Universities ignore facts on sex assaults

Most women are attacked by men they know, not strangers, Sapir Negrin writes.

“Zero per cent of the people who violate you will be held accountable.”

This is the disheartening conclusion that Ellie Ade Kur, founder of Silence is Violence at the University of Toronto, reached when looking at the numbers. Over the course of last year, the Sexual Harassment Office at the University of Toronto received 137 complaints. Not one resulted in a suspension, expulsion or criminal conviction.

The news is spinning with revelations that Canadian university sexual-assault policies (if they exist) are not nearly adequately equipped to assist victims when they come forward with allegations of sexual assault. In one recent example, an investigation into an allegation of sexual harassment by a professor of a Brock University student was found to be conclusive, yet the university informed the student she was not to tell anyone about what happened.

She would also not be made aware of any actions taken against the professor.

Of all ages and genders, female students attending university are overwhelmingly the ones at the greatest risk of being sexually assaulted. As such, the university as an institution has a very important role in protecting, supporting and advocating for those who have been sexually assaulted.

Universities have been very vocal with broadcasting their position that sexual assault and harassment will absolutely not be tolerated. The point is that school administrations need to start thinking beyond prevention, and bring attention to action.

“A policy with no procedure in place is useless in practice,” says Caitlin Janzen, founding member of Silence is Violence at York University, who recently participated in a panel discussion on sexual assault policies across Canadian campuses.

Communicating to the public and to university communities that sexual assault will not be tolerated is necessary, but clearly something isn’t being translated down below. The problem is not that universities don’t want to help victims when they come forward with claims of sexual assault. The problem lies with a lack of evidence-based research being reflected in its policies to ensure more satisfactory procedures when it comes to assisting complainants.

If research indicated that strangers were overwhelmingly the perpetrators of sexual assault on campus, traditional university responses — promoting self-defence classes, educating students to not simply be bystanders and increasing campus security — might be sufficient. However, if research showed that women are being attacked in private by men they know, self-defence classes may prove to be wildly insufficient.

And you guessed it: For decades, research has been telling us the latter.

Recently, the University of Toronto called for nominations for experts to serve on a panel that will advise on a new policy on sexual violence as well as provide advice for the “reporting process for sexual violence cases and on the investigation, resolution, and adjudication processes for such cases.”

This panel, and all other people who will influence these policies and procedures, should use the social science evidence that exists to inform its decisions. Universities must prepare for receiving allegations from students against their floormates in residence, their fellow graduate students and their professors.

This means no more confidentiality agreements being pushed onto students by the university, and it means abandoning the current use of conflict-resolution sessions that require the complainant, respondent and a mediator to sit down in an attempt to “resolve the situation” — a process that is also used for students who cheat on exams or get into fights in their residence hallways.

The stereotype is that a woman will be attacked by a masked stranger when she is walking alone late at night. While these types of assaults certainly occur, the vast majority of sexual assaults on campus are committed by people known to the victims — classmates, friends, boyfriends, teachers.

University procedures must reflect this in order to achieve change in the right direction.