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Can Online Reporting System Help Prevent Sexual Assaults On Campus?
jyosim writes Studies have shown that as many as 90 percent of campus rapes are committed by repeat offenders. A new system is designed to help identify serial assaulters, by letting students anonymously report incidents in order to look for patterns. But some argue that having the ability to report someone with just the click of a button may not be a good thing. Andrew T. Miltenberg, a New York lawyer who represents young men accused of sexual misconduct, says though the system seems well intended, he is concerned about dangers it may pose to students who are accused. 'We're all guilty of pressing send on an angry text or email that, had we had to put it into an actual letter and proofread, we probably wouldn't have sent,' he says.
This will end very badly. Some students will use this as an attack and/or revenge tool against people they don't like. Anonymity plus rape accusations will equal lawsuits and destroyed lives.
Some things need to be said...
Sure, you'll get the guilty guys, and you'll probably get 500 innocent guys along with them, guys whose only crime happened to be not calling two days later, or guys who cheated on their girlfriends, or guys who were drunk, confident, and too creepy (read: not good looking enough) to be allowed to ask a girl out.
Hey I have an idea, if we kill all the Muslims in the world, we'll really cut down on that suicide bombing.
No.
If you thought swatting was bad, just wait until this one gets going.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
some argue that having the ability to report someone with just the click of a button may not be a good thing.
No, you dont understand. This is the internet, but more importantly, its 4chan. I want you to envision a storm of millions of reports, hundreds of millions even, of the same perpetrator, Mooty McMootykins. He stands 21 inches tall and shoots cookies from his arse. The student attends $university and is majoring in hitler-did-nothing-wrong. Students should beware of a man dressed as a watermelon who propositions victims with "Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?" Students have reported that mcmootykins cannot be stopped because you cannot flim flam the zim zam. he also evades approach because you cant corner the dorner. each report ends confirming the students suspicion that the perpetrator suffers from gender ptsd caused by his planetkin alignment and inability to remove kebab.
Good people go to bed earlier.
this can only end well
The way the whole campus rape thing is handled seems idiotic to me. Why is sexual assault an issue for colleges or universities to handle? IMHO, it should be a police matter. If a student reports that they were sexually assaulted to a college or university, the college or university should have to report it to the local authorities, instead of being handled internally.
The most common reason I hear for not doing this is that the victim doesn't want their assailant to go to prison. Why? So they can continue raping other people? Chances are the victim isn't the rapists first victim, or if they were, they won't be the last. Suspending a rapist from school or making them transfer does not protect other people.
The other problem I have with having colleges or universities handle this problem is that I've heard of several instances where there wasn't due diligence in fact finding, and there was a presumption of guilt against the alleged assailant. Let the justice system handle what the justice system was created for. Colleges & universities should stick to educating people and doing research, not adjudicating serious crimes.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
This would hold more weight if it had any basis in fact whatsoever. Men actually have a much higher chance of BEING sexually assaulted than being falsely accused of it.
As I understand it US Universities define rape as "lightly brushed up against me whilst dancing at a party". So this won't help with that, no.
Ignorance is strength.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
the insanely inflated rape "statistics" made up by feminists have been debunked a million times, the reality is that students getting raped is very rare and less than the average for the general population
and repeat offenders? if it is rape and police gets involved they tend to put people in jail for long time
I was thinking the same thing. Is there a way to report a false accusation too? Because I see a lot of innocent people having their lives destroyed by this. A rape or sex offender accusation today is like being labeled a witch in medieval Europe. It's straight to the gallows with you, innocent or not!
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Girls don't hang out with drunk men. Men don't hang out with drunk women. The standard behavior on a university campus invites sexual misbehavior. Mod me into oblivion.
... too creepy (read: not rich enough)
FTFY.
While I strongly believe this is a Bad Idea(tm) of epic proportions with a list of unintended consequences that seemingly has no end, after my initial visceral reaction, I am left to wonder. What led anyone, or group of anyone's, to think this was the answer? Even assuming we are all Good People(tm), do they believe someone will report an incident just because they can do some anonymously? Okay, so we'll put their potential targets on notice but, the report isn't really actionable. The attacker will still be at large and free to prey on someone else.
Anonymous reporting simply seems to be the wrong direction. What about actually changing how we treat and support the victims?
Except when this extra-judicial kind of accusation takes place, the accused normally gets a Kafkaesque review process, devoid of actual evidence other than the original claim, that usually ends up either with an expulsion or sanctions imposed to such a degree that the student is forced to leave.
In other words, it's not really on the record and the HuffingPaintPost is getting useless data.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
The more likely case is for every 500 guilty you will sweep up a handful of innocent. While the image of the false accuser is a powerful image in the public imagination, they are pretty rare and it is much more common for a victim to be pushed into dropping things due to the shame and harassment they get in their life.
The problem is, too many people get their idea of how accusations pan out from MRA blogs then victims networks or even actual research. If even a tiny percentage of men have their lives ruined by women with false accusations it gets blown up in the only type of case that matters, thus women are assumed to be lying sluts unless they prove otherwise over and over and over, and even then they will be treated like they were 'probably' lying for the rest of their lives because 'so many cases of this happen!'. Even worse, many police and judges buy into this image too...
There needs to absolutely be a mechanism in place for a woman to:
- safely be transported to a hospital in a fashion which maintains chain of evidence
- be examined by a sympathetic, but impartial medical professional using a rape kit to collect evidence
- make a formal statement, and if it includes an accusation, that to be duly sworn out in a reasonable fashion
There needs to be in place mechanisms for the hospital, police and other social structures to take the above seriously. If there aren't, that needs to change.
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
When I was in college oh so many years ago, this was a problem; guess it's still going on now.
Anyhow, some student activists (turned out to be just a couple of students with access to a photocopier and a stapler) put up posters around campus. The posters had a photo of a guy with prison bars clipart overlaid and the subject tagline below. Whether the photo was actually of a student currently enrolled was never revealed.
Their argument was "he has a penis. therefore he is a *potential* rapist. no lie; no libel". Another point that was brought up was at that time rape was legally defined as sticking a penis into a woman without her permission. So, legally only men could rape, only women could be raped. That's actually been changed in the intervening years. To answer the objection that "It may not be libel in court, but you're still causing harm" their position was that "We are promoting a social good by 'raising awareness' about rape on campus.". After a week or so the signs were gone and didn't come back.
I don't recall if they were officially forced to stop or they just figured out they had subverted a conversation about rape into one about free speech and harassment.
Either way, they *did* raise some sort of awareness, but not the kind they wanted to. Unless they were just trying to get the law changed. Still didn't stop the raping apparently.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
Speaking of "not on the record", most rapes aren't reported which means this statistic is much higher, and contrary to your complaint, it does not "usually" end up in expulsion. We're looking at less than a third of cases ending in expulsion, and this is data for only those who are found "guilty". Suspension's a bit more likely, but I REALLY don't think it's a great idea to keep someone who has been found guilty of sexual assault on campus.
YES! Thank you! It's like no one actually bothers doing research any more, and just goes to whatever blog/news site best fits their current world view, no matter how far from reality it may be.
'We're all guilty of pressing send on an angry text or email that, had we had to put it into an actual letter and proofread, we probably wouldn't have sent,'
Ah, lawyers, thinking since they represent the highest infallibility standard, they can speak for all humanity?
Did you ever sent an inappropriately angry email or text? I don't recall that I ever had that problem.
Bennett Hasleton raped me.
It's better to let hundreds of guilty go free than for a single innocent person to be falsely convicted.
fuck anyone who says differently.
Studies have shown that as many as 90 percent of campus rapes are committed by repeat offenders.
Do those studies take into account so-called victims who make multiple false reports of rape and sexual assault? Do those studies take into account imaginary offenders? Do those studies tally up "offenders" like "Haven Monahan" who exist only in the mind of their demented accusers?
But some argue that having the ability to report someone with just the click of a button may not be a good thing.
You're damned right. I understand that rapes and sexual assaults do take place, but we've seen a number of verified false reports over the past year. It's bad enough that a woman can file a false police report and ruin someone's reputation or even send him to jail; the ability to do it at the click of a button is simply absurd.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Campus rapes? You mean like the one that occurred at the University of Virginia? Except that it never occurred. And the press is still treating the accuser like she is some sort of victim when the real victims are the young men that were falsely accused. If i were one of those guys I would be suing that devious bitch to high heaven.
It's just too easy to make false accusations without any real consequences. I could see this sort of system very easily used as revenge or blackmail.
I'd think that social media would give women more ability to take a stand against their rapists, outing them for criminal, immoral, and reckless behavior.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Why is a Crime that is a Felony off Campus handled like cheating on a test?
Do Universities handle Murder or Armed Robbery this way?
Are they Sentenced to Campus Jail?
Turn it over to the real police. This is not an Angie's list problem.
Ladies always taking a couple friends along when venturing out will solve this. Their names are Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson.
