What I don’t understand is why sexual assault victims keep reporting the crime to the colleges and not to the police. Colleges suck at investigating these crimes. They take forever and never do anything.
I also don’t understand why victims are prohibited from naming the criminals to anybody during the investigation. This puts the potential victims in danger. Why is somebody’s “good name” more important than my safety?
This is a very serious problem. I hate seeing yet another victim not get any justice.
Clarissa's Blog 
Police also suck at investigating these crimes. They play the victim blaming — how much did you drink/what were you wearing/had you had sex with him before — cards as much as university investigators do. Often, victims are told that university investigators have more leeway in administering consequences. (I suspect it is probably true that they need to meet a lesser burden of proof before proceeding than do law enforcement officials. I do not, however, share the same optimism that college officials actually employ this power to any meaningful effect.)
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I know, I’ve had a bad experience with police where I was more traumatized by the interaction than by the actual assault. But a college can’t even do anything, so what’s the point?
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A college can place a student on academic probation, can remove a student from living on campus, or can expel a student from attending — usually with less proof than the police need in progressing (meaningfully) with an investigation and arrest. For a victim where something like this consequence would be meaningful (e.g., perpetrator lives near them on campus) and who is made to doubt the strength of the evidence (i.e., nearly every sexual assault victim ever), I can see where this line of recourse would seem preferable either to staying silent or to entering the local law enforcement system.
I’m not suggesting that criticisms of collegiate rape investigations aren’t valid; they are. They’re also, to some, purposefully portrayed of the least of evils.
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I agree: a student’s first call should be to the police. Some students believe that, in cases where the state may not be able to successfully prosecute a case of rape, the university will be able to offer other forms of redress, like expelling the accused. They also believe that the university authorities will be more gentle and supportive of the survivor’s rights than the police. They are generally wrong on both counts, but that doesn’t prevent a recently traumatized person from clinging to the illusion of concern proffered by the institution.
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“They play the victim blaming — how much did you drink/what were you wearing/had you had sex with him before”
I don’t understand how these questions, by themselves, are ‘victim blaming’. Any victim of a violent crime gets asked a lot of questions that seem intrusive and make the victim relive the experience to some degree. Traumatic? Yes. Vicitm blaming? I don’t see it.
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The problem is that no question is ever asked “by itself”. These questions occur in the context of lots of other questions and depending on the phrasing and tone they can very easily come across as accusing the victim of drinking too much or dressing incorrectly. Making the victim feel like the crime happened because of the victim’s choices is victim blaming.
The police also have an incentive to push the victim to back down. Collecting evidence for and prosecuting rapes, especially date rapes, can be a lot of work for the police. These cases are tricky and no one gets paid extra or gets a promotion for pushing ahead with them. It is MUCH less work for the police if rape victims back down and don’t push ahead with their complaints. Is it so hard to imagine that some lazy police officers would bully the victim in the hope that the victim will just go away?
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None of these questions can even remotely help with the investigation. They are irrelevant. And if they are still asked, there must be a purpose.
Victims of robbery or mugging are not asked what they were wearing.
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I think the modern version of things is that everybody is equally a victim and a perpetrator, so the sexual assault victim is capable of domination and violence by naming the criminal and the criminal is capable of his original crime.
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I think the main reason why this happens is that many (most?) universities put pressure on students to keep the police out of it. Obviously it is better for the university if they can control proceedings, minimize publicity, etc., and unfortunately, students naively believe that their universities have their best interests at heart.
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I don’t know, a crime is committed , you go to the police. There isn’t even space here for the university to make a peep.
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“Police also suck at investigating these crimes.” – Tori
What you need is an all-campus surveillance system hooked up to big data analytics. That would certainly cut these crimes if you’re willing to put up with a little loss of privacy. Privacy vs. safety – where is a good equilibrium point? Check out what they’re doing in New York City.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/tech/2014/05/25/cot-nyc-surveillance.cnn&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fmathbabe.org%2F2014%2F07%2F14%2Fsurveillance-in-nyc%2F#/video/tech/2014/06/19/cot-dubai-burj-khalifa.cnn
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Sorry last link doesn’t work. Try http://mathbabe.org/2014/07/14/surveillance-in-nyc/
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At my old university, the university worked together with the police department to humiliate and suppress those who spoke up to either about sexual assault. It got so bad that the Department of Justice had to intervene and investigate into the suppression of 80+ rapes by the police, university, and city hall. So, sometimes, they work together to protect rapists, especially when said rapists are football stars.
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It’s weird too because so often the students live off campus. In that case the university really can’t do anything. These fake trials and investigations put on by hobbyists are embarrassing and can do great harm to both victim and alleged perpetrators. At Cornell, the same person acts as judge and attorney to both parties and has minimal training. They get law students to counsel both parties, but the law students are required to disclose all relevant information to the judge.
My friend got accused of sexual harassment – his roommate and ex-lover wanted him to move out of their privately owned apartment at great financial expense to him, and the counselor told him ‘if you were black I would tell you to give up right now and do whatever the judge tells you to’. Sickening.
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“At Cornell, the same person acts as judge and attorney to both parties and has minimal training. They get law students to counsel both parties, but the law students are required to disclose all relevant information to the judge.”
– What a farce. And a very dangerous one.
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So, you’re in favor of the presumption of culpability?
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I’m in favor of being safe.
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Call city police first, university police next, any other university personnel a distant third. Sure, city police may not be great but at least their first priority is prosecuting crime not protecting the university.
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