Sexual Assault Reforms Underway Across the U.S.

Geplaatst op 03-02-2023

Blogging about hookup culture on college campuses requires looking directly at the dark underbelly of it: sexual assault. It is a difficult topic to write about because there are no winners when it takes place. It’s soul destroying for both assailant and victim, and the effects often last a lifetime. It is not always predatory, and both girls and guys make poor choices that increase the risk of assault.

It’s also a polarizing political issue. One on end of the spectrum are radfems who believe that all men are potential rapists. They reject the suggestion that women bear responsibility for keeping themselves out of harm’s way. According to this view, women should not be admonished to avoid getting blackout drunk, avoid party locations where sexual assault is known to have occurred in the past, or avoid going alone into a stranger’s room. Because only men rape.

At the other end of the spectrum are the feminist-hating, enraged men who trumpet their conviction that women who claim rape are attention whores lying about sexual assault to get revenge on the men who reject them.

Each group uses its own biased data set to support obviously distorted claims about the behavior of young people. Each has its pet studies and is quick to belittle the research that doesn’t agree with their preconceived beliefs. The Twitter convos between these factions are ugly catfights.

Most people lie somewhere in the middle of this polarity. The politicians, college administrators, honest journalists, and most young people believe that sexual assault is a problem that needs to be addressed. Why debate whether the risk of being assaulted at college is 5% or 20%? Does rape need to clear a critical mass hurdle to be worth addressing?

Students themselves don’t think so. Tommy Reid, President of UVA’s Inter-fraternity Council, welcomed the suspension of fraternities on campus last semester:

“We recognize that sexual violence is a problem in our fraternities and we recognize that we, the students, can be catalysts for the solution.”

Reid said the temporary suspension of fraternities on campus has given the Greek community time to develop more substantive and actionable changes to help confront the problem.

Student Council President Jalen Ross agreed:

“Sexual assault is a problem that needs our undivided attention.”

David Fontenot of slandered UVA frat Phi Psi feels the same way:

“Sexual assault on college campuses is a real problem, and it needs to be addressed. And just because one story from Rolling Stone dropped the ball doesn’t mean we can dismiss it,” Fontenot said.

Meanwhile, as some continue to decry the mythology of “rape culture,” the headlines keep on coming. Two Vanderbilt football players will potentially spend decades in prison for raping an unconscious woman whom they incapacitated deliberately, and another two await trial. Only the fortuitous capture of incriminating footage by a security camera delivered justice.

The cherubic boy arraigned for rape

Brock Turner, a Stanford freshman, was arraigned on Monday for raping an unconscious woman. He was spied by two grad students riding by:

“Two men riding bikes saw Turner on top of the woman and confronted him after they noticed the woman was “not moving.” She was found behind a “Dumpster” with her dress pulled up to her waist, her underwear and a beer can on the ground nearby. Her long hair was “disheveled, knotted and completely covered in pine needles,” according to the police reports.”

If found guilty, he could serve up to 10 years. Again, the victim caught a “lucky break” when bystanders became suspicious and intervened. Most rapes are not witnessed, which is what makes their prosecution so difficult.

Schools across the country have been making major changes to implement sexual assault reforms, thanks to federal prodding and massive publicity. Here are a few of the sexual assault reforms underway:

Reporting of Sexual Violence

Virginia state lawmakers have proposed legislation that would require universities to notify the police any time a complaint of sexual violence is received. This is generally unpopular with survivors of sexual assault, who fear that it will drive the number of reports even lower.

It is estimated that only 20% of sexual assaults are ever reported to anyone, much less to the police. Experts attribute this to trauma and shame on the part of victims, but there’s something even more troubling going on.

Recent campus surveys clearly indicate that both male and female students are confused about what constitutes sexual assault.

A recent survey at MIT revealed dramatic inconsistencies and confusion. Here are the responses from undergraduate women:

Have you experienced unwanted sexual behaviors as a result of force, threat or deliberate incapacitation?

Yes: 17%

Have you been sexually assaulted?

Yes: 10%

Have you been raped?

Yes: 5%

Another 12% who said no to all of the above questions reported that they had experienced “attempted or completed oral sex, penetration, sexual touching or groping” that did not include the use of physical force, threat or incapacitation.

How many of these women reported the incident to MIT? Just five percent.

