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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.
The problem is this whole beat up about campus rapes is blown way out of proportion. Case in point is the mattress carrying student, who now appears to just have been a woman scorned. So any systems are already being abused. If there's criminality going on, the only thing to do is go to the police. Police need to treat rape seriously, they generally do, but I get the feeling why certain people want this resolved outside police is because police will also treat fraudulent allegations of rape seriously.
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.
One thing to keep in mind is that the effect you get from high profile cases and how the remaining 99.99% can be vastly different. This kind of damage only really occurs either within a community (in which case, accuser or accused, the least popular person is the one who suffers) or if there is massive public attention to a case, which might only be 1 or 2 per year in a country the size of the US. When looking at best practices, we have to examine the common cases, the places where things can do the most harm or most good, NOT the super rare edge cases that get the spotlight.
I can tell you first hand that false accusations destroy lives just as much.
Worse than that, not one member of the Duke Lynch Mob has suffered any repercussions at all for their actions in demanding penalties against the accused before they were tried.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Look, rape happens all the time. It happens more often in economically disadvantaged communities, and by family members, but we don't talk about that. We talk about frat guys, or jockeys, or the people we "least expect," because that makes headlines. Rape is not an epidemic on college campuses, although there is an epidemic of paranoia. Most guys are scared shitless of possibly doing something uncool, let alone "creepy," let alone being accused of rape. If we want to deal with the real epidemic of rape and sexual assault, then we should create programs in grade school for students to tell an adult about what happens at home. If we teach children and young teenagers that they won't be ignored, and that someone cares about them, then they won't be afraid to report things when they're adults on college campuses. Most rapes and sexual assaults are committed by people who themselves were abused or assaulted, who never found resolution. If we get to those people before they get the chance to victimize others, then we've made everyone safer. I'm not one to beat the "think of the children" drum, but this is a problem that's rooted in childhood, so that's where our focus should be.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
But don't forget:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool_trial
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.