Rape and Sexual Assaults are Crimes. Colleges are Not Police Forces or Prosecutors.

[MineralMan]

It's time to take dealing with rape and sexual assault cases out of the hands of our colleges and universities and put it in the hands of those charged with prosecuting criminals. Even though many colleges and universities have police officers, they do not have district attorneys and prosecutors nor detectives and laboratories that specialize in sexual assault and rape cases. Far too often, when a student is sexually assaulted or raped, colleges turn to administrative disciplinary panels to decide what happens next. That's the wrong approach.

All cases of sexual assault or rape should be handled directly by the law enforcement and justice system of the jurisdiction where that college or university is located. Sexual assault and rape cases should be investigated and any prosecutions conducted by capable law enforcement and judicial personnel, not campus cops and administrative panels.

Crimes are crimes. They are not academic issues. They should not be handled by educational institutions, but by the same people who handle such cases off campus. In most cities, police departments have officers specifically trained in such cases. District Attorney's offices have staff that specializes in such cases. Colleges and Universities do not.

Crimes need to be prosecuted by criminal prosecutors. College disciplinary boards are not part of the criminal justice system, and have no jurisdiction in such cases. They are not competent, as has been shown again and again.

College students are adults. Sexual crimes are covered under state laws, not college rules. Let's treat them as the crimes that they are, not as disciplinary problems.

[logosoco]

1. Very well put, as usual, Mineral Man!

I think that the whole catholic church dealing with the criminals within their midst shows that this type of crime calls for outside handling. The stuff going on with the NFL shows this as well.

[MineralMan]

2. Thanks. I appreciate your comment.

[NuclearDem]

3. Indeed.

Time to stop treating sexual assault as an offense on the same level as plagiarism or cheating.

[MineralMan]

4. It's the old Town and Gown issue.

Colleges and Universities have traditionally attempted to separate themselves from the local jurisdictions. That goes back to the very beginnings of those institutions in Europe. College students were more or less exempt from local laws, for one reason or another. The tradition still exists, but it is still wrong.

Town and Gown needs to go. It needs to go especially when it comes to sex crimes.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. I don't understand it any more than I understand why law enforcement is being left to the NFL.

Which is to say: not at all.

[MineralMan]

6. Well, in the case of Adrian Peterson, he has been charged

with a crime and will have to face prosecution for it. It's just that the NFL tried to overlook that and let the player keep playing, despite the charges. Same thing happens all the time, from the high school and collegiate level to the pros. We treat athletes differently that others. We need to stop doing that. We need to stop cold.

Athletes who commit crimes are criminals. They should be treated as such in our judicial system. Period. Being a jock does not excuse you from the law.

[libdem4life]

15. Absolutely. Add cops to that, as well. If one can't carry out the law without breaking

it, they need a new career...or a lot of training.

The NFL is also finding out what happens when there is a whole bunch of money available to make things go away. Rice, Peterson and Hernandez all in the news this week.

I'm hopeful that it's a new beginning...at least for athletes and cops.

[NuclearDem]

7. It's the money.

The NFL handles things in-house to keep sponsors onboard, and universities sweep sexual assault under the rug to keep students enrolling and donors donating.

[marym625]

8. K&R!

would have done it just of the title!

[MineralMan]

9. Thanks!

[Xithras]

10. Indeed.

The only roles of the college should be to pass along any evidence to law enforcement, and to suspend the accused until the legal process is over (reimbursing and readmitting them only if they are cleared).

I worked as an adjunct for nearly a decade at several different colleges. Some of the dumbest people I've ever met finished their signatures with a PhD. The fact that someone is a whiz at herding professors, or is an expert at matriculation, or has spent half their life studying some stodgy academic topic, does NOT qualify them to sit in judgment of a young woman's rape allegation. And yet, at virtually every university that assembles boards to sit in judgment of these accusations, it's exactly those kinds of people who are making the decisions.

[MineralMan]

12. I'd take it further. I'd insist that it was the local jurisdiction's

law enforcement departments that handle every case from the very beginning. That would include collecting the evidence and every aspect of the case. The college should not be involved at all. A call to 911 about any sort of sexual crime should bring the local jurisdiction's cops to the scene, not the campus cops. Take it out of their hands from the very beginning.

[malaise]

11. Yes indeed

This is a global problem - too many universities and colleges are more concerned about damaging their image.

[MineralMan]

13. It is a global problem, for sure.

It may be even worse in some countries than in the US.

[The Magistrate]

14. I Agree, Sir

[dilby]

16. I thought rapes were investigated by local law enforcement and prosecutors?

He had an instance here in Oregon where 3 players were accused of rape and there was both a university investigation along with an investigation by law enforcement.

[MineralMan]

17. It varies from place to place and situation to situation.

It shouldn't vary. The college or university should have no say in the matter, except about whether to expel the student or not.

