Why are colleges & universities allowed to judge rape accusations?

The criminal justice system notoriously fails rape survivors: police disbelieve victims, prosecutors refuse to take on the majority of cases because they lack witnesses, the standard of proof is impossibly high and juries buy into the rape myths that saturate our society and acquit perpetrators. In the end, only three out of every 100 rapists ever spend even a day in prison. Further, for survivors on college campuses in particular, the criminal justice system’s lengthy two- to three-year pretrial process is intolerable, since it forces victims to see their rapists every day on campus — in the library, across the quad, at parties, at breakfast — until their cases are resolved. For survivors who share friend groups with their attackers, the threat of retaliation and social isolation adds an additional discouragement from pursuing criminal charges.

In contrast, the college disciplinary system offers survivors a shorter process and quicker remedy, one that is especially designed to protect their Title IX right to a safe educational environment. Indeed, colleges’ responsibilities to adjudicate cases of sexual violence in the first place arise out of Title IX’s prohibition against sex-based discrimination in education. Subsequent rulings and Department of Education guidance have established colleges’ obligations to investigate cases of sexual violence promptly, adjudicate cases based on a preponderance of evidence standard rather than the higher standard required in criminal proceedings, and provide victims immediate remedies such as alternate housing, class and employment arrangements.

Unfortunately, too many colleges today are lagging behind, failing to comply with the most recent Title IX guidance. Most sexual misconduct disciplinary processes require significant but easily implementable reforms, such as placement of experienced, trained individuals on the disciplinary committees that hear and decide cases; education of faculty and staff about their legal responsibilities under Title IX; and sanctioning of perpetrators appropriate to the severity of rape as a crime and the reality that nine out of 10 campus rapes are perpetrated by repeat offenders.

The two processes are not mutually exclusive: survivors can take action through both their college disciplinary systems and the criminal justice system and, indeed, colleges should inform and educate them about their right to do so. Yet the increasingly popular demand that colleges be required to turn adjudication over to the courts, regardless of survivors’ wishes to the contrary, is disempowering, forcing survivors to participate in a process they may not want. Such a move would discourage many from reporting their rapes to college officials in the first place, and thus prevent them from obtaining the support they so desperately need in order to enjoy their legal right to equal education. 
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/03/12/why-should-colleges-judge-rape-accusations/

Many crimes secret in Ohio college towns:

They line up every Thursday in Area I Court in Oxford, fresh-faced and chatty. Shoulders sag under the weight of backpacks stuffed with laptops, books and classwork from Miami University. More than likely, they’ve been caught drinking underage or were charged over the previous weekend with petty crimes such as disorderly conduct.

By the time they appear before Judge Rob Lyons on a date down the road, if a long-running trend holds true, 40 percent of them will walk out with a criminal record that’s sealed from public sight.
Judges in other small Ohio college towns seal criminal records, too, though not to the extent of Lyons, who presides over the smallest court among them. Lyons, The Enquirer reported last month, sealed 2,945 misdemeanor cases in the past five years.

An Enquirer analysis of court records in several Ohio college towns shows an unusually high number of cases being sealed compared with courts in large metro areas where a college is just one thread in the overall fabric of the community.

The Enquirer’s analysis compared the number of sealed misdemeanor cases in each court in 2012 with the number of misdemeanor cases completed last year.

Christo Lassiter, a law professor at the University of Cincinnati, questions whether students in towns dominated by a college are getting preferential treatment or are they just working the system. “To some extent, Miami students have a pipeline. You find out what works and you do it. They’ve figured it out,” Lassiter said. “It could be just the pipeline, or it could be the fact that these people do have the money to go to a lawyer.”

In Bowling Green Municipal Court, one in six misdemeanor cases is sealed. At municipal court in Athens County – the home of Ohio University – a third of the cases are kept secret. In the Portage County Municipal Court, where Kent State University sits, 22 percent of the misdemeanor cases were sealed last year. http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130311/NEWS010702/303110032/Many-crimes-secret-small-Ohio-college-towns-Oxford-leads-way?gcheck=1