Restorative Justice for Curbing Campus Sexual Violence
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CSW Policy Brief 27 RETHINKING POLICY ON GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND WOMEN’S ISSUES RESTORATIVE JUSTICE FOR CURBING CAMPUS SEXUAL VIOLENCE BY DOMALE DUBE KEYS Restorative justice approaches can facilitate healing and have been shown to minimize the number of repeat offenses. Stock image. Forcible sex offenses represented 29% Given that 69.7% of 14- to 17-year- Negative stereotypes about people of all reported campus crime in 2015.1 olds in the United States have been of color and gender non-conforming Current implementations of Title IX assaulted, and of those, 27.4% have persons have placed them at a higher risk of both sexual abuse and accu- policies in higher education emphasize been sexually victimized, universities sations of campus sexual violence. punitive responses to sexual assault and colleges cannot ignore students’ For example, Black women, men, and rather than restorative methods which prior histories of abuse or how inter- gender non-conforming persons are require counseling for affected parties. sectionality shapes students’ experi- often depicted as more promiscuous The tendency toward punishment nei- ences of sexual violence.2 This brief and thus sexually available than their 6 ther attends to the needs of assault- presents restorative justice approaches white peers. These stereotypes mean that they are more vulnerable to sex- ed students nor of those perpetrating that aim to address these issues. ual violence. Studies show that Black assault, and studies have shown that women and gender non-conforming members of both populations are like- EXUAL VIOLENCE IS A MAJOR people of all races are more likely to ly to have been assaulted in the past. issue on college campuses across be victims rather than perpetrators Sthe nation. 23.1% of undergraduate Further, the use of campus law en- of sexual assault. Of a sample of college women and 5.4% of men ex- Black college women, 37.6% had ex- forcement to address sexual assault re- 3 perience rape or sexual assault. Ap- perienced rape.7 Another study found produces racial, gendered, and sexual proximately one in ten graduate and 21% of transgender, genderqueer, inequality that results in the dispro- undergraduate students experience 4 or non-conforming undergraduate portionate victimization, over-policing, rape at college. There were about college students have been sexually and criminalization of people of col- 8,000 police-reported cases of forc- assaulted twice.8 Although high-pro- ible sex offenses at colleges in 2015, a file cases of campus sexual assault or and gender non-conforming people. 5 262% increase since 2001. often involve perpetrators who are UCLA CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN CSW Policy Brief 27 RETHINKING POLICY ON GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND WOMEN’S ISSUES white men, Black men, who are often the Obama Administration’s “Dear justice approach seeks answers to the stereotyped as deviant or criminal, are Colleague” letters of 2011 and 2015.14 following questions: Who was harmed? more likely to face legal consequences These policies require that each school What needs contributed to the inci- for perpetrating sexual violence.9 While designate a Title IX Coordinator whose dence? How can the harm be repaired, schools are not required to disclose the duties include “overseeing all Title IX relationships repaired, and future harm identities of accused persons, we can complaints” and “addressing any pat- avoided?19 Interventions often take the extrapolate from studies undertaken terns or systemic problems that arise form of counselor-facilitated healing within the population at large to esti- during the review of such complaints.” circles with affected individuals to seek mate the impact on Black men. A na- The language of these policies thus answers to these questions. While re- tionwide study of arrests in the United emphasizes the policing role of this storative justice approaches have been States. found that Black men represent- position.15 Furthermore, the preven- understudied, one study of sexual vio- ed a plurality of people arrested for tive education that the policies suggest lence offenders found that the restor- sexual assault at 49%, while white men places students in the role of law en- ative justice approach minimized the made up 38%.10 forcement by emphasizing that schools number of repeat offenders.20 Title IX teach students how to identify and re- should require that at least one Title An additional problem with current ap- port sexual misconduct. According to IX Coordinator on each campus be a proaches to sexual violence is the fail- the 2001 “Revised Sexual Harassment licensed counselor who can offer me- ure to deal with the cyclical nature of Guidance” currently in effect, training diation and individual counseling to en- violence and trauma. Studies of college for students “can help to ensure that courage healing for students who have students who either perpetrated sexual they understand what types of conduct directly and indirectly experienced sex- violence or were victims of sexual vi- can cause sexual