How money factors into campus rape cases

Wendy Murphy, adjunct faculty member teaching sexual violence law at New England Law in Boston, told Daily Circuit host Keri Miller this morning why universities seem to be sweeping campus rape cases under the rug:

"Higher education is very concerned about bad press, because they think if parents hear that there are rapes at a particular university, they're not going to send their child there -- along with the $50,000 in tuition, by the way. So they don't want the attention. ... In addition, if they punish the perpetrators, if they make rape unforgivable, and they have a zero-tolerance policy, they're going to have to get rid of the bad guys. And there are huge numbers -- huge numbers of not only bad guys, but predatory repeat offenders on campuses. It scares parents to hear that. But the truth is, if they get rid of the (student) bad guys, that costs them $50,000 a year. And I'm generalizing, obviously.  ... If they kick out the bad guys, they lose (those) tuition dollars. Often these are legacy students, or guys from influential families -- the ones who get the particularly good treatment from schools, and so they're protecting not only tuition dollars, but donations over the years and so forth. It's a pretty horrible situation."

Read some background information and listen to the full discussion here.

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