Railroading the Innocent: SAVE Calls on University Administrators to End ‘Victim-Centered’ Investigations

Press release here. Excerpt:

'PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Christopher Perry
Telephone: 301-801-0608
Email: cperry@saveservices.org

Railroading the Innocent: SAVE Calls on University Administrators to End ‘Victim-Centered’ Investigations

WASHINGTON / October 26, 2016 – A report issued today probes a recent spate of lawsuits against universities, and calls on college administrators to stop the use of so-called “victim-centered” investigations to probe allegations of campus sexual assault. The report concludes such methods are “inconsistent with the most basic notions of fairness, repudiate the presumption of innocence, and are likely to lead to wrongful determinations of guilt, thereby increasing schools’ liability exposure.”

Titled “Victim-Centered Investigations: New Liability Risk for Colleges and Universities,” the report analyses 18 lawsuits filed by students who had been accused of sexual misconduct, and in which the judge ruled in favor of the accused student. In all 18 cases, students alleged the university committed investigational improprieties. The paper classifies the investigational flaws into categories such as “Incomplete/Inadequate Collection of Evidence” and “Overt Bias/Predetermination of Guilt.”'