{"id":6468,"date":"2017-11-08T09:30:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T14:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/?p=6468"},"modified":"2017-11-08T09:30:08","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T14:30:08","slug":"shifting-standards-in-campus-sexual-assault-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2017\/11\/08\/shifting-standards-in-campus-sexual-assault-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Shifting Standards in Campus Sexual Assault Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Panel on sexual assault on campus at University of Michigan in February 2017. Flickr CC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos recently <\/span>referred<\/span><\/a> to current campus sexual assault enforcement as a \u201cfailed system,\u201d indicating that the Trump administration would work to revoke current guidelines. Two sociology PhD candidates from the University of Michigan, <\/span>Miriam Gleckman-Krut<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Nicole Bedera<\/span><\/a> responded with an op-ed in the <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/i> entitled, <\/span>Who Gets to Define Campus Rape?<\/span><\/a> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gleckman-Krut and Bedera worry that DeVos\u2019s speech signals a coming change in evidentiary standards for sexual assault cases. During President Obama\u2019s term (both as a result of Department of Education guidance and proactive moves from universities) most institutions shifted the standard of proof in such cases from \u201cbeyond a reasonable doubt\u201d to \u201ca preponderance of evidence,\u201d or what the authors define as \u201cmore likely than not.\u201d \u00a0The authors contend that this new standard is central to encouraging survivors to come forward and receive support from their institutions, especially considering the <\/span>risks<\/span><\/a> to <\/span>well-being<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>educational attainment<\/span><\/a> that assault can bring. They write,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>When judging whether someone has been raped, it\u2019s almost impossible to assert that a sex act constituted violence \u201cbeyond a reasonable doubt.\u201d Many survivors struggle to produce what campus hearing boards would consider evidence, especially when it comes to acquaintance- or date-based <\/span>sexual assaults<\/span> in which alcohol made it impossible for someone to physically resist.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gleckman-Krut and Bedera urge the Department of Education to maintain the weaker evidence standard in order to keep campus sexual assault proceedings centered on the survivors, not the accused. <\/span>Bedera\u2019s research<\/span><\/a> has shown that although college-aged men can articulate their college\u2019s affirmative consent policies, actual practice often does not follow those standards. Gleckman-Klut and Bedera conclude,<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThough they vary, the approximations of how many women have been sexually assaulted in college are always high. That should be the education secretary\u2019s biggest concern.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos recently referred to current campus sexual assault enforcement as a \u201cfailed system,\u201d indicating that the Trump administration would work to revoke current guidelines. Two sociology PhD candidates from the University of Michigan, Miriam Gleckman-Krut and Nicole Bedera responded with an op-ed in the New York Times entitled, Who Gets to Define […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,55,33,85],"tags":[96229,31090,39116,39114,39113,39115,286],"class_list":["post-6468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-gender","category-health","category-politics","tag-betsy-devos","tag-campus-rape","tag-crime","tag-gender","tag-health","tag-politics","tag-rape"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6468"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6472,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6468\/revisions\/6472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}