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

A few thoughts - 

No real surprise that a university official would describe rape between 
nonstrangers as not "real" rape - as it allows him to discount, not count and 
even ignore the majority of sexual violence on campus - but i agree it is 
also likely a continuation of cultural biases.? The strange thing is that we 
think of universities as having MORE and BETTER understanding of social 
issues - so it is especially frustrating to see academics acting like 
neanderthals.? I had a similar eye-opening experience when Larry Summers said 
"Title IX has nothing to do with rape".? He actually believed this was true - 
and never apologized even after he learned otherwise from OCR - and now he's 
in the White House.? 

The stranger/intimate partner rape dilemma is age-old - and sticks like glue 
in our cultural software because it serves the interests of the powerful to 
ensure that rape between intimates is protected/not criminalized as this 
preserves male sexual entitlement.? That said - we could do a better job as 
advocates being proactive and not playing defense all the time. For example - 
instead of responding to things - we could proactively disseminate and teach 
the literature that shows victims of nonstranger rape actually suffer MORE 
harm over the lifespan than victims of a one-time stranger attack.? "Betrayal 
Trauma" is a wonderful book to uses as a primer on this idea - by Jennifer 
Freyd - as she explains why the betrayal causes so much damage.? It should be 
taught alongside David Lisak's work on the predatory nature of the "good guy" 
rapists who offend again and again simply because they can - and they choose 
their situations perfectly to ensure nonprosecution.? (drunk victim - da
 tes - etc)

On the polygraph issue - please check out my book - And Justice For Some - 
where I have a whole chapter called "Claiming a Suspect 'Passed' A 
Polygraph".? It debunks the idea that "passing" a polygraph has value on the 
issue of guilt.? In short - it is exceedingly easy to falsely pass a 
polygraph.? One needn't be a sociopath to pass - though it is one factor to 
consider and it does help certain types.? The real issue is that when a 
suspect takes a polygraph on his own - he gets to hire the "expert" and 
construct the conditions under which the test takes place.? Things like - 
what questions are asked - how was the suspect prepared - was he under the 
influence of drugs at the time of the test - how did the examiner set up the 
conditions to make sure the suspect would be subjected to reliable 
conditions?? When a suspect hires his own expert, it is essentially 
guaranteed he will pass - and the expert will almost never give up the raw 
data.? He or she will simply announce that the
  suspect "passed".? It is important to reject this type of conclusory 
"testing" and insist that the suspect be subjected to a law enforcement 
polygraph, instead.? 

I write about some of the obvious problems with most testing done by 
suspects' own "experts" - such as - the expert who examined John and Patsy 
Ramsey and claimed they "passed".? So silly - because none of the raw data or 
specs about the test have been released - and more importantly - the 
questions were long and used state of mind words like "intentionally" - which 
is exactly the wrong way to conduct a test.? Instead of "did you kill 
JonBenet" - they were asked wordy things like:? "did you intentionally, on 
the night in question, cause the death of your child - ".? Any legitimate 
expert will tell you that this type of question is completely improper.

There's more to this topic than I can put in an email - but the short story 
is - most claims that the test proved someone's "innocence" are wrong - (the 
reverse is not true.? That is - tests that claim to find someone was lying 
tend to be true - though there can be problems - they have far fewer problems 
than when an actually guilty person claims to have been proved innocent 
because of a polygraph.

Wendy Murphy