To Tackle Sexual Assault Cases, Colleges Enlist Investigators-For-Hire
As colleges continue to scramble under federal pressure to overhaul how they handle cases of sexual assault, the list of schools under investigation for botching cases continues to grow.
That's left some wondering if campuses will ever get it right, or if they might be better off leaving the job to others.
A growing number of campuses already have made the choice to do just that: Rather than try to train their provosts and professors to act like prosecutors, they're outsourcing the job to real ones instead.
Djuna Perkins is a former prosecutor who is now an investigator-for-hire focusing on sexual assault. Her office, just outside Boston, is lined with college pennants from a growing list of Massachusetts schools that are her clients: Amherst, Brandeis, Bentley, Harvard, Tufts, Williams, Emerson and more.
"The phone starts ringing, you know, the first day after Labor Day, and I sort of joke that I'm like legal 911," Perkins says. The schools are "stressed like you cannot believe," she says. They would rather have someone else handle the investigations, she adds, "because they, at a certain point, might feel a little bit out of their element."
In the past year, Perkins has hired three more staff members to keep up with all the work.
Delicate Questions And 'Tough Calls'
One case she's working on is especially tricky: A male student was accused by a bystander of sexually assaulting two women. The two women don't want to talk, so Perkins has to piece together what happened from surveillance video and other witnesses.
She says she knows better than to read too much into an alleged victim's reluctance to talk. Experience has taught her these things are complicated.
For example, Perkins says, take the case of a student who says she was raped, but the guy says it was consensual — and can prove that she asked him to wear a condom.
"Some people might say, 'well, that's consent right there, right?' But I don't necessarily think that's true," Perkins says. "Because many of those [alleged victims] would say, 'I just knew it was gonna happen — and so, you know, I don't want to get any STDs.' So there may be explanations."
In order to determine if there really was consent, Perkins must delicately press each of the students for the most minute details of the encounter.
"They can be really tough calls," she says. "I just do the best I can to kind of parse it out as much as possible."
That means asking questions like, "Well, when you did this particular thing was she making pleasurable moans? Was she lifting her pelvis to get clothes off?"
"That all sort of goes into the mix," Perkins explains.
An Outside Investigator, A Consortium, Or The Courts?
The work is not for the faint of heart. Behind her desk, amid the law books and case binders, are two Barbie dolls — one dressed in a grey tweed suit and pumps, the other in black fishnet stockings, thigh-high boots and a leather jacket.
Perkins says you have to be able laugh a little in a job as intense as this one, but the latter doll is also a nod to the challenge and complexity of these cases. Perkins has had several cases that involved S&M that was at least initially consensual; she says it takes a lot of experience and training to remain consistently fair and nonjudgmental.
" 'Cause my real reaction when students are talking about stuff like that — I'm like, 'oh my God, these kids, what are they doing?' " Perkins says with a laugh.
Hiring an outside professional like Perkins also can help colleges address questions of bias. John Banzhaf, a George Washington University law professor, says schools who use their own staff to decide these cases always will be suspect.
He says it's only slightly better when cases are decided by outside investigators who are hired by schools. An even better idea, Banzhaff says, would be to create a totally independent consortium of professionals to both investigate and judge cases.
Under such a program, he says, "there can be no thought that favoritism is being given because someone is a big athlete or that daddy's a big donor, and the standards will be the same across the board — to me it's a win-win-win for everybody."
Or, Banzhaf suggests, campus sexual assault could just be handled by the courts, either criminal or civil. He's one of many who question why schools are the ones investigating these crimes in the first place.
"The shortest and most glib answer to that is because campuses have to," both legally and morally, says Meg Bossong, director of sexual assault prevention and response at Williams College.
There are things survivors need that only campuses can offer, she says. For example, "the assurance that, you know, you're never going to have to sit in a senior seminar, you're never going to find yourself living on the same floor [with an alleged assailant]. And the criminal system is not designed to provide that."
A Tension Between Campus Efforts And Law Enforcement
Leora Joseph, a sex crimes prosecutor in Denver, agrees that schools' efforts should complement the criminal system, and that it's important for campuses to punish misconduct that prosecutors would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, or that might not rise to the level of a felony.
"Just because someone did not commit a crime, it doesn't mean they shouldn't be forced to suffer some consequences for their bad behavior," she says.
But campuses and prosecutors also can get in each other's way, Joseph says. When students face criminal charges, they usually stop talking to their school's investigators. And when schools go first, Joseph says, it can really muck things up for prosecutors.
"You've lost the element of surprise, you may have lost forensic evidence and physical evidence, and you cant unring a bell. That can forever damage law enforcement's ability to do their job," she says.
Joseph says better coordination is needed to keep the door open for criminal prosecution. Victims often change their minds, even after initially declining to press charges.
That happened to one student, who says she was raped just before graduation a year ago, but wanted nothing to do with the criminal justice system after undergoing a forensic exam she found traumatizing. She did not want to be identified to protect her privacy, and NPR does not name victims of sexual assault without their consent.
"I just had my body, like, turned into a crime scene, is what it felt like," she says. "I was very ... overwhelmed with everything."
The student did press her case on campus, and the assailant was expelled. But when she found out he enrolled in another school, she decided to take her case to court — where a tougher punishment, including jail, would be an option.
"It's hard to go through all that, but I don't want anyone to experience what I did, and there's nothing stopping him from doing that to someone else," she says.
It's why the criminal justice system should be getting the same scrutiny as colleges are, she says; victims need for both options to work. And there's a limit to what colleges can do, she says, no matter how great their new policies are.
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Transcript
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
Colleges are scrambling under federal pressure to overhaul how they handle cases of sexual assault and as that's happening, the list of schools under investigation for botching such cases keeps growing. It's left some to wonder if campuses will ever be able to get it right or if they might be better off leaving the job to others. As NPR's Tovia Smith reports, some colleges are already making that shift.
TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: It's become pretty clear that schools are not exactly quick studies when it comes to handling cases of sexual assault so now a growing number of campuses are coming to see it as a no-brainer; rather than try to train their provosts and professors to act like prosecutors, they're outsourcing the job to real ones instead.
DJUNA PERKINS: The phone starts ringing, you know, the first day after Labor Day. I'm like - I sort of joke that I'm like, legal 911.
SMITH: Djuna Perkins is a former prosecutor-turned sexual assault investigator for hire. Her office, just outside Boston, is lined with college pennants from her growing list of clients.
You've got Amherst, Brandeis, Bentley, Harvard, Tufts, Williams, Emerson.
PERKINS: Yeah, a lot.
SMITH: So they've all decided they're calling in the professionals.
PERKINS: Yeah, I mean, many of the people that I work with at these colleges are stressed like you cannot believe. They would rather have somebody else do it besides them because they, at a certain point, might feel a little bit out of their element.
(KNOCKING)
PERKINS: Oh, that might be one of my people.
Come on in. Hello.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Hi, hello.
PERKINS: Come in, Karen. How are you doing?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Good. How are you?
SMITH: Perkins has hired three more staff in the past year to keep up with the work.
PERKINS: So let's see so I know a couple of cases that we need to start getting report-ready.
SMITH: One is especially tricky - a male student was accused of sexually assaulting two women by a bystander. The two women don't want to talk so Perkins has to piece together what happened from surveillance video and other witnesses. She says she knows better than to read too much into an alleged victim's reluctance to talk. Experience has taught her these things are complicated. For example, Perkins says, take the case of a student who says she was raped but the guy says it was consensual and can prove that she asked him to wear a condom.
PERKINS: You know, some people might say well, that's consent there, right? But I don't necessarily think that's true because many of those reporting students would say, I just knew it was going to happen and so, you know, I don't want to get any STDs. So there may be explanations.
SMITH: In order to determine if there really was consent, Perkins must delicately press each of the students for the most minute details of the encounter.
PERKINS: They can be really tough calls but, you know, I just do the best I can to kind of parse it out as much as possible - well, when you did this particular thing was she making pleasurable moans? Was she lifting her pelvis to get clothes off?
You know, this all sort of goes into the mix.
SMITH: The job is not for the faint of heart. Behind Perkins' desk amid the law books and case binders are two Barbie dolls, one dressed in a gray tweed suit and pumps, the other and black fishnet stockings, thigh-high boots and a leather jacket.
PERKINS: I was like oh, my God, this is awesome, I'm getting the S and M one (laughter).
SMITH: You have to be able to laugh, Perkins says, in a job as intense as this. She's had several cases of S and M that was at least initially consensual and she says it takes a lot of experience and training to always remain fair and non-judgmental.
PERKINS: You know, 'cause my real reaction when students are talking about stuff like that, I'm like, oh, my God, these kids - what are they doing (laughter)?
SMITH: Hiring an outside professional like Perkins can also help colleges address questions of bias. George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf says schools who use their own staff to decide these cases will always be suspect. He says it's better, but only slightly, when cases are decided by outside investigators who are hired by schools. A better idea, Banzhaf says, would be to create a totally independent consortium of professionals to both investigate and judge cases.
JOHN BANZHAF: There can be no thought that favoritism is being given because somebody's an athlete or daddy's a big donor and the standards will be the same across the board. To me, it's a win-win-win for everybody.
SMITH: Or, Banzhaf suggests campus sexual assault could just be handled by the courts - either criminal or civil. He questions why schools are the ones investigating these crimes in the first place.
MEG BOSSONG: The shortest and most glib answer to that is because campuses have to.
SMITH: Both legally and morally, says Meg Bossong, director of Sexual Prevention and Response at Williams College. She says there are things survivors need that only campuses can offer.
BOSSONG: The assurance that, you know, you're never going to have to sit in a senior seminar, you're never going to find yourself living on the same floor and the criminal system is not designed to provide that.
SMITH: Schools complement the criminal system, Bossong says. Leora Joseph, a sex crimes prosecutor in Denver, agrees. She says it's important for campuses to punish misconduct that prosecutors could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt or that might not rise to the level of a felony.
LEORA JOSEPH: Just because someone did not commit a crime, it doesn't mean that they shouldn't be forced to suffer some consequences for their bad behavior.
SMITH: But, Joseph says, campuses and prosecutors can also get in each other's way. When students face criminal charges, they usually stop talking to their school investigators and when schools go first, Joseph says, it can really muck things up for prosecutors.
JOSEPH: You've lost the element of surprise. You may have lost forensic evidence and physical evidence and you can't un-ring a bell. That can forever damage law enforcement's ability to do their job.
SMITH: Joseph says better coordination is needed to keep the door open for criminal prosecution. Victims often change their minds, even after initially declining to press charges. It happened to this woman, who says she was raped just before graduation a year ago but wanted nothing to do with the criminal justice system after a forensic exam she found traumatizing.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: I just had my body like, turned into a crime scene is what it felt like. I was very overwhelmed with everything.
SMITH: This woman asked for anonymity to protect her privacy and NPR does not name victims of sexual assault without their consent. She did press her case on campus and the assailant was expelled, but when she found out he enrolled in another school, she decided she did want to take her case to court where a tougher punishment including jail would be an option.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: It's hard to go through all of that, but I don't want anyone to experience what I did and there's nothing stopping him from doing that to someone else.
SMITH: It's why the criminal justice system should be getting the same scrutiny as colleges are, she says. Victims need both options to work. There's a limit to what colleges can do, she says, no matter how great their new policies are.
Tovia Smith, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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