Two journalists say with sexual assaults on campus, the same reactions happen over and over

Luther alumna Erin Alberty was part of a team of reporters in Salt Lake City who investigated sexual assault cases at Brigham Young University, winning a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage.  Award-winning journalist Jessica Luther has just written a book about how colleges and universities handle sexual assault charges on campus.

The two visited Luther College on Wednesday, speaking at classes during the day and at the Center for Faith and Life Wednesday night.

Luther says sexual assault charges are difficult for colleges and administrators to handle because parents and administrators get nervous.  There's also the involvement of the federal government, which funds Title IX, but also requires reporting on what schools are doing to prevent sexual assaults.  That results in the same reaction occurring over and over, where people say such incidents are "isolated," so they don't have to think about the issue.

Alberty says many of the 40 or so women she talked with for news stories about sexual assaults at BYU had not talked with anyone about the incident, not seeing the pattern of an abuser and not labeling it as an assault.  In many cases, the assailant threatened to tell the BYU Honor Board with details of the woman's actions, which Alberty says was "very effective" in squelching the victim.

She says BYU has made around 20 changes in its policies about the handling of sexual assault complaints because of the newspaper's stories.  She says now the biggest problem with sexual assault cases is the tendency of friends and family members to blame the victim and suggest the incident wouldn't have happened if the victim had acted differently.

Luther says "We need better responses when people come forward to report (an assault)."  She says while there are cases involving sexual predators, other cases involve men who didn't understand how the concept of consent works.  "If I could wave a wand, I would wish for better education about consent," she says.

Jessica Luther's book is titled "Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Campuses and the Politics of Rape."  Erin Alberty continues to write stories for the Salt Lake City Tribune.