Lack of Effort in Solving Sexual Misconduct in Colleges
The process of applying for colleges is an exciting step in your life. Well, that is until there’s a news report on a student who was sexually assaulted on campus. Stop and ask yourself “What if I fall victim to sexual assault?”. It’s a scary thought, isn’t it? As a future college student, you would want to know how much effort colleges put in solving these cases. Whether it’s hearing out the victim’s side or the suspect’s side, it is always important that colleges scrutinize every case. There should be a stronger approach when dealing with sexual misconduct. The fact that universities try their best to hide these cases in order to protect their reputation, either discourages these victims to come out and get help or even come forward with the truth in some cases. When the victim becomes discouraged, there will be more assaults on these campuses. As I introduced earlier, there are two sides in sexual misconduct cases. There is the victim’s side and the suspect’s side of the story. I would like to touch base on both ends because I feel that a lot of “supposed suspects” become wrongfully accused because the universities don’t spend enough time looking into these cases. This also goes for the victim’s; most universities focus on hushing the process of the hearing to protect the school from gaining negative attention. In order to effectively reduce the amount of assaults on a campus, the colleges must take deep measures in
these cases. The more effort that universities put in solving these cases, the amount of the assaults will decrease.
First and for most, take a minute and understand what sexual assault is. Giving a broad definition of sexual assault can be tough. “It’s actually harder to define than you’d think. According to the United States Department of Justice, sexual assault is ‘any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.’ Sexual assault is basically an umbrella term that includes sexual activities such as rape, fondling, and attempted rape” (Miller). The unwanted sexual activities all contribute to sexual assault. It is found that the victims who are prone to falling victim to sexual assault are women. “President Obama said that an estimated ‘1 in 5 women on college campuses has been sexually assaulted during their time there’” (Muehlenhard et al). This statistic proves the risk that females are at when on college campuses.
Now that there is an understanding of what sexual assault is, let’s move our focus on what colleges lack when investigating sexual misconduct. The college campuses don’t push for a thorough investigation, which will cause the victim to feel that this isn’t a serious case. It is understood that the university would like to hurry the case, instead of looking further into the cases which could affect the hearing process. When victims become sexually assaulted it may take a while for a victim to come forward. This will often cause the college to be less interested in the case. Coming forward about sexual assault is not as simple as one would think. “One of the primary reasons women don’t come forward to report sexual harassment or assault is shame.
Shame is at the core of the intense emotional wounding women and men experience when they are sexually violated” (Engel). This correlates with the universities being patient. The time a victim accepts that they have been assaulted can take months or years. Although the victim
spends time to understand what had happen to them, it is important that they do not prolong the amount of time of when the assault happened and to when they report the crime to the university. I feel that the time in between the assault and report is limited, because within that time frame memories of the incident may be forgotten. What I mean, is that the victim may not remember the incident exactly the way it may have originally happened. “Many victims come forward after days, weeks, or even years have passed. Although the evidence will not be as strong as when there is a fresh report” (Leotta). This can affect whether the victim’s report is valid or not. Recently former actor, Bill Cosby, was charged on about three counts of sexual assault. Although the victim, Andrea Constand, was not in college while the assault happened, I believe that there is a strong point in her story. The day of victory couldn’t have tasted any better for Andrea Constand, but it didn’t come easy. In order to castigate Bill Cosby, Andrea needed to tell her story and what had happened during the time of the assault. “One was on discrepancies in her statements about when the assaults occurred… it said she was wrong about details like what time the restaurant where they met closed and whether there were Dumpsters in back of the restaurant or on the side…Even when the brain vividly records traumatic events, he said, it can sustain ‘super-encoding mode’ for only a limited time before that function also becomes impaired” (Dewan). It is important to report the crime as soon as possible because if not the report may not seem as reliable to whom the crime was reported to. “Another reason why victims don’t report or delay reporting is that they fear retaliation, and we have evidence from recent events to validate that fear” (Engel).
