As long as it is a real court and not those kangaroo court.
And that's the crux of the issue. What the women's groups are looking for here is to use the school's investigatory system against the accused so that there's an official "found to have committed the act" entry into the record and the accused can be expelled and have a permanent black mark. They're not interested in due process, as that would mean some/most of the people accused would be found "not guilty" so to speak.
The problem with sexual assault investigation is that it often amounts to he said/she said. Absent violence, there's no physical evidence to differentiate someone who was a victim from someone who simply had morning after regrets. In those cases, American legal tradition says the benefit of the doubt should go to the accused. By trying to get a preponderance of the evidence standard, they're trying to ensnare people by getting the institution to say "well he probably did it so I'll just expel him to be safe".
Even then, there's an inherent problem. Even if you end up winning the trial,the trial process itself is punishment. The cost, the personal and professional grief and damage, the time involved in the trial, all of it is punishment even if you win in the end. (It's the same thing with a lot of law enforcement activities - go after a little guy, and browbeat him into some minor confession under threat of "we'll drag you through the courts for years if you refuse to confess")
And the atmosphere created by the threat of these lawsuits is toxic. I'm a college professor, have been for a decade. There have been multiple times I've talked to other professors, or other professors have come to me and basically said "Hey, I'm meeting with a student a couple days from now, you mind hanging out in the office or in the office next door during the meeting? Because I'm worried she may make up blatant falsehoods if she gets upset and I want a witness present"
If a situation like that does escalate, acquittal is obviously better than conviction, but neither is justice. Justice is the people who are lying simply to punish people they don't like getting the same penalty they're trying to inflict on other people. And until that happens routinely, this situation is not going to be fixed no matter how many of them are proven liars in court.
Bad luck for them, male students falsely accused have won nearly all trials based on the preponderance of the evidence standard.
As long as it is a real court and not those kangaroo court.
And that's the crux of the issue. What the women's groups are looking for here is to use the school's investigatory system against the accused so that there's an official "found to have committed the act" entry into the record and the accused can be expelled and have a permanent black mark. They're not interested in due process, as that would mean some/most of the people accused would be found "not guilty" so to speak.
The problem with sexual assault investigation is that it often amounts to he said/she said. Absent violence, there's no physical evidence to differentiate someone who was a victim from someone who simply had morning after regrets. In those cases, American legal tradition says the benefit of the doubt should go to the accused. By trying to get a preponderance of the evidence standard, they're trying to ensnare people by getting the institution to say "well he probably did it so I'll just expel him to be safe".
Even then, there's an inherent problem. Even if you end up winning the trial,the trial process itself is punishment. The cost, the personal and professional grief and damage, the time involved in the trial, all of it is punishment even if you win in the end. (It's the same thing with a lot of law enforcement activities - go after a little guy, and browbeat him into some minor confession under threat of "we'll drag you through the courts for years if you refuse to confess")
And the atmosphere created by the threat of these lawsuits is toxic. I'm a college professor, have been for a decade. There have been multiple times I've talked to other professors, or other professors have come to me and basically said "Hey, I'm meeting with a student a couple days from now, you mind hanging out in the office or in the office next door during the meeting? Because I'm worried she may make up blatant falsehoods if she gets upset and I want a witness present"
If a situation like that does escalate, acquittal is obviously better than conviction, but neither is justice. Justice is the people who are lying simply to punish people they don't like getting the same penalty they're trying to inflict on other people. And until that happens routinely, this situation is not going to be fixed no matter how many of them are proven liars in court.