<p>We can’t assume the boy is the instigator just based on statistics. Each case is different, or we might as well just make our judgment without hearing and looking at evidence, if any. In many cases, it takes two to tangle.</p>
<p>Well, if colleges really wanted to wash their hands of these cases, then they’d encourage women to call the local police, not discourage them. Most of the cases would disappear, and there would be no sanctions at all.</p>
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<p>I’d hang my head in shame if this were my daughter.</p>
<p>So, rape a girl, nothing happens, bottle of booze, suspension. Got it.</p>
<p>BCE, I hear you re THIS ONE INCIDENT. What bothers me is the framework the schools have set up do not discorage rape.</p>
<p>To completely avoid situation like this, we should ban sex among young, unmarried adults. That is the only way possible. Is it practical? Not sure.</p>
<p>I think you would eliminate a lot of these situations if you cracked down on underage drinking.</p>
<p>I thought that most schools put you on probation for your first alcohol offense.</p>
<p>cpt’s statement on not putting yourself into a position where bad things can happen is something that parents should teach their kids.</p>
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<p>One other way would be to always videotape any encounters so that proof of consensual activity would always be available.</p>
<p>That is an interesting one, BCE! We might as well be a police state. :)</p>
<p>The Hofstra case was the one where video evidence set free three men accused of raping a woman after they had spent four days in prison.</p>
<p>Holy Cow! That is very chilling.
On one hand, I don’t want to see folks like OJ got away with murder. On the other hand, we can’t just kill 1000 for the sake of getting one real criminal.</p>
<p>BC Eagle,</p>
<p>So are you saying that first offense for rape should be probation? I think we’ve all heard of frats in trouble for liquor. Any in trouble for sex? hmmm. Is there a message there. </p>
<p>Seems to me that schools are loooking only for “low-hanging fruit” in disciplanary cases, and not trying to prevent problems. Kudos to the sorority women at Dartmouth, who seem to be the only ones trying to prevent future problems.</p>
<p>“doesn’t exactly match what actually happened per the police report…”</p>
<p>I would not take the police report as unvarnished truth any more than a witness’s testimony. Unless we’re talking about direct observation by the officer (“Complainant bleeding from the mouth during interview”), the police rely on after-the-fact reports as much as TV stations do.</p>
<p>Any crime reported that is not just breaking of the school rules should be reported to the police. Certainly any rape, assault. It is not up to the school to make the determination that of whether it is a prosecutable crime. That is way over their capabilities. The only things that a school should be handling are things that the local police are not going to address or there is a tactical agreement that the college will handle and those things are felony or even misdemeanor level things. The colleges are acting like a bunch of Catholic priests by not reporting all of this and opening themselves to the problems that the Church is having from handling or not handling those cases properly, namely not calling in law enforcement. Absolutely they should be calling the police.</p>
<p>So it goes for any of us. For certain things that may just be a citation sort of thing, you may handle it yourself when it happens in your house. Call the parents, maybe. But if it is a true criminal situation, absolutely anything that is a felony, you don’t try to deal wit it yourself. It is out of your hands. Call the police. I have done that on some matters far less serious, because it is not something I can address.</p>
<p>My problem with all of this is that a number of posters are making unsubstantiated claims, saying that 1 out of 5 college girls are sexually assaulted or there is a tremendous amount of unreported rape on college campuses. All of this is anecdotal, cannot be proved and is just conjecture without hard facts to back it up. I feel this entire topic has been politicized by militant women groups and lumped with other issues like unequal pay and the glass ceiling. Scapegoating men for all their problems tends to be the common denominator for all their grievances.</p>
<p>Am I saying this never happens on college campuses - heck no, but it is definitely not an epidemic or happening anywhere in the numbers some posters here would like you to believe. Also, let’s not diminish those cases where the female has psychological issues and her behavior in the aftermath of an alleged incident is not always rational. A guy’s life can be ruined by such allegations, and we should never forget this. Many of the parents here have sons - think how you would feel if he was unjustly accused of this ugly crime.</p>
<p>I think folks would do well to read the NCJRS report:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/221153.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/221153.pdf</a></p>
<p>And if some nice parents have nice sons who turn out to be rapists, well, that is what the law is there to adjudicate.</p>
<p>“It is not up to the school to make the determination that of whether it is a prosecutable crime. That is way over their capabilities.”</p>
<p>Are you proposing that schools be made mandated reporters of possible crime, like high school teachers are? There’s probably a good argument to be made in that direction. The concern I have is that if the school adopts a policy of reporting to the police, regardless of the complainant’s wishes, you might end up with yet more crimes reported to no one at all, even the school. There are some young people who are willing to tell a dean, but not a cop, about this kind of thing. You might drive it further underground if complainants don’t have a choice between reporting to the college and reporting to the police.</p>
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<p>I didn’t say that. But that would be the logical conclusion from what you wrote.</p>
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<p>Basically watch your drinking.</p>
<p>There are earlier studies of the rate of false rape reporting. The numbers are all over the place on research and fiat claims.</p>
<p>Okay, if we are automatically going to report all allegations of inappropriate sexual activity on college campuses to the police, then every time such an allegation is proven false, the female is reported to the police, charged with a crime and is punished in a similar manner.</p>