For all the problems with colleges and universities’ current handling of sexual assault, the push by due process to have accusations turned over to the police is no panacea.
Yes, cops and prosecutors have the tools and training to actually investigate these situations free from most of the biases that have infested campus pseudo-courts. But handing these cases over to police might not be the best thing, if we don’t also fix the definitions of what is considered “sexual assault.”
Many college campuses have adopted all or part of an “affirmative consent” policy, which as I’ve written before defines all sex as rape and refuses to recognize the possibility of any proof to the contrary.
Previous sexual history (including couples in committed relationships) doesn’t mean anything, and vague or nonexistent definitions of “intoxicated” or “incapacitated” allow for any amount of alcohol to count as being too drunk to be able to consent.
Shelley Dempsey, the mother of a young man who she says was wrongly accused, believes the currently broad definitions are what’s really causing the problems on campuses.
“We need to recognize the overreach not only of [the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights], but campus definitions that make most college men rapists just for being young men and defining college women as victims in waiting,” Dempsey said.
She also said that involving the criminal justice system with the current definitions will put more young men into the system as accused rapists.
“While the criminal justice system is more likely than not to drop charges, or grand juries fail to indict, or juries find for the accused … This is not a fail-safe or good case scenario,” she said. “Once the boys go through the gauntlet of the criminal justice system, they are damaged beyond repai r… and they are marked for life with discoverable info about their criminal charges.”
Even if the police dismiss the charges or never charge in the first place, the student can be branded an “accused rapist” and will receive the very public ire of activists who don’t know the actual details of the case.
Dempsey’s comments came in response to news that the first draft of the Republican Party platform included language supporting police investigations over campus kangaroo courts. The party wished to recognize that sexual assault is a serious crime, and should be treated as such, which means those who are guilty should be put in jail and not simply expelled and allowed to prey on more victims.
But if the police are involved with the way current definitions stand, then law enforcement will be bogged down with wrongful accusations that come after a breakup, or after an ex starts dating someone else, or after being teased for a hookup, or after a mother finds about the encounter, or after cheating on a boyfriend. Then real victims will fall through the cracks.
“The bottom line of mandatory reporting is that so many of these ‘non-sexual assaults’ will brand the accused as a rapist,” Dempsey said. “Either way, the schools under Title IX will ‘adjudicate’ and expel in ever-growing numbers.”
Being arrested or even interviewed by the police will have consequences for the accused in these situations, and schools wills still be under pressure to punish in order to be safe rather than sorry.
The criminal justice system is the best place to sort out these accusations, but Dempsey is probably right that the definitions are in dire need of reconsideration.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
