Colleges struggle with protecting students without being accused of victim-blaming

Walk in well-lit areas at night. “Stop victim-blaming.”

If colleges cannot suggest basic common sense measures to protect students — which help guard against crimes that aren’t rape and help men as well — without being accused by the feminist chorus of blaming victims, what can they say?

“It’s a tough line to tread because the blame should still be on the perpetrator, but you also want to protect these people,” Larkin Sayre, a sophomore at Massachusetts Institute of Technology told NPR.

Suggesting women don’t drink so much or don’t wear short skirts feels wrong, Sayre said, because being able to wear what one wants is “a basic human right” and “we don’t tell men to not get blackout drunk.”

If there are people who aren’t telling men not to get blackout drunk then that definitely needs to change. No one should be getting blackout drunk, not just because of what crimes one could commit or have committed upon them, but for health reasons as well.

University of Wisconsin police spokesman Marc Lovicott argued that doing whatever it takes to protect students is more important than being politically correct.

“Man, it just seems like we live in such a politically correct society these days, and everybody’s watching the words they use and they should be, I mean, to a certain extent,” Lovicott said. “But when it comes to crime prevention, we’re not gonna stop.”

UW was under fire for its supposed victim-blaming crime prevention tips, which it has since updated.

Lovicott added that students should be advised on how to stay safe.

“But how do you say that in a way that you’re not offending a victim who went through this horrible crime?” he said.

University of Virginia law professor Anne Coughlin said she was holding back “commonsense advice” because of the blowback she’s received.

This creates a problem. By not allowing colleges and police departments to suggest ways to avoid being a victim, activists are potentially putting women — and men — at risk. Rape accusations need to be investigated and everyone needs to be aware of common-sense protections they can take to reduce their risk of any crime.