[dilby]

19. Yeah the instance here there was no evidence found by the local LE or Prosecutor

but the University still expelled the students after the schools investigation. Of course the school is still getting flack because they did not move fast enough for some people since they waited till the investigation concluded by law enforcement before expelling the students.

[MineralMan]

20. I can't comment on any specific case.

Nor will I.

[exboyfil]

18. Often the local prosecutors are so beholden

to the local sports team that they can't run an objective investigation. Also we are expecting the colleges and universities to act beyond the decisions made by justice system. A classic example is the current case where the young woman at Columbia is carrying her mattress everyone to protest the continued enrollment of a student she accuses of rape. She did not report the rape at the time so the investigative tools available to law enforcement were not employed. She does have two other women who claim to have been raped by the same individual. Universities are not equipped to sit in judgement of such cases. Not to mention it is not in their interests to have a finding that leads to a punishment and a report regarding the accusation.

Of course we also have the obscene case of the Notre Dame woman who accused a football player of rape. She reported threatening email/twitter communications with another party. Inside of the Notre Dame investigator pushing this obvious "witness tampering" he merely contacted the individual and told them to cut it out.

My recommendation would be to turn over serious misconduct cases to an outside review organization made up of former judges and law enforcement. Each member organization pays a prorated share of the student body to fund such an organization. They would be independent of the administration.

[TygrBright]

21. By All Means, Let's Absolve Institutions of the Responsibility to Provide Safe Environments.

Concerns about how schools deal with issues of rape, harrassment, assault, and other criminal activity generally relate, not to criminal justice, but to safety.

The issue is how do schools deal with allegations of criminal behavior that specifically involve placing others within the institution at risk, BEFORE, DURING, and after the offenses are reported and the allegations made.

An institution where people spend large proportions of their time-- may even live there-- has particular responsibilities connected with this, and in the instance of schools, where minors (even almost-adult ones) are involved, they have an additional layer of responsibility "in loco parentis."

And if you think all eighteen- or nineteen-year old college freshment (or seventeen- or sixteen-year olds; I matriculated when I was sixteen, and more and more schools are now offering courses that allow high school age students to acquire college credits) are all "adults" you may wish to re-examine that assumption.

The issue for schools is SAFETY, not "discipline."

What do colleges and universities do to provide a safe environment? Do their standards of what constitutes "harrassment," "assault," or "rape," and their process for dealing with such allegations inadvertently sanction those behaviors so lightly that they are offering tacit permission?

Do colleges and universities apply standards uniformly? Is a female Freshman English major as likely to be believed as a male Junior starter on the football team?

It's all very well to say "Just tell students to report it to the police, the school has no responsibility here," but what message does that send when a known serial harrasser escalates to assault or rape, and it turns out that the school knew darn well they were harrassing?

Of course colleges and universities SHOULD facilitate the direct involvement of law enforcement where crimes have been committed. However, look at the structure of a college/university, the hierarchies of authority, and the messages given to students and staff about how to deal with interpersonal problems.

At many schools staff have received tacit or even overt guidance on how to handle reports of misbehavior between students that applies differing standards based on gender, academic performance, involvement in activities, sports, greeks, etc. Guidance to students is even more ambiguous. The "student handbooks" provided say one thing. Behavior of those in authority and the peer culture tolerated or nurtured by the institution say something completely different.

To just-barely-adults, many of whom tend to trust what they *perceive* above what's written in a handbook, the decision to go directly off campus and report something to the police, looks like a fast track to failure, ostracism, and subtle bullying.

No, sorry, MM. I agree with you on many, many things.

But not on this. Colleges and Universities have responsibilities in connection with safety that mean they ARE responsible for having institution-wide, consistent systems for dealing with particular types of criminal behavior, both in cooperation with law enforcement authority, and on their own.

assertively,
Bright

[kchamberlin25]

22. Winthrop University

I live near Winthrop University in Rock Hill SC and the campus police there are actually deputy sheriffs.

[hifiguy]

23. Very well stated.

Couldn't agree more.

[1StrongBlackMan]

24. I completely agree ...

Even though many colleges and universities have police officers, they do not have district attorneys and prosecutors nor detectives and laboratories that specialize in sexual assault and rape cases.

But worse, University Police forces have an inherent conflict of interest in investigating these crime, particularly, when the alleged perpetrator is a key member of the school's high revenue sports team.

[Amimnoch]

26. Exactly!

Really, just how diligent are you going to be when you've apprehended someone, or are investigating someone who's a bit part of bringing in both your boss's salary, and your own?

Next, perhaps BP can be allowed to hire on their own regulators?

Enron could have handled having their own tax audit by a team they hire on?

Jeffrey Dahmer could have had his own FDA group?

[Chakab]

25. Indeed. Knee jerk reactions ruin peoples lives.

Here's an example:

http://6abc.com/archive/9280285/

[951-Riverside]

27. Re: "Colleges are Not Police Forces"

Really?

[MineralMan]

28. As I stated in my OP, many colleges have police departments.

However, there is a conflict of interest, as has been demonstrated in many, many cases.