Sexual violence and collegiate athletics: US federal law, adjudication and the media spotlight
| Published date | 12 March 2018 |
| Date | 12 March 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRPP-07-2017-0023 |
| Pages | 30-45 |
| Author | Theresa Walton-Fisette |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology |
Sexual violence and collegiate athletics:
US federal law, adjudication and the
media spotlight
Theresa Walton-Fisette
Abstract
Purpose –In order to understand how collegiate athletics fits within the wider problem of sexual violence on
college campuses, the purpose of this paper is to start with an examination of the overall scope of the issue of
sexual violence in the USA and the larger culture that produces it. Next, the relevant laws and adjudication of
sexual violence operant in American colleges are outlined. Finally, college athletics is placed into this bigger
context by highlighting a number of particular cases to illustratea broader understanding of collegiate athletes
involved in sexual violence.
Design/methodology/approach –The author examines the history of rape laws and adjudication and the
federal laws relevant to institutions of higher education. The author investigates the debate over adjudication
of sexual violence within the criminal justice system or through campus systems. The author read previous
literature to determine links between sexual violence and collegiate athletes and highlights particular cases
that have gotten significant media attention for clues to the rape prone culture that can be fostered within
collegiate athletics.
Findings –This analysis highlights how collegiate athletics can be a context that createsa rape prone culture
and that universities and the criminal justice system need further reform to overcome long-standing beliefs in
rape myths which perpetuate sexual violence, discourage reporting by victims of sexual violence, deter
bystander intervention and underplay the impact of sexual violence on victims. Thus, structural changes are
needed within collegiate athletic cultures as well as on college campuses to address sexual violence.
Practical implications –College campuses and athletic departments must address climates that create
rape prone cultures. There remains a need for systematic data collection of perpetrators of sexual violence,
along side data collection of experiences of sexual violence. College campuses and athletic departments
must have in place procedures and policy that adhere to federal law, whereby athletes are not treated
differently from non-athletes and victims are offered appropriate services that recognize the trauma of sexual
violence. Further progress toward a standard of affirmative consent is needed to move toward greater sexual
autonomy for everyone.
Originality/value –There is evidence that collegiate athletes are disproportionately represented among the
population of sexual violence perpetrators on college campuses.Thus, it is vital to understand this population
and that connection. The value of this work is to explicate the complicated adjudication process between
university disciplinary processes and the criminal justice system.
Keywords Title IX, Clery Act, Rape law history, Sexual violence adjudication,
Sexual violence and collegiate athletes, US collegiate athletics
Paper type Conceptual paper
On July 12, 2017, the New York Times reported that the US Department of Education’s Office for
Civil Rights (OCR) Secretary, Candice Jackson, had commented that 90 percent of sexual
assault cases on college campuses “fall into the category of ‘we were both drunk,’‘we broke up,
and six months later I found myself under Title IX investigation because she just decided that our
last sleeping together was not quite right’” (Green and Stolberg, 2017, para. 10). She said this in
support of the Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’plan to de-emphasize Title IX
investigations regarding sexual assaults. Given that Jackson was appointed to the position in
April 2017, just a short time before making this statement, it is clear she spoke from the myths
surrounding rape, rather than from the facts of the 496 open cases which she was tasked with
Theresa Walton-Fisette is a
Professor at the Kent State
University, Kent, Ohio, USA.
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VOL. 4 NO. 1 2018, pp.30-45, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2056-3841 DOI 10.1108/JCRPP-07-2017-0023
overseeing. It is fair to assume that sexual assault survivors do not find comfort in her callous
trivialization of their potentially traumatic experiences. However, as remarkable as it is for
someone in her position to make such a statement, her words are not surprising as they reveal
long-standing, long-accepted beliefs and cultural doubts about sexual assault. These beliefs and
doubts scaffold and perpetuate the rape myths that work to support rape culture, more generally,
and specific to this paper, within collegiate athletic departments in the US context.
In order to understand how collegiate athletics fits within the wider problem of sexual violence on
college campuses, I will first take accounting of the overall scope of the issue of sexual violence
and the larger culture that produces it. Next, I will examine the relevant laws and adjudication of
sexual violence in the collegiate context. Finally, I will place college athletics into this bigger
context by highlighting a number of particular cases to illustrate a broader understanding of
collegiate athletes involved in sexual violence.
Sexual violence: prevalence and impact
First, statistics on the prevalence of sexual violence are difficult to ascertain, due to a number of
factors, including differing definitions of sexual violence, differing reporting methods and data
gathering and the under reporting of sexual violence by those victimized (see, e.g., Fedina et al.,
2018; National Research Council, 2014). According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National
Network (RAINN), while sexual assault rates in the USA have fallen by nearly half since 1994,
statistics gathered by the US Department of Justice through their National Crime Victimization
Survey, indicate that 1 in 6 women have been the victims of completed (14.8 percent) or
attempted rapes (2.8 percent), while 1 in 33 men are victims of completed or attempted rapes[1].
Furthermore, 1 in 9 girls under the age of 18 are rape and sexual assault victims, as are 1 in
53 boys. Besides the alarmingly high rates, important to understanding sexual assault on college
campuses, females in the age range of 16-19 are four times more likely to be victims of rape,
attempted rape or sexual assault than the general population. Thus, women in their first two years
of college are in a particularly high-risk category relative to sexual assault. Indeed, research on
campus sexual assaults finds that somewhere between 1 in 4 and 1 and 5 women are sexually
assaulted during their time as students (RAINN). Further, in a thorough examination prompted by
concerns that the National Crime Victimization study undercounted the prevalence of sexual
violence, the National Research Council (2014) concluded that there was not yet a definitive
source for sexual violence data.
Even with the most conservative estimates of prevalence, the numbers indicate a serious
systematic social problem. Yet, according to the Department of Justice data, only 20 percent of
victims of rape or sexual assault on college campuses report these crimes (Sinozich and Langton,
2014). Thus, many colleges do not have an accurate sense of the scope of the problem on their
campuses. A report by the US Senate Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight,
commissioned by US Senator Claire McCaskill (Democrat: Missouri), advises colleges to conduct
regular climate surveys of their students, including questions about rape and sexual assault.
Yet, the report found that only 16 percent of US colleges conduct such surveys (United States
Senate, 2014). Ideally, part of that survey of campus climate would also address collecting
information on perpetrators of sexual violence on campus. While students are sometimes
surveyed about their experiences of sexual violence, it is rare to ask students about their
perpetration of such violence. While there is an active research agenda on perpetrators of sexual
violence, a review of college sexual assault literature from 1950 to 2015 by McDermott et al.
(2015) found very few large scale, representative surveys of perpetration by college students and
none that had been conducted on a regular basis. Moreover, much of the research done
assumes men as perpetrators and women as victims. More complex studies of perpetrators tend
to be smaller convenience samples, primarily from within psychology (McDermott et al., 2015).
This leaves an important gap in our understanding of the problem, particularly of understanding
populations which are most likely to be sexually violent and therefore of ways to address that
violence where it originates.
For survivors of sexual assault, the experience of sexual violence can have long-term impacts on
every aspect of their lives: their mental health (e.g. depression, post-traumatic stress disorder),
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