So I see the list is public now: 55 Schools Face U.S. Federal Sex Assault Probe

[Reefgazer]

This is very true.  My parents allowed me to drink alcohol at home and at parties when I was a teen, as long as I did not drive and drink to excess.  Took all the immature fun out of it and I never really took advantage of the permission I had to drink alcohol.

You could look for studies from countries where there is not drinking age.

In Germany, you have to be 16 to purchase wine/beer and 18 for hard liquor, but there is no age limit for consuming alcohol.

I have not seen any studies that indicate worse outcomes than the restrictive drinking limits in the US. yes, there is alcoholism and yes, some people binge drink - but I have not seen anything comparable to the alcohol steeped weekends on US college campuses. Prohibiting something makes it more attractive to teens, and getting booze when you're not allowed to is considered a sport. It won't be nearly as attractive if it's not against the rules.

 

[Reefgazer]

I wonder why there is no mention in this article (maybe I missed it) of the assaulted young women bypassing their college administration and contacting the police to press charges directly?  It seems this may be an option to receive justice.  There is always the possibility that there is not enough evidence for the police to charge the alleged assailant, but that would then explain why the universities are so slow to respond if they don't have enough evidence against the accused.

[FaithManor]

I wonder why there is no mention in this article (maybe I missed it) of the assaulted young women bypassing their college administration and contacting the police to press charges directly?  It seems this may be an option to receive justice.  There is always the possibility that there is not enough evidence for the police to charge the alleged assailant, but that would then explain why the universities are so slow to respond if they don't have enough evidence against the accused.

I think it's harder on huge campuses like MSU, Penn State, etc. because they have their own campus police and the students are drilled that this is their first place to report. Additionally, city and state police will often just refer it back to campus police UNTIL they find out that campus police aren't handling it. It's crazy. But yes some campuses are so large that they have their own law enforcement.

 

If she seeks assistance at the ER instead of through campus health she may be more likely to get a state police officer/detective than campus police. One of the big issues with the Sandusky scandal at Penn State was whether or not campus police actually investigated in an appropriate manner when informed of assaults or suspected assaults.

[G5052]

I wonder why there is no mention in this article (maybe I missed it) of the assaulted young women bypassing their college administration and contacting the police to press charges directly?  It seems this may be an option to receive justice.  There is always the possibility that there is not enough evidence for the police to charge the alleged assailant, but that would then explain why the universities are so slow to respond if they don't have enough evidence against the accused.

 

Yes, as I posted on the PHC thread, bypassing the campus police is probably the way to go in these situations. I'd tell a victim to go to the ER and demand that the campus police not be involved.  Yes, police have their boundaries and will hand off to each other, but you can raise a stink.

 

When I was the head dormitory assistant at a state college, we had a college policy that rape cases were taken to the local ER and local law enforcement took the lead.  Because it was a semi-rural area, that usually meant the state police unless the student refused to press charges.  If they refused to press charges, the local police filed a report, but it ended there unless they changed their mind later.

 

My boss (Dean of Housing) was behind the policy that campus police didn't handle rape cases.  She also was the one who made sure that the local police and ER were prepared to handle these things properly.  It was a cause that she was very sensitive about, unfortunately because of personal experience herself.  When she was in graduate school, she was raped on university property in another state.  And the campus police didn't handle it right.