When a college student says she was drugged and brutally gang-raped by fraternity members at an Ivy League university, and the consequence faced by two of the defendants is to write “reflection papers,” a decent person’s response is horror and outrage.
Jane Doe, a former Cornell University student, filed a civil lawsuit last month against the university, its Chi Phi chapter and seven fraternity members. She alleges that in 2024, when she was a sophomore, several men at the frat house gave her alcohol and ketamine and sexually assaulted her while she was incapacitated.
The university conducted a Title IX investigation, expelling two students, suspending two others and banning another from campus for three years. Two other men, who entered the room after seeing a group Snapchat message inviting fraternity members to engage in sexual activity with her, were ordered to complete training about sexual harassment and to write and submit the papers.
Initially, the Tompkins County district attorney declined criminal charges. After the civil case was recently filed, the district attorney reopened the criminal case. Gov. Kathy Hochul removed the local prosecutor and appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor. Cornell has now suspended all fraternity parties and social events for the remainder of the academic year. The university is also adding experienced sexual assault investigators to its police force.
I hope a thorough criminal investigation brings some measure of justice. But victims of sexual assault often delay talking to authorities about what happened to them because of the severe trauma they’ve suffered, along with feelings of fear and shame. Critical evidence can be lost or destroyed during that time.
About 8% of sexual assaults reported to the police result in a conviction, according to a review of 36 U.S. studies involving 288,066 cases reported between 2000 and 2020. But since most sexual assaults are never reported, the actual rate of conviction is much lower: only about 2.8%, according to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.
Everyone knows the long odds of seeing any justice in these kinds of cases.
The decent among us also focus on what we can do to try to reduce the frequency of rape.
Some say we need to do a better job teaching young people about consent. That’s true. Only 15 states and Washington, D.C., require sex education to include information about consent. Given the age at which younger generations are exposed to online pornography, which often portrays girls and women as sexual objects, this education is even more necessary.
But when I think about the circumstances described in the Cornell case, I find it hard to believe that additional education about consent might have made a difference. Do men who attend Ivy League universities need to be taught not to drug a woman and assault her when she’s passed out? Do they need to be taught that, rather than watching multiple men assault a woman who is physically helpless, they should get help for her?
This isn’t an educational failing; it’s a moral failing.
Clearly, some parents fail to teach their children basic empathy. Early childhood, up to age 7, is when the foundations of empathy are laid. As a child grows up, they learn perspective-taking and moral reasoning. By the time we reach adulthood, our personality traits, including compassion and respectfulness, are largely set.
That’s not to say that people can’t change, especially when they are motivated to do so. But the window to instill empathy and understanding is widest open when children are young.
I’ve never received a group invite for “free p,” referring to a drunk woman, but I know what my reaction would be — whether I was still in college or not. I would try to get help for the vulnerable person.
If a person sees that and their reaction is to take part or watch, something has broken in them, whether their empathy or decency.
But most adults understand — regardless of their own empathy or decency — consequences and accountability.
The criminal investigation is critically important, but it will likely be a difficult case to prove. Just as important will be Cornell’s independent investigation, led by former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, into how Cornell officials handled the allegations.
We rarely see the powerful held to account — whether it’s those who committed crimes with Jeffrey Epstein or university leaders who worry more about the lifelong impact of consequences on a rapist’s life than his victim’s. Our society too often treats rape or sexual abuse like a “mistake” by the perpetrator rather than a serious crime causing lifelong harm to another human.
Let’s see where any consequences eventually land.
Editor’s note: This column discusses sexual assault and includes descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.
Aisha Sultan is a St. Louis-based journalist who studies parenting in the digital age while trying to keep up with her tech-savvy children. Find her on social media: @AishaS.
