The University of Missouri did not pursue alleged rape

[Are_grits_groceries]

The University of Missouri did not investigate or tell law enforcement officials about an alleged rape, possibly by one or more members of its football team, despite administrators finding out about the alleged 2010 incident more than a year ago, an "Outside the Lines" investigation has found. The alleged victim, a member of the swim team, committed suicide in 2011.

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For most of 2010, Missouri swimmer Sasha Menu Courey harbored a secret: She believed she'd been raped by a football player. Late that year, her life spiraling downward, Menu Courey began to share her secret with others, including a rape crisis counselor and a campus therapist, records show. In the ensuing months, a campus nurse, two doctors and, according to her journal, an athletic department administrator also learned of her claim that she had been assaulted.

Healthcare providers are generally exempt from requirements to report such crimes and also are bound by medical privacy laws. But those same protections do not extend to campus administrators, who at Missouri were made aware of claims that Menu Courey had been raped through several sources, including a 2012 newspaper article as well as the university's review of records when fulfilling separate records requests by her parents and "Outside the Lines."

Under Title IX law enforced by the U.S. Department of Education, once a school knows or reasonably should know of possible sexual violence it must take immediate and appropriate action to investigate or otherwise determine what happened. The law applies even after the death of an alleged victim. Further, the federal Clery Act requires campus officials with responsibility for student or campus activities to report serious incidents of crime to police for investigation and possible inclusion in campus crime statistics.
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Much more: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/10323102/university-missouri-officials-did-not-pursue-rape-case-lines-investigation-finds

I am effing tired of this shit! There should be a law spelling out that crimes such as this be reported immediately to the police and require gawd and everybody to do so. There should be a HUGE fine for noncompliance.
Campus cops are not trained to handle sexual assaults. There need to be veteran detectives and counselors working on these crimes and helping the victim.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

1. Should universities (or anyone?) pass on reports of rape as standard practice?

I think any report of rape against a child should be passed on to the police as a matter of course.

But a lot of rape victims choose not to go to the police, and it's not obvious to me that reports of rape against adults should be passed on without their explicit consent. I can see arguments for (more rapists get caught) but also arguments against (more victims forced to go through the process of being contacted by the police, against their will).