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More Title IV Problems

9/24/2015

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We covered some of the rather unbelievable problems caused by the Obama administrations 2011 "letter of guidance" to universities threatening them with legal and financial penalties if they didn't make it easier to dispose of individuals alleged to have committed sexual assault.  The drama, unfortunately, continues.

Let's first be very clear:  Sexual assault is serious and those who are guilty should be jailed. We have zero mercy for people who commit rape or who drug others to have sex with them.  Such behaviour is criminal and should be adjudicated by our criminal justice system.  

But what has happened is that the "letter of guidance," which does NOT have the force of law, has created a system where basic due process obligations are summarily dismissed in favour of a guilty finding. 

First, what universities define as "sexual assault" varies substantially.  It includes everything from rape to grinding with someone on the dance floor.

Second, the system universities created is patently unfair.  Those accused of this behaviour have no right to confront their accuser, no right to cross examine, and no right to counsel.  They are at the mercy of people who do not have their best interest at heart.

Third, the people who officiate these cases are hardly unbiased or independent.  They are "trained" in sexual assault, trauma, and "women's issues."  There is zero accountability.  Zero.

Fourth, even exculpatory evidence no longer matters.  Yes, even exculpatory evidence no longer matters.

Finally, the penalty is serious and sometimes prevents individuals from entering other colleges.  They are permanently stigmatised......even if innocent.

It is hard to believe that such a system exists in America and even more difficult to believe that such a system exists on our vaunted campuses.  Individuals in the military, who are subject to the UCMJ, have more rights and due process protections.....and trust me, you do not want to be subject to a court martial.  

These things are going on across campuses.  Where are the protests?  Where is the concern for justice, fairness, and due process?  Where are all the liberals who preach these tenants in their classes and in their writings?  Where are they?  Injustice occurs in their own back yard and they look away.  And where is the ACJS and the ASC?  Total silence.  Total acquiescence.  .  

Below is a link to a lawsuit filed by a student convicted of sexual assault at UC.  UC has a couple of these lawsuits pending.  I've dealt with the folks in judicial affairs on several occasions.  Let's just say they should never have been given this power.  EVER.  They cannot adjudicate student cheating effectively or fairly and their treatment of athletes has been, well, highly questionable.  

I want to close by expanding this debate a bit.  The "letter" from DOE was issued by a handful of lawyers in their civil rights division.  Think about this: A handful of unelected and unaccountable individuals, individuals with strong biases on certain subjects, dictate the terms of justice across campuses.  There was no  period of public vetting, discourse, or consultation.  None.  They simply crafted a 60+ page document threatening campuses with loss of federal funds or with DOJ investigations and poof......campus administrators and presidents fell in line.  If you want to know how injustice occurs..........look no further.  Compliance to authority through threat or force coupled with the silence of others.....and game over.  Burke, the father of conservatism, said long ago that evil will exist when good men (and women) stay silent.

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/24345/

http://www.avoiceformalestudents.com/list-of-lawsuits-against-colleges-and-universities-alleging-due-process-violations-in-adjudicating-sexual-assault/



http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/courts/2015/09/17/uc-sexual-assault-lawsuit/32560145/

http://www.saveservices.org/wp-content/uploads/Campus-Sexual-Assault-Lawsuits.pdf


http://www.cotwa.info

JPW




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Summed Up Well...........

9/20/2015

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Picture
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Micro-Aggressions, Morality, and STFU

9/18/2015

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Efforts to control language are closely coupled to efforts to control ideas.  This is why we detest PC.  However, a new reason has emerged to control not only language but also the various types of non-verbal signals we send to people.  Raise and eyebrow when a student says something completely off the wall and you could be guilty of a dreaded "micro-aggression."  Don't pay adequate enough attention to something your college says in a faculty meeting---micro-agression.  Do or say anything some else doesn't like........yep, you are guilty of a micro-aggression.

Micro-aggressions represent, at least to us and to some others, as another mechanism the academic left has created to control people.  This time, however, it's not just to control ideas but to protect people from perceived slights, harsh criticism, or emotional discomfort.    

In a recent paper, "Microagression and Moral Culture," sociologists Campbell and Manning add some insight into the development and understanding of the terror of being micro-aggressed.  The paper was picked up by Haidt and has been discussed in other outlets.

We see the rise of micro-aggressions as an extension to the elevations of feelings and emotions over reason.  Emotional life is complex, to be sure, but emotions are no substitute for honest and frank discussions rooted in facts and science.  

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-09-11/how-grown-ups-deal-with-microaggressions-

http://righteousmind.com/where-microaggressions-really-come-from/


http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of-victimhood-culture/404794/


http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/09/microaggression-complaints-and-victimhood.html#


JPW
​
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“Tolerance Trumps Everything......."

9/15/2015

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The link below will take you to the University of California’s document on “tolerance.”  The document will be debated soon.  Read it for yourself and then ask yourself if this is a good idea.  What are the consequences?  What happens if you discuss group differences in criminal behavior.........or sex differences in strength......or one of a variety of issues where differences matter.  

Also, recall our earlier post about “coddling students.”  I guess we need to extend that to faculty as well.  

Efforts to control speech are always clocked in good intentions--ALWAYS.
  
http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/sept15/e4.pdf    JPW
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We Told You So......

9/15/2015

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In a recent “letter to the Editor” published in The Criminologist, Michael Fox stated that:

   "Further, while allowing academic freedom on the issue, those who support capital      punishment should not receive official awards or honors from the society, which has occurred in the past.”

