Miltenberg: “Is there a sexual assault epidemic at US universities?,” Sky News

There is an epidemic of sexual violence on America’s college campuses, according to some researchers. It’s a notoriously hard thing to measure but one estimate suggests that as many as one in four students will be subjected to a serious sexual assault before they graduate. … At Antioch College they have long taken a radical approach to preventing sexual offences.  Here, any touch requires clear enthusiastic verbal permission, a policy called affirmative consent. … Versions of the Antioch rules have become commonplace on campuses across the country, sparking fierce debate about whether universities are going too far in their scramble to solve the problem. Lawyer Andrew Miltenberg has defended hundreds of accused young men who find themselves investigated by colleges – whether or not the police are involved. He said: “I think it’s a very dangerous time to be a young man on campus. “We are in the midst of this perfect storm, where to be accused of some sort of sexual misconduct virtually assures that you will be found responsible. It is absolutely, positively ruining people’s lives, beyond repair.” He says his clients are trapped in a shadow justice system – with no consistency at all between schools, low standards of evidence often required to make decisions, and a lack of regard for due process. “If you are found responsible, whether or not you are suspended or expelled there will be a permanent record of disciplinary and in many cases sexual misconduct on your transcript, and that transcript is a perquisite to any type of graduate school and it’s also a perquisite for any professional-type jobs. So the stakes are very high.”

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