Just a few short years ago, in 2012, two infamous and oft-analyzed cases of campus sexual misconduct were alleged to have taken place. In one such instance, Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz reported being brutally sexually assaulted in her dorm room in August; in the other, future-NFL quarterback Jameis Winston, then-of Florida State University, was accused of sexually assaulting a fellow Florida State student in December. While charges were ultimately not pressed in either scenario, both cases became publicly played out in a way that got people talking more than ever about the epidemic of sexual misconduct at American universities.
At Columbia, Sulkowicz made headlines for carrying a twin-sized mattress around campus during the 2014-’15 school year, after learning that the man she accused of raping her was not going to be expelled from the university nor face legal action due to insufficient evidence; the mattress was meant to represent the bed on which she said she was raped. Despite the best efforts of school administration, Sulkowicz even carried the mattress across stage during her May 2015 graduation ceremony, which only garnered more publicity for the story and reinforced the idea that justice may have eluded her in this case.
Meanwhile, at Florida State, Winston and the rest of the Seminoles football team were well in the midst of what would eventually turn out to be a school-record 14-0, BCS National Championship season when, in November of 2013, the Tallahassee Police Department announced that Winston was being investigated for his alleged role in the reported sexual assault of another Florida State student the year prior. Though the investigation wrapped up in roughly a month’s time and charges were never pressed, the handling of the case by Florida State and the Tallahassee Police Department has subsequently been scrutinized. Winston, who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy that December as college football’s most outstanding player, became a ubiquitous, transcending topic of contentious debate, as many argued that he evaded justice by playing on his celebrity.
Though obviously independent of each other, these two cases in particular work together to underscore the procedural inadequacies that often define campus sexual misconduct policies and investigations; usually, policies are weak and vague when it comes to what constitutes sexual misconduct, and investigations can best be summarized as ‘he said vs. she said’. The end result, arguably exemplified in both the Columbia and Florida State cases, is a convoluted system of justice that makes punishing perpetrators of sexual misconduct on college campuses incredibly difficult. Such procedural flaws are not confined to New York or Tallahassee; in fact, they can be found in our own backyard. For instance, in the Michigan Daily’s February 18 op-ed titled “From the Daily: A better policy, please”, the Daily editorial board bluntly posits that Michigan’s “current Sexual Misconduct Policy is not doing its job.” The Daily cites a five-percent decrease in sexual misconduct investigations from 2014 to 2015, as well as the finding that a mere seven individuals were formally reprimanded by the University for sexual misconduct in 2015, as the basis for proposing a revised, "unambiguous" Sexual Misconduct Policy. Such a revision could serve as a useful first step in establishing a more concrete, foolproof sexual misconduct investigational procedure at Michigan, and would model a course of action for other universities to take as well.
Needless to say, the miscarriage of justice in any and all cases of sexual misconduct is in and of itself a travesty. A wrinkle to consider, though, is that faulty sexual misconduct policies also violate the democratic theories studied in Political Science 406. John Locke – no, not that John Locke
(the guy we are concerned with is a 17th-century English political philosopher) – says in his Second Treatise that offenders of the law in democracies need to be punished in order to preserve and perpetuate a civil society. “The other power a Man has in the State of Nature, is the power to punish the Crimes
committed against that Law.” (352) Locke argues that part of living in a democratic, free society is consenting to the commonly agreed-upon laws, and that if transgressors against that law are not being punished, democracy itself will fail. If the University were to adopt a revised Sexual Misconduct Policy that is more conducive to prosecuting sexual misconduct offenders, it would find itself more in line with Locke’s principles and thus will be promoting a more democratic environment.
In two weeks’ time, I’ll look at the root of this democratic failure: the Title IX law. Title IX
first places the onus on universities – as opposed to the legal system – to investigate reported cases of sexual misconduct, which only further complicates what is an inherently fragile and tricky process to begin with.
Smith, Roberta. "In a Mattress, a Lever for Art and Political Protest." In a Mattress, a Lever for Art and Political Protest 21 Sept. 2014: n. pag. New York Times. Web. 16 Mar. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/arts/design/in-a-mattress-a-fulcrum-of-art-and-political-protest.html?_r=0>.
Redford, Patrick. "Tallahassee Police Finally Admit Problems With Investigation Of Jameis Winston Rape Case." Deadspin. N.p., 5 Dec. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2016. <http://deadspin.com/tallahassee-police-finally-admit-problems-with-investig-1746446618>.
"From the Daily: A better policy, please." Michigan Daily 18 Feb. 2016: n. pag. Michigan Daily. Web. 16 Mar. 2016. <https://www.michigandaily.com/section/editorials/daily-better-policy-please>.
Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government. Edited by Peter Laslett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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