Alpha Phi does not support Safe Campus Act

[sugar and spice]

In most cases, campus rape investigations aren't intended to punish offenders or take the place of a legal investigation. The only thing it's intended to do is to make it possible for the victim to feel like she's not in danger of being revictimized as she finishes her education. Many, many rape victims end up leaving school otherwise.

I'm kind of ambivalent on the Safe Campus Act personally (in most cases, both the school and the legal system mishandle rape cases; this isn't going to fix that), but it's pretty controversial and there's no reason Greek organizations--especially sororities--should be throwing their weight behind it. I hope other groups follow Alpha Phi's move. Sorority women already deal with even higher rates of sexual assault than the general college population, and I hope the women who run our organizations keep that fact in mind when they're deciding when to get political.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by sugar and spice

In most cases, campus rape investigations aren't intended to punish offenders or take the place of a legal investigation. The only thing it's intended to do is to make it possible for the victim to feel like she's not in danger of being revictimized as she finishes her education. Many, many rape victims end up leaving school otherwise.

And even then, these policies are enforced by people who are not qualified to enforce them. How are these people qualified to conduct a criminal investigation, then without allowing the accused to cross examine the accuser, make the determination that the preponderance of the evidence is that someone committed a sexually violent crime against the other and to penalize the accused despite 1) the accused never had a right to a jury, 2) never had the right to cross examine the witnesses against him, 3) does not have the right to legal counsel [but if he does bring legal counsel, the school is supposed to provide the victim legal counsel free of charge], 4) and the penalties are a lot greater than a slap on the wrist.

And even still, what if that panel finds that not only did this guy do the bad thing, let's say he admits it. They are under no duty to reveal that to law enforcement, and probably won't because it will negatively impact campus crime statistics. In fact, due to campus crime statistics, a lot of these things are swept under the rug.

Again, what is bad about requiring law enforcement at least get first crack at these things? I can't imagine advising a student to do anything other than shutting the **** up if he's investigated for a sex crime when being interviewed by Title IX investigators. You know, they can listen to the alleged victim's side, the alleged perp can assert his 5th Amendment rights and it's almost a slam dunk that he'll be found responsible.

The spirit (certainly not the practice) of our legal system is that the state has the burden of proof, that the accused is innocent until proven guilty and that the state has to follow certain rules of evidence and that the rights of the accused matter. Title IX investigations throw all of that out the window in a rush to find someone responsible whether something happened or not.

That's what this Act is supposed to prevent.