Alcohol related sexual assault continues to reign as one of many issues plaguing colleges and universities, many of which have banned alcohol and overnight guests. Braford Richardson, a graduate of Claremont McKenna College with a B.A. in the fields of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and Jon A. Shields, the associate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College claim that in spite of previous efforts to reduce the rates of sexual assault they are actually increasing. Richardson and Shields believe that the current standard for handling sexual assault cases is inefficient and often more traumatic for the victim than the crime itself. Such cases are often handled by a selection of staff and students of the victim’s college who have …show more content…
David Lisak, a scholar on campus rape and response consultant for universities says “When students do report these assaults, they are much more likely to turn to someone in the university community than to law enforcement. Because of that, universities are stuck. They can’t ignore these reports either morally, ethically or legally. So this is where we are: confronted with a problem that is really mostly serious criminal conduct and asking universities to respond and investigate and adjudicate. And that really presents some pretty serious paradoxes and anomalies and, in some ways, even absurdities” (qtd. in Goldberg). Through all of the harrowing trials there has been one thing almost everyone agrees on: the school disciplinary boards have rarely done a good job of handling these cases. These boards were never intended to try serious crimes but were meant for cases such as plagiarism and under-age drinking. The members of such a group usually don’t have any training in law, investigation or the use of physical evidence …show more content…
News and World Report: 2015 that sexual assault rates have been 3.1 to 4.4 times higher in colleges and universities that are more lenient regarding overnight guests and alcohol consumption than in their more restrictive counterparts. However there is the issue of underreporting at religious and conservative colleges which is to be expected but as Richardson and Shields state “It is true that assault rates are lower at religious colleges. But the profession of religion itself does not appear to diminish campus violence very much.” Their evidence shows that sexual assault rates have been increasing in all types of colleges, even at conservative and religious ones which can be associated to the ever rising awareness of sexual