OT - Interesting WSJ Article About Sexual Assault on College Campuses
In light of the whole Brandon Gibbons situation at Michigan and the Rasheed Sulaimon situation at Duke this year, as well as a somewhat similar situation at my graduate institution, I thought this was a pretty interesting read: http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-campus-rape-tribunals-some-men-see-injus…
Basically, campuses across the country have been directed to change their standard for sexual assault from roughly a 75% standard to a 50%+ standard, thus changing the outcome in many of these "gray area cases", where alcohol played a significant part in events, and it's hard to figure out what happened either way. It seems a bit strange to me that colleges have to figure this out independently of what the legal system decides, as I'm not necessarily aware of other crimes where that's the case (e.g. robbery,murder, etc.)
April 11th, 2015 at 10:41 PM ^
This month's issue of Esquire has several stories on assault and rape, one specifically about an incident on a college campus. Clearly, the police, and not the college, should be handling this issue but unfortunately they don't always do a great job, either. The article on the campus assault really shows how a person can be falsely accused (at least in my opinion) because of misunderstandings, alcohol, and adults on campus who are trying to help the victim. By the same token, another article in the same issue gives you a sense of how many women have likely been assaulted and how many of them never come forward and don't even want to talk about it. I think Esquire does a good job of showing how complex this issue is. There are many shades in between Darren Sharper and the Duke lacrosse incident. And just because Rolling Stone fucked up doesn't mean that sexual assault doesn't happen on campus.
April 12th, 2015 at 12:10 AM ^
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/10/14/rethink-harvard-sexual-ha…
Highlights:
In July, Harvard University announced a new university-wide policy aimed at preventing sexual harassment and sexual violence based on gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
The new policy, which applies to all schools within the university and to all Harvard faculty, administrators, and students, sets up the Office for Sexual and Gender-Based Dispute Resolution to process complaints against students. Both the definition of sexual harassment and the procedures for disciplining students are new, with the policy taking effect this academic year. Like many universities across the nation, Harvard acted under pressure imposed by the federal government, which has threatened to withhold funds for universities not complying with its idea of appropriate sexual harassment policy.
...
Harvard has adopted procedures for deciding cases of alleged sexual misconduct which lack the most basic elements of fairness and due process, are overwhelmingly stacked against the accused, and are in no way required by Title IX law or regulation. Here our concerns include but are not limited to the following:
■ The absence of any adequate opportunity to discover the facts charged and to confront witnesses and present a defense at an adversary hearing.
■ The lodging of the functions of investigation, prosecution, fact-finding, and appellate review in one office, and the fact that that office is itself a Title IX compliance office rather than an entity that could be considered structurally impartial.
■ The failure to ensure adequate representation for the accused, particularly for students unable to afford representation
April 12th, 2015 at 12:11 AM ^
April 12th, 2015 at 12:54 AM ^
they shouldn't act as a judicial system but they do. I was just suspended from a college on a ridiculous sexual harassment finding by the college. I will be suing.
April 12th, 2015 at 10:10 AM ^
April 12th, 2015 at 11:51 AM ^
You're right: regretting a hook up isn't rape. But you speak as if there are no rapes or assaults in college (or out of college, fot that matter), and that the only thing that should qualify as rape is the sort of violent episode one might find in India, where a woman is forcibly gang raped on a bus, leaving her physically injured and in need of hospitalization. There are more insidious types of assault where a woman isn't necessarily violated in such a physically violent manner but has sex against her will by a man who she has known, or has agreed to go out with. The act is a more subtle one.
The problem with putting it on the "feminists" is that then men feel like they have no accountability for what happens before someone cries rape. Yes, women need to take responsibility for themselves in the types of situations where these assaults can allegedly occur. They need to stop binge drinking, for one. But so do men. Men need to understand that they, too, can avoid situations where this might occur.
I have a son and a daughter. I will teach them that they are both at risk. Women can be raped. And men can be falsely accused, or more likely, mistakenly accused. The wording here is important. Mistakenly accused means that the woman isn't doing it intentionally to hurt the man. Falsely accused suggests that she is.