A 2014 study by Sarah Edward at the University of North Dakota surveyed undergraduate men:

Would you force a woman to have sex if there were no consequences?

Yes: 32%

Would you rape a woman if there were no consequences?

Yes: 14%

While the responses are alarming in both cases, it’s very clear that many male students do not understand that forcing a woman to have sex is rape.

This is in keeping with the research of David Lisak, who found that very few men report that they’ve raped someone, but 6.4% admitted “having or attempting sexual intercourse with someone even though they did not want to.”

Rape mythologists have seized on the number of women in the Justice Department’s Campus Sexual Assault Study who describe being raped but do not claim to have been criminally raped – 37%. Clearly, this does not indicate rape is not occuring. Rather, students don’t know what it is.

Consent

Two Connecticut state legislators have proposed a statewide affirmative consent policy requiring “positive, unambiguous and voluntary agreement” to have sex. Republican state senator Gregory Haddad:

“Having a clear standard of consent and educating students about that standard and making that standard consistent across universities in Connecticut … will all lead to a better understanding of what sexual assaults are.”

Yale adopted an affirmative consent policy in September, joining 800 other schools who have the “yes means yes” policy in place.

III. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo is advocating affirmative consent in his state.

The Maryland legislature is considering affirmative consent as state law.

The Adjudication Process

Both voluntary and federally imposed reforms should improve the process within schools:

Princeton was recently found to have violated federal law with its sexual misconduct policy. That policy provided the following rights to defendants:

The right to appeal a decision.
Detailed reports of allegations and the names of committee members.
The right to subpoena witnesses for testimony at the hearing.
Representation by a faculty adviser.
Submission of character statements in writing.
The right to make a closing statement.

How many of these rights were available to accusers? None.

Harvard Law School (where numerous faculty recently complained that Harvard’s new sexual misconduct policy is unfair to defendants), was found in violation of federal law.

The accused were permitted the following rights, none of which were available to the complainant:

If expulsion was recommended at the conclusion of a hearing, the accused alone had the right to a supplemental private hearing.
The defendant alone had a right to professional legal counsel.
The defendant alone had the right to call and question witnesses.
The defendant alone had the right to provide additional testimony.

Additionally, HLS was found to be using a standard of proof of “clear and convincing” evidence, much more stringent than federal law prescribes, and exceeding the previous “reasonable doubt” standard.

III. UVA has (belatedly) changed its punishment for sexual assault from suspension to expulsion. This occurred as a result of the Rolling Stone article exposing that the school had never expelled a rapist, including several men who confessed to rape. In contrast, UVA has expelled 183 students for violation of its academic honor code since 1998.

Brown University has banned a fraternity after lab tests proved that two women who attended a party there were found to have date rape drugs in their system.
Dartmouth University has announced a Zero Tolerance Policy for sexual assault. Expulsion is mandated for any student found to have had sex by means of “physical force, threat, or intentional incapacitation.”
Columbia University has removed all students from panels hearing sexual misconduct cases.

VII. There is increased attention on a dangerous “policy gap” that has enabled many students found guilty of sexual assault to quietly withdraw from the school and transfer without a notation on their record.

In some cases, this has been due to sloppy recordkeeping but there are several instances where schools have offered scholarships and transfers to NCAA athletes found guilty of assault with full knowledge of their transgressions. Not surprisingly, those men were accused at their new schools as well. UVA student Hannah Graham’s murderer had previously withdrawn from two colleges after committing sexual assault at both.

Alcohol

An estimated 80% of sexual assaults occur under intoxication. In one study by Loveawake free dating site, 74% of perpetrators and 55% of victims had been drinking when the assault occurred.

Dartmouth has banned all hard liquor on its campus. While frats are unhappy about the policy, it was either this or abolition of the Greek system. Other schools who have already done so include Bowdoin, Bates and Colby. And of course the new rules at UVA prohibit anything but beer at frat parties.

This rule is key because men are most likely to drink beer, and although college males often down 15 or even 20 in a night, it takes them longer to get drunk. Most women do not drink beer in any quantity. It will be more difficult for guys to get girls drunk under the new rules, provided they are enforced. (And more difficult for women to get themselves drunk.) It’s not a total solution – I expect a sharp increase in pregaming – but the net effect should be a reduction in female intoxication, a positive step.

