“Rape is a very serious crime. Colleges are not equipped to deal with it and are not the right venue for it. “
Perhaps todays colleges are not equipped to deal with the criminal and mental health issues associated with it. However, they should be capable of providing a safer environment for students.
Consider in years past dormitories were single sex residence halls with very limited visitation by members of the opposite sex. Visitation was usually limited to public parlors. Dormitories and fraternities were chaperoned and monitored by live in house mothers, usually elderly women who reminded students of culture mores. There were defined periods when students were required to be in their dorm rooms, defined study hours during the week, and defined times for lights out. Social events on campus (dances for example) were chaperoned. In those days rapes were infrequent, and binge drinking was virtually unheard of.
Colleges have always served a transitional role for society between parental supervision and life in society as an independent adults and responsible citizens. In the now distant past students learned to live in group settings, with more freedom for self directed activity, but not unlimited freedom. Communal living in dormitories taught respect for others. The boundaries placed on unmarried male/female contact instilled in men the cultural beliefs men should respect women and taught women to respect themselves. The reinforcement of cultural behavioral standards was part of the education process. It benefited students by providing them a safe environment while exercising some of the freedoms they would have as adults.
Unfortunately in 2014 students transition directly from parental guidance to an anything goes environment with no boundaries or guidance. It is ironic in today’s post sexual revolution world we now see progressives, who eradicated the commonly accepted social limits on male/female behavior outside of marriage, debating the meaning of the word “no” and on some campuses instituting the concept of legal contracts to govern sexual behavior.
In the old world, where premarital sex was frowned upon by society and colleges provided guidance and restrictions on behavior, the definition of rape was very clear. In today’s permissive society progressives struggle balancing their cherished concept of sexual freedom, in all of its expressions, with the very real issues of sexual aggression and sexual aggression which are much harder to define when students frequently engage in casual hookups with people they do not know.
Progressives, particularly the intellectuals on campus, struggle with this issue for several reasons:
1) They reject societal mores and restrictions with respect to human sexual activity.
2) They reject religion and religious teachings about respect for others, not to mention religious teachings associated with appropriate sexual behavior.
3) To further their political and social agendas they deliberately seek to create conditions that foster distrust and animosity between men and women.
4) They focus exclusively on the rights and behaviors of groups, not the individual. Almost all sexual relationships and interactions, including rape, are between individuals. Both the perpetrator and the victim are involved in a unique situation, parts of which may involve free will. The point at which free will is no longer being exercised may be unclear to one party in any specific interaction. It is particularly difficult to define if two people have been involved in a consensual sexual relationship for a period of time and one party to the relationship abruptly redefines the amount of sexual contact she or he will permit with respect to the other party.
The best answer to rape, like most crimes, is to create an environment that prevents or makes the crime very difficult to execute. By abandoning their essential teaching role of reinforcing culturally, and at the time legally enshrined, standards of behavior colleges have created the conditions for rape and sexual assault on campus. When every individual defines his or her own rules, sometimes in the moment, it is understandable there will be incidences of rape and sexual assault. If society no longer has clearly defined limitations on behavior, how can we as a society pass judgement regarding an unwitnessed event involving two people in the heat of passion?
It is unfortunate the concepts of returning to monitored single sex dormitories and societal standards for premarital sexual behavior are not even being considered by the intellectuals running institutions of higher learning. After all, it is a solution that doesn’t fit their world view or political objectives. It just works.
Thank you for your good and useful comments.
I went to an all-women's college, with all of the strict rules you describe concerning dorm and campus life. What's impossible to describe to anyone who hasn't experienced it is that the rules gave us much more freedom than current students experience.
Wonderful assessment, thank you!
Your last paragraph sums it up nicely. Do the feminists really want to solve the problem? There are some rather simple solutions for most of what is called “rape” on college campuses these days, and they don’t want to implement them.