In other cases, college students become hesitant in reporting the crime because they fear the consequences. Some of the consequences they fear is the case being publicly published, having close family and friends find out about the assault, etc. Many of these are reasons to why these victims fear coming forward. “I have evaluated students who were fearful and depressed after allegedly having been harassed by a professor who had academic power over them — the power to give a poor grade, block graduation or interfere in a chosen career” (Lawson). In this case, it proves that not all assaults are done by other students. At times, assaults can be done by professors of students. Once assaulted a student may fear reporting the assault to authorities because of the power the professor has. The professor may threaten to fail the student and in most cases the university may believe the professor rather than the student. In relation to the university believing in the professor rather than a student, it is not unusual in some cases. “Fear of institutional betrayal may lead to a chilling effect of reporting harassment. These fears are unfortunately often well-founded" (Lawson). For those of you who do not know what institutional behavior is; it is when an institute, in this case a university, fails to respond in support to the victim.
As I mentioned earlier, the colleges fail to hear out both sides of the assault. Although sexual assault to a victim is a horrible act, I feel that in some cases colleges fail to listen to what the “suspect” has to say about what had happened. The reason I put “suspect” in quotations, is because some cases are not as true as they seem. When colleges fail to hear out a suspect’s story, they often move quickly to prosecute the suspect, they fail to incorporate “due process”. In relation to this, I would like to speak about a case that I found interesting. In an article called, “The Uncomfortable Truth About Campus Rape Policy”, it includes case of sexual misconduct. The victim who will go by, “R.M”, is a student at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She met senior Kadwo Bonsuat the house where he and has fraternity lived. They both kicked it off and later moved into a bedroom; she states, “’It got more intense until finally I shifted so that I was straddling him.’ She told him she wasn’t interested in intercourse and he said he was fine with that… ‘I started to move my hand down his chest and into his pants.’ R.M. interrupted this to take a phone call from a female friend who was also at the house and trying to find her. The call ended and then, R.M. wrote, ‘I got on my knees and started to give him a blow job.’ After a short time, ‘I removed my mouth but kept going with my hand and realized just how high I was.’ She wrote that she felt conflicted because she wanted to stop—she said she told him she was feeling uncomfortable and thought she needed to leave—but that she also felt bad about “working him up and then backing out”’ (Yoffe). This whole accusation of “sexual assault”, doesn’t really seem like an actual account of sexual assault. The reason I feel that this case should not be considered sexual assault, is because the victim herself, was making the sexual advances. She stated that she made the move and got on top of him. Afterwards saying that she didn’t want to have sexual intercourse. Even after saying that she didn’t want to have sex she was the one that chose to make the sexual advance at grabbing his crotch and later performed oral sex. She then stopped and feels guilty for turning him on and leaves. After these sexual acts that the so-called “victim” made, do you believe that Kadwo should be faced with sexual assault charges? The “victim”, R.M., reported the so-called assault to campus police and brought Kadwo in for questioning. Luckily there were no charges held against him. Although he was cleared, just look at this from Kadwo’s point of view. Can you imagine how confused he was after thinking that this was probably just a failed hook-up? If he was convicted of the assault, his life would’ve been ruined. The fact that both sides weren’t thoroughly investigated almost caused an innocent man to be named a sexual predator. After reading this article, I can say that I could personally relate to this situation. I had a friend who attended a university, and one night he attended a party. He met his friend there and noticed that his friend was dancing with a female. The female later asked his friend to go into a bed room and asked my friend to join them, which he did. A few moments after they entered the room, the young lady runs out and accuses them of rape. I can say that I am 100% sure that this whole is not a case of rape. The two later attended a short hearing on campus, and as a result they both got expelled. This case of false rape caused two young men to have their futures ruined and their names to be connected to sexual assault. These two cases are major reasons to why universities must first hear both sides thoroughly to get the correct results.
I mentioned earlier that universities often hold their own hearings on campus. This are some pros and cons to these on campus hearings. Of course, these hearings go by quick and the accused is kicked off campus