Legal and Political Responses to Campus Sexual Assault
Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Vol. 15, October 2019, Forthcoming
36 Pages Posted: 14 Jun 2019
Date Written: May 29, 2019
Abstract
Despite a long history of reform efforts, college students remain vulnerable to sexual harassment and assault on campus. This essay surveys that history from the 1970s to the present, including a flurry of enforcement activity under President Obama and a backlash and reversed course under Trump. Many of the systems - for example law, education, and public health - designed to ameliorate the epidemic of campus sexual assault have failed to do so. These failures have been particularly pronounced for victims who experience multiple intersecting inequalities. The resulting frustration with legal remedies through campus Title IX processes and the criminal and civil justice system has spurred a new interest in strategies to prevent sexual assault. Recent political developments, including the #MeToo movement, suggest a potential for democratic political accountability to make progress where legal reform efforts and campus prevention programming have thus far been unsuccessful.
Keywords: campus rape, sexual assault, #MeToo, Title IX, sexual harassment
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