New Campus Rape Bill Offers a Better Way

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Safe Campus Act seeks to overhaul this system. Under the proposed House bill, colleges and universities would have to report all sexual violence complaints to the police except when the complainant asks for confidentiality—but in that case, no disciplinary action could be taken against the alleged offender. (While the police investigation is pending, colleges would be able to take interim measures such as reassigning dorms or rearranging class schedules to avoid contact between accuser and accused, and briefly suspend the accused if there are safety-related reasons to do so.) While colleges would still hold their own hearings on sexual misconduct, both the accuser and the accused would have the right to legal representation and full access to all the evidence. Colleges would also have more latitude to decide what standard of proof to use in evaluating these cases, in contrast to current federal policy which directs them to use the most complainant-friendly “preponderance of the evidence” standard.

The bill is already being criticized by some victim advocates for failing to “prioritize the needs of survivors” and seeking to “limit college rape investigation.” In the past, campus anti-rape activists have opposed state-level measures that would require schools to turn over sexual assault reports to law enforcement, arguing that it will discourage many women from coming forward. Many activists see campus “justice” as a more compassionate, feminist and victim-friendly alternative—an environment in which “believing the survivor” is a strongly held principle, sexual assault is defined more broadly than under the law, and the burden of proof is increasingly shifted to the accused (especially with the rise of the “affirmative consent” standard).'