Andrew Miltenberg in Craig’s Lawyers’ Lounge discusses use of Title IX for male students falsely accused of rape on college campuses. “When I first started doing [Title IX cases] someone close to me said ‘Well, what’s the big deal? What’s the problem? A young man will go to a different school.” What we’ve learned in the last couple of years is that these implications on your record that you’ve been disciplined for sexual misconduct are career enders. They’re career enders for people who want to go into law, or law enforcement, or the military, or medicine, or government, or banking where you can expect to have a background check done. So the ramifications are significant. … [Investigators] should be investigating these things, and they should be doing it diligently. One of the problems you have now is … there is no real mechanism in place for an accused person to defend themselves. Investigators now are trained in what’s called a ‘victim trauma informed’ method of investigation, which essentially says that we have to take everything the victim says as true, and any discrepancies or facts that are hard to reconcile are due to PTSD. Even if they remember things out of order or differently, its not because they’re not credible or that they’re lying. It’s because they have been so traumatized. … One of the things that frustrates me is that you get a very divided lines here. It’s as if special interest groups on both sides have co-opted this into an all or nothing, zero sum game. You can have due process on campus, in the military, in other institutions that is diligent and effective in investigating, and takes allegations seriously, and at the same time provides and opportunity to be heard.” Just like the criminal justice system, we as Americans have confidence in that system because there are checks and balances along the way. In the University and Institutional systems there is not that same checks and balance, and there is not that same confidence.”
Listen to the full interview here: