A Senate panel on Tuesday looked into the alarming trend of campus sexual assaults across the country and how law enforcement can work with colleges and universities to prosecute criminals.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism heard from a panel of witnesses that included Sens. Claire McCaskill and Kirsten Gillibrand. McCaskill, D-Mo., highlighted the problems campuses and local law enforcement agencies face over jurisdiction when a sexual assault is committed on campus.
“We’re dealing with a Title IX system and we’re dealing with a criminal justice system,” McCaskill said. “The two systems have different goals.” McCaskill said Title IX is meant to provide a discrimination-free campus while local law enforcement is there to prosecute criminals.
“When you combine those two systems it is confusing and complicated,” she added.
Tuesday’s hearing comes in the wake of a Rolling Stone article that highlights an alleged gang-rape on the University of Virginia campus. That report, which McCaskill called “bad journalism,” has come under scrutiny in recent days and has led the editors of Rolling Stone to retract the story.