It has been proven over and over that citizens carrying the means of self defense greatly deters violent attack against them. The fatal flaw in this is the "defenseless victim" being present. Eliminate the defenseless victim by allowing her some effective defense. Only firearms are effective in all situations. Some a-hole hopped up on PCP won't even notice pepper spray. Tasers fail if the perpetrator is wearing heavy clothing like a parka. Only a firearm is capable of 100% effective defense.
Don't drink and do carry a taser and pepper spray. Who thinks my strategy is more effective?
If your going to claim rape you better be able to 1. prove it with actual evidence 2. the accused should be sentenced appropriately
We're taking these things out of proportion. I've been held against my will many many times throughout my life. Just recently I was held against my will when my partner was stopped for speeding (he wasn't and we later verified that). Ultimately you get over it. Sex should be no different. Yes- your psychologist will tell you the world is ending and you'll never get over it. However if you stop putting up with that bullshit you might just get over it eventually.
I'm not for-violence. I thing its horrible that people would force you to do something against your will. The problem is the state does it all the time and its a far worse atrocity than rape. With the state there is no hope of getting out of it. It's totally illogical, unfair, and for most of us there is literally nothing we can do about it. At least with a rapist you know it'll be over and chances are won't even remember it.
If you don't want to get "raped" stop inviting rapists over. If we're talking about a situation where that isn't the case and it's a family member. The problem is largely solvable by by enabling victims to exit such situations via external means of support. That would actually be a beneficial thing for the state to do rather than go after people who more often than not haven't done anything wrong.
If you try and get people to come out and say they've been raped more people will come out and say it. That doesn't make it true.
No technology system can stop or prevent what the human mind wants to do, period.
Change the mind not the environment.
At best any system, technical, legal, social can do is provide justice and closer, nothing more.
This is how humanity works, plain and simple, get used to it.
If someone loses their employment becasue this app is misused to punish someone, is the author liable? Common carriers are generally immune to the content passed through them. ISPs are partially immune. But DRM, drug trades, underage porn without due dilligence can get them in trouble. But what about software authors?
At least show both parties are conscious and not unwilling. But I ma not sure how to avoid falsifying consent, say of a stoned person. This app probably just kicks the stone sone the road a little.
I dislike the two-sytem status quo too.
Guys: Stop sticking your dick in crazy. It's fucking stupid and you're going to get accused of rape.
Girls: Stop drinking until you lack the ability to "give consent". It's fucking stupid and you're going to have regretful sex.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new...
So some guy gets his life ruined by a conspiracy to file false allegations. It's not like the conspirators will be charged with any crime - that might discourage future "victims" (invented or otherwise) from coming forward, right? So why not grant total anonymity to the consipirators with an app like this so that even the *idea* of justice for false-accusation conspirators can never come up?
This disgusting witch hunt needs to end. Feminism 3.0 must die.
This is just another form of witch hunt.
It will spread into society like a fast-growing cancer. If you are misguided enough to use social networking you can already see it manifested in the form of "groupthink" in which a few busybody people go to great lengths to persuade others to disapprove of people who hold dissenting opinions. To say this is insidious is an understatement. It facilitates passive-aggressive behavior on a level which was once only seen on a small level in places like small towns, but which can now be manifested on a much larger scale. If stuff like this is not reason enough for you to question the wisdom of participating in ANY social networking situation, you need to think about it some more.
The problem with the feminist view is that they see every man as a potential rapist when in fact most men aren't. By their very own arguments (mentioned previously), a rapist is responsible for 6 assaults before he gets caught. That's not 6 men, but sic assaults by the same man. Most men successfully suppress urges to rape everyday with great success -- if they have any urges at all -- and that's what programs like this ignore.
The simple solution is to make sex illegal with the exception of married couples. That limits the number of rapes to only those that are married because anyone engaging in sex before marriage is breaking the law. Before anyone goes on about how ludicrous this idea is, I don't believe that humans are so base as to not be able to resist their urges. Date rape is the result of a promiscuous culture that values instant gratification.
If you can't live without sex for a while, you're doing it wrong.
I don't understand how rape is considered something for a university to deal with - shouldn't the police be involved, or is there something magical when it happens on campus?
"Even worse, many police and judges buy into this image too." This would fall under the category of false accusation.
There is a problem with rapes at my local university. They DO follow patterns and they are most definitely the same few repeat offenders, and the offenders are most likely not students.
Best way - set them up. Find some brave reasonably-attractive female cops or highly-trained security people with martial-arts background. Dress them up to look like grad students doing late-night lab work (most common rape victims). Walk around in dark areas at 1AM.
