NEWSWEEK: Campus Programs Cause Rapes; Are Colleges Liable?

WASHINGTON - June 12, 2018 - PRLog -- Newsweek has just reported that "College Rape Prevention Programs Are Making Problem Worse, Study Finds," citing a study which shows that such programs prevent few if any campus rapes, but rather increase them by provoking sexually aggressive males to rape classmates.

        This so-called "boomerang effect" is caused by "reactance theory" under which "sexually aggressive men may respond badly to messages promoting gender equality or anti-violence."  That helps explain, the authors say, why "men who scored highly in hostile sexist attitudes became more aggressive towards women after reading messages promoting gender equality."

        This new study, combined with another one, could provide the basis for a law suit by women raped on the overwhelming majority of college campuses which have programs which promote rather that reduce rapes, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf.  The earlier study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, highlighted a program which reduced campus rapes by almost 50%.

        Banzhaf's proposals for dealing with campus rapes have been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, U.S. News, Washington Examiner, National Public Radio, New York Times, Inside Higher Ed, and in other respected media outlets, and one was singled out for praise by Education Secretary Betsy Devos in connection with reforming the current system for dealing with sexual assaults on campus.

        Banzhaf is also widely credited with developing novel and successful new legal theories.  He has been called "The Law Professor Who Masterminded Litigation Against the Tobacco Industry" and "a Major Crusader Against Big Tobacco and Now Among Those Targeting the Food Industry."

        He persuaded the Supreme Court to grant legal standing to groups seeking to protect the national environment, forced Agnew to return the money he had taken in bribes, got the first Black reporters on television, and won over $12 million from McDonald's for failing to disclose the fat in its french fries.

        If a university puts on programs aimed at preventing rapes, knowing that they are probably ineffective, and may in fact increase rapes, while a very effective alternative exists, then they are the cause in both a moral and legal sense of almost half the rapes which occur on their campus, suggests Banzhaf.

        It's the same as if a doctor, asked to prescribe a pill to prevent a serious contagious disease, prescribes one he knows is probably ineffective or may even cause the disease, all the while failing to even tell the patient that a much more effective pill exists.  That would of course be a clear case of malpractice, and the physician would probably be legally liable if the patient subsequently contracted the disease.

        Perhaps, similarly, colleges which deliberately put on rape prevention programs which are probably ineffective and may indeed actually cause more rapes, and fail to offer one which has been proven to be dramatically effective, should be sued by the students who are subsequently raped, suggests Banzhaf.

        These feel-good rape reduction programs are doing more harm that good, and will probably continue to do so on most college campuses unless the victims start suing them, argues Banzhaf.

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH),
2000 H Street, NW, Wash, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/ jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com  @profbanzhaf