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"She wasn’t accusing him of plagiarism"

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Adam B does a very good job with this exceedingly strange SundayStyles column. But I was particularly struck by this:

He had left school immediately after the incident. He knew the university was investigating the allegations and that he might face dismissal. What he didn’t know was that he soon would face consequences much more severe than being forced to leave school. Rather than allow the college administration to handle the situation, his accuser filed criminal charges.

Obviously, the phrasing here is profoundly offensive, implying that the victim should have “allowed” the university pat her on the head and give her a lollipop, wasn’t the victim of a violent assault. But my question is: how common is it for rapes involving students to be dealt with by internal procedures? How much are victims persuaded to do this? Whenever I teach U.S. v. Morrison–a case involving an alleged gang rape at Virginia Tech that resulted in a crucial provision of the Violence Against Women Act being struck down–students always act why it was initially a case of internal university discipline rather than criminal law. And I never have a good answer. I can understand why sexual harassment–where behavior that would otherwise be OK is rendered unethical by the particular relationships of trust in a teaching or employment relationship–is a case for internal procedures. But I really can’t see where rape should be considered an purely internal university matter. It’s a violent crime; it shouldn’t stop being treated as such because the victim is a college student. I wonder how widespread Cross’s attitude is.

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