Recently all 13 of the national offices of UVA sororities required their members to skip “bid night” fraternity parties for the purposes of keeping women safe. Failure to comply would have meant strict penalties. Sorority women were generally unhappy about this and called it sexist, but in my view it was justified. Women get drunk faster and have less bodily strength than men do. A large number of sexual assaults take place at fraternity parties. If women could take care of themselves at these social events, we wouldn’t have a sexual assault problem.

Education and Training

Many schools are implementing Bystander Training programs. Middlebury, Hampshire and Miami U. in Ohio have already put programs in place.
Mandatory Sexual Assault education will be a feature of Freshman Orientation at many colleges. Hopefully, this will reduce the confusion around what constitutes rape. (Though it will not deter the hardcore predators.)

III. According to a recent survey of College Admissions Officers across the country:

61% believe that the US News and World Report Rankings should include a Campus Safety score to reflect sexual assault.
80% report that their college has increased efforts to combat sexual assault within the last two years.
55% believe that not enough is being done to combat sexual violence by college administrations nationwide.
29% report that they are hearing more questions from parents regarding the school’s record on sexual misconduct.

Note: UVA applications dropped this year for the first time in 12 years as a result of the Rolling Stone expose (which was about a lot more than a false gang rape story).

Long-term Forecast

Most of the schools featured in the news for recent reform efforts are highly competitive, prestigious schools. That has the effect of moving reform forward:

“Wendy Murphy, the attorney who filed the initial complaint against Harvard Law in 2010, said she hopes Tuesday’s announcement will have a ripple effect nationwide.

“When Harvard gets in trouble, everyone pays attention, and unlike changes at lower-tiered schools, change at the top trickles down, so it’s a particularly important case,” Murphy said.”

Overall, I think some very good changes are taking place.

Addressing the alcohol problem on college campuses is critical. These rules won’t eliminate it, but they will make it harder for non-consensual sex to happen.
Fraternities will be under intense scrutiny at many schools, and that is important, because the majority of assaults take place at frat events.
Schools will have less leeway to coddle recruited athletes, who often feature prominently in sensational stories of campus rape.
Bystander training and education efforts already seem to be paying off.

Other trends have less predictable outcomes:

Affirmative consent appears to be on its way to becoming the law of the land. Whether and how it will be enforced remains to be seen.
Mandatory reporting to police may also gain ground in some states but we don’t know how this will affect the number of reports, or how the police can prosecute a crime where evidence is often lacking.
Efforts to give survivors more rights in the adjudication process means that defendants lose their previous advantage. Many believe they are now extremely disadvantaged. I expect we’ll see this battle play out in the courts.

There is one more piece of encouraging news, and that is the choices being made by students themselves. Yesterday UCLA released its annual report of the attitudes and behaviors of college freshmen. They surveyed more than 150K entering freshmen from a wide variety of colleges and universities about their behaviors during Senior Year of high school:

	1981	1987	2022
Frequently or occasionally drank beer	74%		34%
Drank wine or liquor occasionally		68%	39%
Partied <1 hr/wk		24%	61%
Did not party at all			41%
Partied 6+ hrs/wk		35%	9%

What explains the improvement? Perhaps it’s the economy – the Millennials may be the first generation who do not have it better than their parents:

Asked why they were going to college, 86 percent said the ability to get a better job was a very important reason. Seventy-two percent said the ability to make more money was very important. Becoming a more cultured person was very important to 47 percent.

The Chronicle of Higher Education, in a report on the survey, wrote that freshmen ‘‘increasingly see their undergraduate education as the first step in a long journey.’’ Forty-three percent said they plan to seek a master’s degree, about twice the share who plan only for a bachelor’s degree.

It’s encouraging that far fewer students are viewing college as a 4-year joyride for letting loose and making mischief.

Or perhaps serious students are sick of letting the party animals dictate what’s cool. Hookup culture, your days are numbered. We’ll look back (not fondly) on the 90s and aughts as a time of debauchery. I predict continued reforms and some new ones, like a return to single sex dorms. The Greek system will undergo profound changes. Colleges, who have long protected their brands at the expense of students, have been dragged kicking and screaming by the feds to implement reforms. In time, all of our kids will be better off for it.