Shutter Fraternities for Young Women's Good

[Kevin]

Part of the issue regarding why universities attempt to sweep rape under the rug is the degree to which it is punished.

Here in Oklahoma, for example, the statutes (amended as late as 2002), still say that death is an available penalty for first degree rape (totally unconstitutional), and that there's a five-year minimum sentence, and the option of life or life without parole.

As a society, we generally view college students as being at the beginning of their lives, having all kinds of potential, and definitely being fixable as compared to other criminals. Prosecutors tend to give kids in these situations all sorts of breaks that wouldn't go to an individual from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks who did the exact same thing. Plus there's that whole having to register as a sex-offender thing, which can really ruin your life.

The above needs to be considered with how thin the evidence is on these sorts of cases. It often comes down to consent, which is almost inevitably a question of he said/she said, and it is definitely not unheard of for the female to be dishonest in that sort of situation, and even if we do find a prosecutor willing to prosecute getting a conviction in a he-said/she-said situation is certainly not a certainty.

Perhaps if it was possible to punish someone for a rape without statutes and societal attitudes that left the death penalty on the table, there might be more reporting of it. Until then, right or wrong (and certainly, this should not be viewed as my endorsement of rape), we will continue to see administrators and prosecutors utilize their discretion in cases such as these.