A new report, based on a 9 month investigation by The Center for Public Integrity, sheds some light on college and univerity disciplinary procedures with cases of sexual assualt. Many colleges and universities use a flawed system to adjudicate allegations of student sexual assault.
But official data from the schools themselves doesn’t begin to reflect the scope of the problem. And student victims face a depressing litany of barriers that often either assure their silence or leave them feeling victimized a second time, according to a nine-month investigation by the Center for Public Integrity. Many victims don’t report at all, because they blame themselves, or don’t identify what happened as sexual assault; one national study found that more than 95 percent of students who are sexually victimized do not report to police or campus officials. Local criminal justice authorities regularly shy away from such cases, because they are “he said, she said” disputes sometimes clouded by drugs or alcohol. That frequently leaves students to deal with campus judiciary processes so shrouded in secrecy that they can remain mysterious even to their participants.
Click here to read the complete report by Kristen Lombardi
For more information, visit http://www.uvavictimsofrape.com