Sexual Assaults and Administrative Indifference: none of it makes any sense

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>As a male incoming freshman I'm probably not going to have to worry too much about my personal safety in regards to this particular issue; nonetheless, it angers me - more uniquely, it strikes me as bizarrely surreal.</p>

<p>That is, the level of apathy and mishandling among college administration and staff of sexual assault cases would be a nice brand of dark comedy if it weren't such a terrifying issue. I know these people are cognizant of how absurdly everybody looks at their "suspending students found accountable for rape for one day and ordering them to write some reflective letters" gigs - they obviously have PR staff and access to google. Many of these powers-that-be have daughters. They probably see, as western ethical systems see, rape to be, outside of extraordinary crimes such as sadistic torture, the second most insidious crime next to murder. </p>

<p>So what recreational drugs must have inclined them to implement policy that only recommends a "2 year suspension" for students found responsible for "violent sexual penetration" [seriously, 2 year suspension?], or to deliberately conspire to cover up reports, and discourage and even intimidate accusers from coming forward? </p>

<p>The typical reply is that acknowledging the issue may not be very good for their reputation - but it seems from the media coverage and the lawsuits that the reverse is the case. It also seems that it would be in their best interest to get rid of violent students, if only so they don't stir up any more trouble. Is this just pathological laziness? Do they think turning an attentive eye will cost too much money or something? They have to know that what they're doing is unacceptable - it's ridiculously obvious to everybody else.</p>

<p>...because the scary part that this night-before-my-calculus-exam procrastination rant builds to is that these universities honestly seem like they're run by sociopaths. That's the only logical conclusion - to be utterly apathetic to what, 1/5th of their female students suffering through potentially years of intense psychological trauma, even if it's to make sure that they keep their application rates up. The other possible conclusion, that this whole issue is just wildly overblown and many of these administrative failures are sensationalized by the media, is mightily comforting but does not hold up to critical scrutiny/overwhelming evidence to the contrary.</p>

<p>Seriously - every time I read about some fraternity handing out some dumbass rape-flyer and some university dean making some really, really stupid, Todd Akin style comment, I honestly feel like I'm reading a dark comedy. I don't know what goes through the female socially liberal university dean with three daughters' mind when she decides that she'll just punish this rapey dude with a 2 month suspension...yeah, that'll totally catapult us in the US news rankings... 8-| </p>

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<p>Rape and sexual assault are not taken seriously in this country. It goes way beyond universities. Look at the thousands of unprocessed rape kits. </p>

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<p>I have to agree, the apathy on these issues is widespread. Many times, alcohol is involved and the victim is blamed; that still gives a person no right to take advantage of someone. Did you happen to read that anonymous article/letter written by a Harvard student about this? IIRC she was asaulted or raped and she was still in the housing dorms due to that same administrative indifference. I don’t know the full story or any updates, but it was very interesting. Would anyone happen to know if this problem at Brown is comparable to other colleges or if Brown has an inordinate amount of sexual assaults and whatnot?</p>

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<p>There is this thing about due process and our legal system. The fact of the matter is that people are INNOCENT until proven guilty in a court of law. To be accused of assault and rape is a very serious thing, and if there is any chance that the accusation is not true, the damage done to the accused is terrible. HAving known some situation where people were later vindicated due to DNA analysis, there is really doubt anytime something like this comes up. The Duke lacrosse team catastrophe is a very public example of how something went wrong. </p>

<p>Schools take chances when they make any kind of disciplinary action that is not proven in a court of law. They do have a lot of leeway in ejecting students but the question becomes when they are going too far, and whether something like this is provable. In many ways, it’s very disturbing that people are allowed to make allegations sometimes years later when there is little or no evidence that would stand up in any court of law in this country, that any prosecutor, attorney, judge would tell you is insufficient evidence and point the finger at someone. What do you do if you get so accused,when you did NOT do as someone said you did? In many cases, the college will focus things that such accused clearly did, like be somewhere s/he wasn’t supposed to be and take other evidence and go after that. But at what point do you become the court in these cases. </p>

<p>Some years ago, a soldier I know was accused for rape and assault. Before the days of DNA, and he was identified by friends of the attacked female, and things looked very bad for him. All sorts of nasty publicity too, as the young woman was the daughter of someone who was not afraid of making this so public. The problem was that he did not do it. By pure chance, he was on some hidden camera at some locale and also someone who didn’t know him from ADam could identify him. Once that opening was made, all sorts of other evidence came out that the young woman’s story did not add up. She was likely attacked; something happened, but she had the wrong guy. But those false accusation against the young man really did a lot of damage to him. To her too, as I think when she was able to come up with a second suspect, the authorities did not want to touch the case, for all the trouble that was caused,and the family did not want to go through another firestorm after what had happened.
People say that the victims are further victimized by the process, but a false accusation, the wrong id, can make for completely uninvolved victims, There is a reason for our system of criminal justice.</p>