It will only be a matter of time before you catch the perps this way.
most rapes aren't reported
There it is, the most idiotic phrase I've seen all week. If you are confused as to why your statement is nonsensical, try slapping yourself in the face until your brain starts working.
Why are rapists getting the chance to be repeat offenders and what can we do about that?
Rapists, especially of minors, deserve the worst our criminal justice system can dish out, more so than your run of the mill murderer, IMO.
You're a fucking idiot. The "study" says that 20%-40% of men are raped, then says "Well, as long as fewer than 40% of men are falsely accused of rape, there's no problem, right!?!??!"
Go fuck yourself and your stupid agenda.
> Studies have shown that as many as 90 percent of campus rapes are committed by repeat offenders.
They did not. One study made on highly untypical students - older doing after work college - shown that those who committed sexual assault often did more of them. That is not the same "studies" and it does not says all that much about younger (average) students. It says that it might be worth looking at that issues, but studies that would look at that issue on general college students were not done yet.
Also, be careful because different studies define "sexual assault" differently. Sometimes it needs to be actual crime or involve violence, other times unexpected kiss unwanted at the moment from boyfriend counts as assault too. So, unless you specify how you mean the word, it can mean anything.
One has to be careful: I had a nasty breakup, and my ex-GF claimed that I had chased her to the point of near harassment before we started going out. A bunch of her female friends (in sympathy I must believe) stepped forward and claimed I had done the same to them.
Lucky for me the entire one-on-one initial interaction with my ex-GF took place over SMS, after we had exchanged phone numbers at the party where we met. All messages were still in my smartphone starting with her inviting me out for drinks, then her asking me on that first date if she could stay at my place since she was in between places having just finished school in one town and moving to another.
This part was enough to disprove her claims to our mutual friends. We then moved to the other girls, which all but one happened to be acquaintances I had never really talked to, so the now-on-my-side friends asked them to name the time and place where we had had a conversation beyond "good day/how's it going/hi". They couldn't name one.
The last person I had made an advance on exactly once: I asked her out for a drink. She said no and I never contacted her again. She admitted as much and that was that.
So in the end there were no bad consequences from those lies, but if things hadn't been so clear cut and with so much evidence at hand I could have been in real trouble.
I know there are a ton of girls who are genuinely harassed and deserve all the support they can get. All I'm saying is: don't rush to judgement.
I gave your suggestion a shot, and as it turns out the only nonsensical thing here is that you think anyone will listen to you, believe you, or give a shit what you think when you post something like this without any evidence, logic, or basis in fact. In the future, try posting some actual data if you want to not look like a complete tool.
Long story short, you're not very good at this. Drink Coke, Play Again.
Careful not to get that strawman too close to an open flame, the whole thread might go up...
The parent post never makes the claim that it's not a problem. What IS suggested is that false accusations are less prevalent than men being raped, which itself does not get enough attention in part because so many still believe that men cannot be raped (or at least, not by women.) These are all problems, and all these things ruin lives... but based on numbers alone, more resources should go towards preventing rape, and the default assumption should not be "tthe woman is lying", as seems to be so common among police, judges, and forum commenterrs.
Do you have the same attitudes about prison rape?
Based on the culture, statistics, and prevalence of late-night jokes, prison rape (mostly male-on-male) is completely normalized.
Should we provide protective custody (real=expensive and difficult), anonymity, high-quality legal, medical and psychiatric support, and most importantly a presumption of truth to those who allege they have been raped in prison? Sexually assaulted? Threatened?
Perhaps you would be willing to fight the culture and spend all the money needed to do this. But I doubt it, because the costs would probably increase spending on incarceration 2-10 times what we already deficit spend.
Prison rape victims are, in general, far more vulnerable than female victims in society at large. Do you have the same concern and empathy for those prisoners who have been raped?
It's not a strawman, you idiot.
"STRAW MAN. 1 : a weak or imaginary opposition (as an argument or adversary) set up only to be easily confuted."
Funny, because no one in this comment line has made the argument that false reports don't happen/aren't important. That would make the position suggested imaginary and easily confuted, because we ourselves would argue against those not mattering. As a result, it fits the definition so perfectly that were it any more obvious, it would be used to scare crows.
If you read the project's site projectcallisto.org there is nothing that states the system allows anonymous reporting. Rather, it seems to require identification of the user to submit an official report/name a person who has committed assault.
Do you know the source for those numbers? This could be very useful in future debates.