New Expert Investigators Won’t Solve the Campus Rape Problem

New scrutiny on the prevalence of campus rape and government inquiries into how college administrators handle the problem have compelled many schools to reconsider how they respond to reports of sexual assault. Some universities have turned to hiring nonacademics to investigate rape cases, but that approach invites new concerns about who’s qualified to judge whether one student has victimized another—and what should be done about it.

Critics of the way many schools conduct rape investigations complain that professors and deans are unqualified to handle allegations sensitively or fairly. Some have allegedly discouraged victims from pursuing their cases to protect their school, or asked insensitive questions during victim interviews. In response, schools including Stanford, Harvard, the University of Southern California, Virginia Tech, Amherst College, and Brandeis University have begun to hire legal professionals whose full-time job is to adjudicate accusations of sexual misconduct.