Obviously we disagree and note that several econometric studies do find a deterrent effect of capital punishment.  But this is not really the issue.  We believe this viewpoint highlights the penchant for those engaged in social advocacy to want to control not only  the disciplinary rewards structure but the science behind certain issues..  Political litmus tests have no  place in the academy. 

JPW


 


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Wither the Blank Slate......Not Really

9/9/2015

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The attached paper provides some interesting evidence on the acceptance of evolutionary explanations in sociology.  Give it a read.  We said in our book that public pronouncements of Darwin evolution as “real” and “not just a theory” are often used as signals amongst liberals as to their intellectual superiority.  After all, to question evolution is to question science.....or so they say.  However, evolutionary theory makes some rather straightforward predictions about race and sex differences--predictions that conflict with standard liberal narratives about these topics.  Thus, while many on the left proudly proclaim they believe in evolution, they are loath to accept the outcomes of evolutionary processes.  

​JPW


whither_blank_slate_sociology_says_no.pdf
File Size: 163 kb
File Type: pdf
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David Foster Wallace and True Freedom

9/9/2015

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Many criminologists have likely never heard of David Foster Wallace.  He was a writer who had a gift for penetrating emotional insight.  Unfortunately, he was also a deeply troubled person, ultimately taking his own life.

His commencement speech to Kenyon College is timeless and strikes many themes.  The link below goes to his speech.  We post it here because his talk demonstrates the very human elements that overlap with conservative ideology--namely, religiosity, spirituality, and our personal responsibilities to others.  Of course, conservatives have no special claim to these issues but we do see that conservative ideology tends to readily embrace these issues at both a practical and philosophical level.  What, for example, is real freedom?  Wallace provides us an answer.  Read below:



 http://publicnoises.blogspot.com/2009/05/david-foster-wallace-kenyon.html


JPW
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On Becoming the Enemy We Fight

9/7/2015

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http://academeblog.org/2015/09/02/on-becoming-the-enemy-we-fight/




https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/09/01/washington-state-u-disavows-syllabus-ban-certain-words










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New Atlantic Article Making a Splash

9/5/2015

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Does coddling college students make them immature and not prepare them for the hardships of criticism?  Well, take a look at this:  


http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/greg-lukianoffs-story/399359/


Bloom wrote an influential book in the mid 1980's called "The Closing of the American Mind."   We cite it in our book.  Bloom was worried about the growing menace of postmodern language and theory in the arts/humanities.  Looking at Bloom today, we think he didn't go far enough.


The authors of the Atlantic peice make some interesting points and call into question the wisdom of treating college students as precious cargo.  Part of the college experience is finding out you really don't know that much.  

​JPW 

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Pissing Off Some Europeans......

9/5/2015

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Somehow I (Wright) was asked to give a keynote address at the recent European Criminology meeting in Porto, Portugal.  Let me say that I met some wonderful people--people also concerned about the intolerance of many criminologists towards biosocial criminology and people concerned about the illiberal actions of many criminological scholars.  When you pry open the curtain, you tend to find that many others are actually concerned with the continued encroachment of political advocacy into the discipline.  

So, my talk was about how biosocial criminology could pull us away from political advocacy, how it could correct prior mistakes, and how it could lead us towards a more useful scientific framework.

It went over like a lead balloon.  Part of it was my fault.  I didn't sleep for about 36 hours prior to my talk, my computer kept moving my paper upwards instead of downwards, and my allergies made it so my voice was about shot by the end of the presentation.  Like I said, my fault.

Even so, I was told by some members of the audience that my talk was "brave," that there was much "hate" in the room, and that some in the audience were a bit pissed.  I'll post my talk later but it hits home the  points that we cannot ignore science because it violates our moral and political precepts.  Genes affect our behaviour and every bit of evidence shows this.  To deny it is to deny science. Period.

But a lot of criminologists, especially those who call themselves "radical," willingly ignore science.  When the find something they don't like, they just ignore it or they attack the scientist.  Ask our friend Simon Cole who had these words to say about biosocial criminology:

https://books.google.es/books?id=7sp8VSPZhegC&pg=PA164&lpg=PA164&dq=simon+cole+biosocial+criminology&source=bl&ots=GuIdKSp5u0&sig=SgKjd7Pe_hvv9LEVDkRaBCNT1SI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAGoVChMIwvaW5abhxwIVBbQUCh1GJwIy#v=onepage&q=simon%20cole%20biosocial%20criminology&f=false

and these:




http://www.geneticsandsociety.org/article.php?id=4713



Honestly, we have no idea what the hell he is talking about but it gives you a clue as to what this viewpoint--a viewpoint shared widely in our discipline--sounds like.


Later in the meeting some of the panelists called my work "dangerous," and they made some pretty snide comments about some other scholars who are trained in the hard sciences.  

It's funny that critical criminologists think our work is dangerous and invoke the spectre of a 19th Century Italian anthropologist as evidence but cannot, in turn, see how the work of Marx/Engels and the rest of those tyrants helped to murder 200 million people and to enslave 1/2 the world.  I guess when you have the luxury of making up words you also have the luxury of accepting whatever version of history you desire too.

​JPW   

    
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    John Paul Wright and Matt DeLisi

    Professors of Crime and Criminology

    **Views expressed on this blog are ours alone and do not reflect the official views of our respective institutions.

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