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

["Molly Dragiewicz" <>]

The media coverage of the Duke case was horrendous, as you all know. We have 
a failed investigation and prosecution, not necessarily a false allegation. 
MANY rapes result in no DNA evidence, and we do not know about all of the 
evidence because the proscution is not at liberty to disclose all the facts. 
It is extremely difficult to get a rape conviction and it is by no means the 
case that every unprosecuted case means the allegation was false. 
 
Media coverage exonerating all of these "upstanding young men" (heroic 
victims, although women in sexual assault cases are vilified for reporting as 
wallowing in victimhood) who had hired a stripper for their team party and 
were reported shouting racial slurs and emailed each other comments about the 
harm they would like to do to them is not helpful, and especially ridiculous 
right next to Imus's outing. I guess men who are accused of rape by a black 
woman but not convicted can make racist comments with impunity. 
 
media restraints on the prosecution and not the defense lead to some of the 
worst coverage of crimes, especially rape, like the Kobe Bryant case where 
outright lies leaked by the defense went uncorrected and no doubt contributed 
to the disposition of that case. The prosecution, whether it is doing it's 
job well or not, cannot legally comment about evidence the way the defense 
can. Almost no TV viewers know this.
 
Calls for presecution of the woman who reported the rape are just another 
step into the chilly climate for reporting that women already face. I suspect 
this is one reason rape rates look like they are declining in some studies 
that aren;t specially descigned to ask about rape. I certainly didn't see 
sexual assault and rape being rare on the campuses I know.
 
At VT, we now hear reported that the man who did the shootings had contact 
with police on 3 separate occasions for stalking. Police claimed there is 
nothing they could do. In my experience, some police don't understand or 
enforce the stalking law, and will tell women with repeated reports that they 
can't do anything "until he does something". Not the law in VA, but how it is 
enforced (not enforced) in some areas. The university did what about these 
reports? We don't know yet, but probably nothing.
 
Reports also that he was taking pictures of women under thier desks. The 
students complained. What did the university do? We don't know yet. 
 
Faculty member pulled the student out of class for writing that was violent 
and included incest themes. They referrred him to the counseling center, 
which may be all you can do in that case, but many students who are dealing 
with serious mental illness are now remaining on campus and this has not 
really been dealt with on most campuses.
 
Regradless of the numerous other factors, and I suppose we will hear more 
warning signs too, this was a student who was creating a hostile environment 
for several women on campus. What did VT do? We don't know yet. 
 
VT has a strong VAW program including a VAWA grant, but I am guessing from 
the  administration's repeated comments about "just a domestic" that the 
upper levels of the administration don't pay much attention to the 
information they put out. They clearly have no idea why this is offensive and 
wrong. What possible thinking could have led them to not even cancel classes 
after "just" a domestic double homicide? That she provoked the violence so 
he's not really a violent person and is therefore no risk to anyone else?
 
Public shootings like this are rare, but other cases have also been DV 
related or have perpetrators with well documented histories of DV and threats 
that were never dealt with. I am not surprised the police and admin there 
don't know that because the media coverage is always awful and spun toward 
the unpredictable crazy person or evil teenager explanation, which is easier 
to swallow but does nothing for violence prevention.
 
I hope that I will not see universities diverting their anti-violence funds 
to campus surveillence equipment which would not have done anything to 
prevent this incident. 
 
Campuses do need better notification systems, and often they don't even have 
an emergency communications plan even after experiencing emegencies, and that 
needs to be addresed, but the problem here was not system inadequacy or 
failure (although it failed and was inadequate) it was a delay caused by a 
conscious decision not to tell anyone about a "domestic" double homicide. 
 
I think this is often the case. Campus admin usually decides not to warn 
students, especially when perpetrators of violence against women are other 
students. When was the last time your campus was warned about a reported 
rapist or assault against an ex girlfriend? Or just a drunk kid beating some 
other student up?
 
Clery requires these warnings. Almost no one complies because the federal 
govt mostly does not enforce Clery. http://www.securityoncampus.org/
The supposedly biggest expert on Clery is at VT, and he doesn't like the law 
because he says people don't realize they can't be protected from random 
violence. But most of these crimes are not random. 
 
Molly Dragiewicz