be submitted with the annual Clery reporting. Although the final regulations will not be complete until November, colleges are required to have this in place and include it in their annual security reports in October (we have to “do our best” to interpret the not-final regulations). If you have ever wondered why tuition is high, just start to look at the plethora of regulations with which colleges must comply. This particular act is tied to federal Title IV funding, as many are. Let me just say that there really must be a better way to deal with the issues of sexual violence on SOME college campuses than imposing more and more regulations on all colleges. It irks me that what is occurring on some campuses prompts overreaching regulatory burdens on all campuses. Believe me, at small schools with very limited staffing, this sort of thing is incredibly difficult to comply with (but comply we will, of course, even if it means even more nights and weekends at work).</p>
<p>I know this is a (slightly) old thread, but I’ve been thinking about this issue a lot.</p>
<p>What I don’t understand is why a college-age woman who has been raped or sexually assaulted even bothers to tell her college administration. Why not go directly to the police in the college town or city? By going to the college, it seems to me that the woman is giving up her right to due process. </p>
<p>This is my question as well. The answers seem to be…</p>
<p>I. The college encourages them to report to the administration.
2. They are concerned with getting the offender off campus as much as behind bars.
3. The crime is not provable so law enforcement can and does do nothing.</p>
<p>But, there may be more. I don’t fully understand it either. At all. </p>