April 12th, 2015 at 12:50 PM ^
The statistics pointed out in the first comment are overbroad. Someone responds to say as much. You respond they are right, but they are discounting rape too much. Meanwhile, no one has any clue what is right or wrong. This is often based on internal thoughts and feelings.
The problem is that women may feel "forced" into something when maybe they aren't really being forced. Plus, men are concerned that they have no control over what type of "real consent" is going on inside the mind of a woman.
Unless you have a verbalization of "No," this all exists in the mind of the woman. She may internally consent. She may not internally consent. No one, but the woman knows...and sometimes she is unsure.
That puts the woman in a tremendous position of power.
There is no such thing as internal consent. If a man is in the middle of a sexual act with a woman and yet isn't sure whether she is consenting or not....shouldn't some big red flags go up in that situation? If the woman is intoxicated and the man is unsure, do your part and stay the hell away from her. Tell her to call you the next day when she's sober and you can hook up then.
How often do people get a "yes I want sex" as part of the act? Most of the time it is unspoken and very welcome on both accounts. There is no such thing as internal consent? As you serious with that claim? In fact I know you are not otherwise the legal consent issue would be a man offering proof of verbal consent.
Officer: Were you sure?
Man: I think so. She seemed into it.
Officer:There is no internal consent. If you are not sure, then you are going to jail.
Thanks for not over-stating things....
There is verbal consent. "Do you want to?" "Yes." Or variations of that, with words exchanged.
There is non-verbal consent, in which, for example, a woman undresses and allows the man to continue, or pursues the man herself, and the act continues. She is aware of what is happening and does not stop him.
There is no internal consent, from a legal standpoint. There has to be either a verbal indication or a behavioral indication that she is consenting.
What's sad is while rape on campus is certainly an issue, it's actually higher off of campuses. Women of the same age and socioeconomic bracket who aren't in college are more likely to be raped but no one is speaking up for them. And minority and poor women are at an even greater risk of rape but don't get the attention they deserve.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/388502/rape-epidemic-fiction-kevi…
There is an egregious case at UM that's in court - Drew Sterrett
double
and booze are a problem, that rape is a problem since forever.I don't think we can quite turn it all the way around and start to talk about a rape accusation crisis and act all ****hurt about women making up stories when the overwhelming number of cases are real and in fact (often) go unreported. Yeah, Rolling Stone did no one any favors, but. . . I happen to have had personal experience with two fraternities that had this, uh, little issue, at UF and at UM.
A little taken aback that so many reactionary types feel so empowered to tread so close to so much ugly here. I mean, how alienated can you be from, like, the mother who bore you and half of mankind to be sitting on a message board and complaining bitterly about how women are trying to screw you when you know the opposite is, uh, so much more the case?
You expect more from Michigan people, but you don't always get it.
Maybe there's a balance somewhere in the middle? Maybe men feel like they are under attack when someone claiming they raped them can destroy their lives even if there is no evidence because colleges use "preponderance of evidence" and don't allow any defence by accused students?
Rape is a serious issue that needs to be adressed(on and off campus, though it's far worse in poor and minority communities than on campus), but exagerating it and labeling anyone who calls you on those exagerations a mysoginist or pro-rape is not conductive at all.
Let's pay for the sins of previous generations. I love that idea. As a white male, I should be fine with things that swing too far against me in the other direction just because the previous genertions were abusive. Your logic is infaliable.
April 13th, 2015 at 10:51 AM ^
of anyone who wants to change thinking in the court of public opinion. Because, inevitably, people just assume you're not all that smart.
My graduate institution (Columbia) is being hammered right now. Not just because of their lack of punishment for an offender, but because instead of making actual administrative changes, they have instead inacted "reforms" that place the responsibility on the students of the school.
They have actually forced us (with the threat that non-compliance will result in holds or withholding of diploma) to take consent training. A rather interesting paradox. Either way, their attempt at fixing this issue was basically outed by the student body as a PR campaign and they are getting hammered even harder.