Kelley McTaggart
Bad Narrative, Bad solutions
In
class we have been discussing the issue of campus sexual assault. I had actually been recently reading up on
the policies that many universities have adopted to address the crisis. The major responses among universities has
been to expand the teaching of consent to students and to lower the burden of
proof in university sexual assault hearings.
In the slate article listed below, a student faced with sexual assault
charges was intimidated for requesting legal counsel in case held by university
faculty with no legal qualifications, whose burden of proof was 50.01%, which
by the way is the standard at Ohio university.
These policies are fueled by the risk to reputation and title 9 funding that
results in such cases making the national spotlight, which creates a potential
conflict of interest for the universities handling said case at all. Besides the fact that there was a clear
absence of due process in how the university responded to this case, the full
extent of his penalty was expulsion.
Even in a fair judicial process where his guilt was actually
ascertained, expulsion would simply allow him to attend another school. This is concerning when leading estimates
claim that 3% of men commit 90% of rape, or on average six rapes per year. That means if he was one of these serial
rapists, he would likely attend another school and do it again. These three percent of men know what they are doing and will
not alter their behavior when taught about consent. So we have created an out of sight, out of
mind solution for perpetrators, in which they can thrive. This does not mean that teaching consent or
bystander intervention programs are pointless, but it only works in the
narrative were both parties are to inebriated or ignorant to know better, which
is greatly overstated. I would advocate
the creation of a third party organization that administers a fair judicial
process for such cases, administers lifetime bans for all those found guilty
from all associated academic institutions, and provides tailored solutions when
the results are to murky for inaction. I
also believe stronger prevention policies will be crucial. As alcohol is present in so many of these
cases and impossible to prohibit, there needs to be social environments that
are geared around premeditated sexual assault prevention. This would entail a lowered drinking age of
18 so that all students could attend, and a set of policies for the hosts that
would mandate the provision of closed containers (cans, bottles) in parties, a
certain amount of sober monitors who would observe party goers and intervene if
necessary, and a subtle university presence at said party.
Sources and Further reading:
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