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<p>Perhaps I’m being too naive here - while it’s one thing for a university administration to let maijuana possession and underage drinking slip by, it’s another thing entirely to respond to widespread rapes with the same alacrity - that could only happen from profound ignorance/stupidity or sociopathy. I can’t imagine why universities would be run by either of these people.</p>

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<p>Yes, but read the examples I alluded to - the universities found some students guilty of rape within their own due processes…and proceeded to suspend them for a couple of days. Given the severity of the crime, the university should not only expel the student but have him blacklisted from every university campus and employment opportunity. Isn’t the former sort of what they do when you renege on an early decision application? Priorities…</p>

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<p>Nobody’s suggesting that the university automatically punish any students who are accused of sexual assault without due process. People want these allegations to be taken SERIOUSLY, and for the alleged victim to receive proper aid and comfort, and to also receive the benefit of the doubt you correctly give to the accused.</p>

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<p>You are aware that every time a professor fails you for cheating, he is giving you a disciplinary action that is not proven in the court of law? The standards of evidence in a university’s judicial system are not the same as those of a criminal court.</p>

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<p>Beyond the emotional trauma, one of the reasons why victims wait years or more before standing up in the court of law is that the police (since we seem to be changing subjects here) have a very, very, very poor track record with this kind of crime, and so affected parties, perhaps justifiably, fear that reporting the crime will reopen too much trauma to be worth doing. So if you want to avoid these kinds of “too little, too late” reports, make the police actually take these allegations seriously, and not do what they always do, which is truly bizzare in many cases.</p>

<p>BTW, I’m no expert on falsely accusing anyone of rape, but I don’t figure you would claim that the incident happened such a long time ago, if such weakens the credibility of your case.</p>

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<p>Nobody’s suggesting colleges abandon the idea of due process. People are complaining that in an alarming number of cases, there is neither due process nor any measurable human emotion of “empathy” or “giving two ■■■■■”.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry to hear that, both about your friend and the alleged victim, but the “stranger rape” you refer to is not typically what college campuses have to deal with. In the massive majority of cases, the only manners in which the accused could actually be innocent are a genuine fault of miscommunication, or outright fabrication. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong in saying that statistically speaking, false rape accusations do not appear to be any more common than fraudulent claims of any other felony. The notion a disturbing chunk of the populace receives that every rape victim must be fabricating her story is both completely unfounded and discouraging of others from reporting.</p>

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<p>The proper response is a police+ investigation and (assuming sufficient evidence to make an arrest and prosecute) prosecution in court.</p>

<p>A university administrative investigation won’t have the same rigor, meaning that there is more chance of an erroneous conclusion*, and university administrative punishments cannot be as severe as may be appropriate for those who are guilty (i.e. prison sentence).</p>

<p>+Real police, not the non-police “campus safety” departments found on some college campuses.</p>

<p>*Yes, police and courts often make errors, but can one expect university administrations who are investigating rapes on the side to be better than police and courts who exist and are trained for the purpose?</p>

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<p>I suppose universities are fearful that drawing attention to such incidents on their campus might give more superficial observers the wrong impression and turn them away from the higher criminalization rates.</p>

<p>Perhaps a carefully structured financial incentive would be necessary, since moral obligation doesn’t seem to register with these people.</p>

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<p>Thank you RMIBstudent. You seem to really know your facts. I was never the victim of such a crime because when we entered college, we were told to be very careful, to use escorts, to use the “blue phones” in case we feel we are in trouble, and sadly, to never leave your door open or unlocked when you are in your room study alone or sleeping. Frankly, I believe our society dismisses the claims of young girls easily. “Of course she must have done something to attract this kind of behavior”! </p>

<p>I’m very disturbed the Columbia protest came after May 1. But apathy and money can be strong voices when it comes certain students. I just hope and pray that the 47k per year that we will be paying for our daughter to go to school is not so that she can be raped, and if she reports it, humiliated and ignored. Wow, I’m very upset by all of this. </p>

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<p>“You are aware that every time a professor fails you for cheating, he is giving you a disciplinary action that is not proven in the court of law? The standards of evidence in a university’s judicial system are not the same as those of a criminal court.”</p>

<p>I’m not sure but I don’t think cheating in class is against the law. It is unethical and therefore comes under the purview of the university not the courts. Sexual assault and rape are criminal offenses. The accused does have protections in our society. Perhaps one of the ways Universities could handle such complaints would be to provide counsel for bringing a complaint to the legal system. If the university wished to do their own investigation it would have to center around a conduct violation rather the legal issues of rape and assault. Perhaps universities could create legal counselors to help alleged victims to file charges if they are warranted, however, taking action on something that is criminal leaves the university open to lawsuits especially if the evidence used against the accused does meet criminal standards.</p>