Universities Under Investigation Re: Handling Sexual Assault

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

I didn't say universities should declare innocent people guilty. I said they should have a lower standard of evidence than "beyond a reasonable doubt." Personally, I don't think not being able to go to law school is worse than rape. And what's your alternative? To just keep ignoring rape?

False dichotomy. The alternative is to work toward a system that better protects and balances the rights of the accuser and the rights of the accused. The bottom line is that I don't think a lower standard of proof, or ideas like treating multiple accusations as proof of the truth of the allegations (they might be, they might not) will solve the problems, and I have little confidence that in practice they'd be workable. I see them leading to a whole different set of problems.

As for my law example, you're missing my point. Of course, not being able to go to law school isn't worse than rape. I'm talking about the possible consequences of a school undertaking the kind of process you're talking about and getting it wrong. I'm talking about the possible consequences of a student being expelled from school for something, a very serious something, he didn't do.

And yes, if a university expels a student for rape, then they are declaring him guilty of rape. Not guilty in a criminal law sense, but guilty in the practical, 'he raped someone" sense.

Originally Posted by honorgal

Oh good grief, no. They are relevant for the self evident reason that it's women who are overwhelmingly complaining about the status quo and men are not. That would suggest that women perceive and react to hookup culture differently than men do, and while some of that difference is socialization, it's also biological and evolutionary differences in males and females. The former is amenable to forced change, the latter is not.

Thank you for finally explaining what you mean instead of assuming we'd accurately guess what you mean. As a male, I don't think biology plays nearly the role you seem to—I think what you're calling biology I would call socialization as to what culture says it means to be male or female.