Week 8 Campus Sexual Assault Flashcards
The Typical Structure
Often premeditated and predatory
A target is selected in class/dorm/activity
- Highest risk period for women is the fall semester, freshman year
- Inexperience makes the target more attractive
Some studies find coordination with multiple men
Athletes and fraternity men have been linked to higher offending
Good predictor: associating with friends with attitudes supporting rape
The Campus Sexual Assault Study (2008)
A study by Krebs, by DOJ
Found 1 in 5 women experience sexual assault
- Studies have found similar results for decades, as early as 1957
- Remember the difference between sexual assault and rape
Spurred government action: The Dear Colleague Letter and Title IX/Office of Civil Rights
And the predictable resistance
Title IX
Part of the Civil Rights Act that requires campus to be safe for everyone
Creates a CIVIL (not criminal) process for reporting rape, sexual assault and harassment
- Independent of any CJS reporting
- Disciplinary measure WITHIN THE SCHOOL
- Starts with a confidential advisor to explain the options available
At SIUE
- Our Title IX coordination is Jamie Ball
- Our Confidential Advisor is A Call For Help, available 24/7 at 618-397-0975
Title IX Versus CJS
Title IX
No criminal record, sealed academic record only, protected by FERPA
No confinement to jail/prison
No lawyers-University personnel only
Private investigation/hearing/results
Preponderance of the evidence
CJS
Lifelong criminal record
Costly legal defense
Public complaint/trial/arrest
Beyond a reasonable doubt
Critiques of Title IX From The Accused
The process is not uniform across schools
- Mostly addressed but won’t even be strictly informed
- Wanted only police-trained investigators
Complaints should not be entertained without a police report
- This was intended as a means to increase reporting and early detection
Attorneys should be involved in such a serious matter
no direct confrontation between the accused and the reporter, at many schools
Phyllis Schlafly was a significant critic: “Women should just say off campus if they don’t want the risk”
Critiques from the survivors
Punishment remains rare
- The hearing panel and investigators share all the attitudes we have already been discussed
Secrecy means we don’t know the statistics about outcomes, punishments,etc.
Secrecy also hampers the safety the safety promised by early detection
- At any point, the accused can leave campus, go to a new school without a red flag
University responses are disruptive to BOTH reporter and accused
- Living situation, eating situation, classes, activities all impacted
Other than Title IX
Prevention/Safety training for students
Additional training for faculty and staff
Lots of campus programming
Green Dot Bystander Prevention Training
The Current Situation
Reporting to police is better
The addition option to report to Title IX adds a new means to get support
The #MeToo movement makes talking about it a lot easier
Relaxed Statutes of Limitations allow reporters a longer time to report
But, we still struggle to believe
- Christine Blase Ford lost her job and home and safety when she came forward
- Tara Reade is struggling to be taken seriously
Betsy DeVos is rolling back Title IX as firmly as she is able
Justice for sexual offenders and victims
.
Reporting Rape
Highly under-reported
May be seeing some increase in willingness to report
- 8% of rapes was a long-standing estimate
- More current studies show 25%
- Still, between 75% and 92% go unreported
Reasons are varied, but no unexpeted
Reasons Victims Choose Report Or Not
Of the sexua violence crimes reported to pile from 2005-20010, the survivor reporting gave the following reasons for doing so
28% to protected the household or victim form further crimes by the offender
25% to stop the incident or prevent recurrence or escalation
21% to improve police surveillance or they believed they had a duty to do so
17% to catch/ punish/prevent offender form reoffending
6% gave a different answer, or decline to cite on reason
3% did so to get help or recover loss
As To why they didnt
20% feared retaliation
13% believed the police would do nothing to help
8% thought it wasn’t important enough
8% reported to a different official
7% did not want to get the perpetrator in trouble
2% believed the police could not do anything to help
30% gave another reason, or did not cite on reason
In Oberweis research
The two most commonly given factors for not reporting were
- It wasn’t serious enough
- Even if the survivor recognized the experience as rape
- The survivor handled it herself
Research (not Oberweis) affirms that one predictor of who will report vs who will not is found in the response she gets from the first few people she tells
The CJS Shares Societal Beliefs
Research for decades has found myths persist among police
- From the first interview on
- This is actually changing, often with one or two officers making an impact in their own depts
- The change is slow and problems persist presently
Prosecutors also reveal rape myth adherence
- Even when they do not, they must decide to persecute based on what they can win
Judges also are affected by rape myths
The result is that punishment is exceedingly rare, even among the relatively few who are reported to begin with
Aftermath of rape and reporting
Survivors are traumatized
- Lives are severely disrupted
Survivors are public humiliated by the CJS process
- The private details of sex are made publicly known- to family, friends, schools community
Survivors are not vindicated and left with a cloud of doubt
- Trauma
- Social stigma
- Life destroying consequences for the victim, but legal punishment is rare for the offender
