Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

JMO (just my opinion:)
    Sorry, Wendy, but I have to disagree with something  that you said about 
anonymous reporting. I think it is critical to take reports  when the 
assailant is unknown. There is a huge amount of information about  patterns 
of crime, 
breaches to campus security etc. It is ironic that in this  work we have 
fought so hard to get recognition for sexual assault  between acquaintances, 
we are 
now at risk for  minimizing stranger-to-stranger sexual assaults. 
    And then there are the anonymous reports where  there was a brief 
acquaintances where the victim might not have a name, s/he may  well have 
enough 
identifying information to act. For example, if the complainant  in the Duke 
rape 
case had not been willing to press charges, an anonymous report  from her 
would still have been enough information about the Duke Lacrosse team  for 
the 
university to have responded in some way. I think anonymous  reporting can be 
hugely important -- depending on the willingness of the people  receiving the 
information to act on it. 
    And Ross, yes, it is a principle of  liability that with increased 
information comes increased responsibility to  act, but the answers you got 
from the 
university lawyers about policies on  sexual harassment are not necessarily 
the same as what you might get when  its sexual assault. Sorry to be so 
cynical 
about the motivations behind  university policy but insurance plays a key 
role in how they design policies.  Sexual harassment is a separately insured 
risk 
-- and the insurers of this risk  have historically been highly opinionated 
about policy. Sexual assault is  insured under a more generalized policy 
(that 
usually includes *all* risks of  physical injury to anyone on campus) so the 
policy dictates of insurers have  tended to be much less of a factor.