harassment and that ual violence. Following the restorative olence found that many had prior ex- they know how to respond.”16 Simi- justice approach, survivors should then perience with abuse as children.11 One larly, the “Dear Colleague” letters sug- have the option to pursue a punitive study found that college students who gest that preventive education can be approach toward their assailant if that had survived childhood sexual assault squeezed into new student orientation remains an interest. were two to three times more likely programs, staff trainings, and “back to than their peers to be assaulted in ad- school nights,” implying that the sub- Since over half of students were as- olescence and at college.12 Also, college ject matter can be handled in a brief saulted as children or teenagers, and men who were sexually victimized as information session.17 Title IX does childhood victimization has been found children were twice as likely as non-vic- not acknowledge the role that child to be associated with experience of sex- tims to perpetrate sexual coercion as sexual abuse can play in adult students’ ual violence as a perpetrator or victim, adolescents, which in turn increased experience with sexual violence. Fur- lawmakers should revise Title IX to their likelihood of sexually assaulting thermore, these documents fail to ad- mandate that Title IX Coordinators be others during college.13 Still, policy has dress ways that race and other markers charged with designing an anti-violence failed to recognize violence as a cycle, of one’s identity have historically ren- curriculum for the student body which and the ways that racism and sexism dered certain groups more susceptible consists of a two-course series for stu- increase different demographic groups’ to sexual violence and conviction of dents’ first year of college that chal- experiences with the cycle of sexual vi- sexual violence.18 Current policies to lenges them to transform prior beliefs olence. curb campus sexual violence neglect about violence.21 The first course would students’ needs to heal from past expe- focus primarily on sexual violence and CRITIQUE riences of violence. address ways that experience with sexu- al violence as victim or perpetrator has First instituted by the Office of Civil RECOMMENDATIONS been historically determined by certain Rights (OCR) in 1972, Title IX pro- identity markers like gender, race, and hibits sex discrimination, including Instead of emphasizing policing meth- sexual orientation.22 The second course sexual violence, in schools that receive ods, Title IX should require an equita- would allow students to choose from a federal funds. Over the years, various ble restorative justice approach as an range of university-offered courses that documents have attempted to clarify its initial step to addressing cases of cam- address other types of violence, such as meaning including the 2001 “Revised pus sexual violence before any punitive school mass shootings, to help students Sexual Harassment Guidance” and measures are pursued. A restorative see how conditions which cause one WWW.CSW.UCLA.EDU CSW Policy Brief 27 RETHINKING POLICY ON GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND WOMEN’S ISSUES type of violence undergird other forms 4. David Cantor, et al, Report on the AAU Guidance: Harassment of Students By School of violence. Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault Employees, Other Students of Third Par- and Sexual Misconduct (Rockville: Westat, ties: Title IX,” January, 2001, https://www2. 2015): 288, https://www.aau.edu/sites/de- ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/shguide. Colleges have long missed the oppor- fault/files/%40%20Files/Climate%20Survey/ pdf; Ali Russlynn, Dear Colleague Letter from tunity to offer students much needed AAU_Campus_Climate_Survey_12_14_15. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, April 4, healing from violence. Restorative jus- pdf. 2011, https://www2.ed.gov/print/about/of- tice must now be the fulcrum of any fices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201104.html; plan for addressing issues of campus 5. Musu-Gillette et al., Indicators of School Catherine Lhamon, Dear Colleague Letter on Crime and Safety. Much of the spike in the Title IX Coordinators, April 24, 2015, https:// sexual violence. number of sexual violence incidents could be www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/ attributed to the rise in the reporting of cases colleague-201504-title-ix-coordinators.pdf. Domale Dube Keys is a of sexual violence. student at the UCLA Grad- 15. Lhamon, Dear Colleague Letter on Title IX uate School of Education and 6. Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class (New Coordinators. York: Vintage Books, 1983). Information Studies with a 16. U.S. Department of Education Office focus on women’s nonviolent 7. Diane Cyr Carmody and Lekeshia M. Wash- for Civil Rights, “Revised Sexual Harassment action and transformative cur- ington, “Rape Myth Acceptance Among Col- Guidance.” riculum in higher education. After receiving a lege Women: The Impact of Race and Prior Master’s in Education in Teaching and Cur- Victimization,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 17.