Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2015

Publication Title

Harvard Journal of Law and Gender

Publication Title (Abbreviation)

Harv. J.L. & Gender

Volume

38

Issue

2

First Page

337

Last Page

372

Abstract

The federal government has taken a range of measures to combat the scourge of sexual assault afflicting college campuses across the nation. Whatever the efficacy of these policies, however, they fail to address a major obstacle to curbing sexual violence on campus: the chronically low rate of reporting of this crime to police. Research on crime data has produced evidence that as female representation among police officers increases, more crimes against women are reported. Yet, most university campus law enforcement agencies-tasked with taking a “central role” in combatting sexual assault-include strikingly few female officers. This Article proposes an increase in women's representation in campus police agencies to foster more reporting by victims and argues that schools failing to demonstrate consistent, ongoing, and genuine efforts to hire female officers are contributing to a hostile environment for complainants in Title IX litigation.

Rights

© 2015 Nat Stern and Karen Oehme

Comments

First published in Harvard Journal of Law and Gender.

Faculty Biography

http://www.law.fsu.edu/our-faculty/profiles/stern

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