Mandatory Reporting of Sexual Misconduct at College: A Critical Perspective

ABSTRACT

Many universities and colleges now require all “responsible employees,” including faculty, to report known or suspected sexual misconduct to designated Title IX administrators. The intention of these mandatory reporting policies is to ensure institutional accountability and compliance with Title IX’s prohibition against sexual and gender-based discrimination. Yet, critics argue that such policies are overreaching, paternalistic and, ironically, discriminatory. Drawing from prior research on sexual victimization and original exploratory data on gender-based college harassment, this article provides a critical perspective that delineates both the intended goals and unintended consequences of Title IX’s mandatory reporting policies, specifically focusing on three overlapping issues: ambiguous definitions, reporting risks, and faculty’s role in disclosure. We conclude by proposing alternative strategies for achieving Title IX’s objectives.     

Transaction Costs and the Establishment of the European Security and Defense Policy

This article explains the establishment of the European Union's Security and Defense Policy (esdp) in 1998–99 and its institutional design. I argue that both the soft balancing explanation and the “second wave” of approaches fall short. In contrast, the article shows that liberal-institutionalist thought and transaction costs economics offer a heuristically promising perspective. Most crucially, the pivotal concept of asset specificity provides explanatory leverage. The combination of risks of opportunism and the non-specificity of esdp's ultimate assets explains why and how the major European powers designed the eu's security and defense pillar in 1998–99. Empirically, I trace how the United Kingdom and France were gradually confronted with not fully credible commitments within nato for crisis management in Europe. Based primarily on the signals sent by us domestic politics, they were increasingly concerned about isolationism and questioned the American commitment to European security. Therefore, they were searching for another institutional option for providing security on a long-term basis. Although this assessment of ex post transaction costs triggered the initial establishment of esdp, ex ante transaction costs were responsible for its more specific design. Given the indirect American threat of disengagement when faced with Europe's aspirations for autonomy, esdp had to be designed in a compatible way with nato. Non-specific, and thus redeployable, military assets represented the institutional solution to the conflict between European autonomy and NATO's primacy. In other words, asset specificity as the key analytical concept of transaction costs economics is what differentiates this argument from previous accounts and provides a more comprehensive framework for understanding both the establishment and design of esdp in 1998–99.     

Too Many People and Too Few Livestock in West Africa? An Evaluation of Sandford's Thesis

We examine whether Stephen Sandford's (2006 Sandford, S. 2006b. “Too many people, too few livestock: the crisis affecting pastoralists in the Greater Horn of Africa”. Accessed at: http://www.future-agricultures.org/pdf%20files/Sandford_thesis.pdf [Google Scholar]b) ‘too many people, too few livestock’ thesis for the Greater Horn of Africa applies to West Africa. In a comparative study of seven pastoral systems across West Africa we found that pastoralists have generally successfully adapted to pressures on grazing resources. We describe three adaptive strategies: 1) integration and intensification in the Sudanian zone; 2) movement to the Sub-Humid zone; and 3) extensification in the Sahelian zone. We end by proposing four interrelated factors that account for the differences in pastoral systems between West Africa and the Greater Horn of Africa.     

Characterizing the Performance of Pipe Bombs

Pipe bombs of steel or PVC fragment in reproducible patterns when similarly configured. The power of the explosion correlates with number, mass, and size of the fragments recovered, where a large number of small, low‐mass fragments indicate a high‐power event and vice versa. In discussing performance, describing pipe fragmentation pattern by fragment weight distribution mapping (FWDM) or fragment surface area distribution mapping (FSADM) was useful. When fillers detonated, detonation velocities of ~4.4 mm/μs were measured. In such cases, side walls of the pipe were thrown first; the average fragment velocity was ~1000 km/s. In deflagrations, the end cap was first thrown; fragment velocities were only ~240 km/s. Blast overpressures varied; at 10 feet, 2 × 12 inch steel pipes containing ~550 g of detonable mixture produced overpressures of 5–6 psi; similar nondetonating pipes produced less than 2 psi. Maximum fragment throw distances were 250–300 m, with an average of ~100 m.     

Discretion and the Sex Dyad: Exploring the Interactive Effects of Offender and Victim Sex on Reporting and Arrest of One-on-One Assaultive Crime

Gender has been hypothesized to affect how violent offenders are treated within the criminal justice system, but studies have tended to ignore the role of the victim in decision making. This study explores the interactive effects of offender and victim sex (i.e., the sex dyad) on reporting and arrest of one-on-one assaultive crime. Using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey and National Incident-Based Reporting System, findings show that male-on-female offenses are reported to police more often than other dyads, but female-on-male offenses result in more arrests. Meanwhile, female-on-female offenses result in fewer arrests, despite nonsignificant differences in reporting. Implications of findings for theory and future research on gender discretion are discussed.     

A study of the interrelationships of several validity scales used in police selection

Validity scale data have received attention recently as providing valuable information about potential problematic police officer candidates. In this study, validity scale data from a number of selection instruments were obtained using 42 state police officer candidates. The scale used were the MMPI-2 L scale, the MMPI-2 K scale, the PAI Positive Impression Scale (PIM), the PAI Defensiveness Index (DI), the IPI Guardedness scale, the Hilson Life Adjustment Profile Lack of Candor scale, and the Inwald Survey 2 Denial of Shortcomings scale. Intercorrelations among the scales were developed and a factor analysis was performed. Factor analysis revealed two factors to be present. One is associated with the Hilson scales and is appropriately named guardedness or defensiveness. The other is associated with the MMPI-2 K scale and the PAI scales and is appropriately named social desirability. The MMPI-2 L scale loaded significantly on both factors and seemed to be the most general of the validity scales in terms of its characteristics. Implications of these analyses for police selection are discussed.     

Explaining regulatory autonomy in EU network sectors: Varieties of utility regulation?

This article explains variation in the autonomy in the range of activities that European regulators perform. By focusing on 102 regulators of four network sectors (electricity, gas, telecom, and railways), we test for functional and institutional explanations. The findings indicate that the inclusion of institutional factors matters for our understanding of recent changes in the governance of European network sectors. Reforms toward the independent agency form of governance and the range of competencies granted to sector regulators seem to be shaped not only by international functional pressures but also by domestic institutional factors. Beyond the credibility hypothesis, we find that national governments grant less regulatory autonomy to utility regulators the more coordinated an economy is and the more veto players are present. On the contrary, common law countries are associated with higher levels of regulatory autonomy.     

Between NATO and a hard place: defence spending debate in Germany and Czechia

Defence spending has become a primary issue in the context of NATO. The question of fair burden-sharing and development of new capabilities in reaction to the changing security environment led NATO members to aim to spend 2% of GDP on defence by 2024. While some allies have managed to reach the level quickly, others seem not to be able or willing to do so. We know little, however, how the international commitment is reflected and referred to in individual member states. This article shows how size played a role when the 2% pledge was discussed in domestic politics, even if the resulting policy may be very similar. Based on expert and political debates in Germany and Czechia, it demonstrates that external expectations and the question of status play a crucial part in the small state’s reasoning whereas it is mainly internal drivers that shape the big state’s decisions.