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Abstract
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Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) have used restorative justice (RJ) to address sexual misconduct on college campuses under Title IX. In 2020, Title IX guidance was codified. The application of RJ under the new policy may create procedural and distributive justice issues. This article (1) defines the new policy; (2) explores suitability of RJ to sexual misconduct and specifically yellow zone behavior under the new policy; (3) discusses justice for the various stakeholders under the guise of advantages and disadvantages; and (4) makes recommendations to strengthen the choice of either implementing or not implementing restorative justice.
In comparison to other crimes on a college campus, sexual violence is pervasive with one in five women reporting sexual violence (Cantor et al., 2020; Fedina et al., 2018; Fisher et al., 2000; RAINN, n.d.; Ullman, 2020). A sexual violence incident on a college campus may dictate a police response, but inappropriate campus behavior is also regulated by campus policy (Clery Act, Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), Dear Colleague Letter (DCL), and Campus SaVE Act).
The continuum of sexual violence can range from inappropriate sexual comments and suggestions to sexual assault. While a plethora of research has examined how Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) manage sexual assault (i.e., Mellins et al., 2017; Orchowski et al., 2020), there is a paucity of research on the ways IHEs manage yellow zone incidents of sexual misconduct. Yellow zone incidents are sex-based discrimination including but not limited to the following: breast grabs, demands for sexual favors, sex-based bullying, and inappropriate remarks (Rennison, 2018). Forms of sexual harassment and sex discrimination experienced by the campus community are also often in the yellow zone of reported experiences, or those that are often difficult to prove and not explicitly spelled out in legal code or campus conduct policies (Yung, 2016).Yet these "yellow forms" of sex-based discrimination can be experienced by the victim as violating, humiliating, fear-inducing, and disempowering (Pinchevsky et al., 2020). As a result, victims of yellow zone sex-based discrimination often live in fear, frequently developing psychological distress and trauma-induced outcomes...
Language: en |