A Monday discussion hosted by the Columbia University anti-sexual assault group No Red Tape critically questioned due process protections in the post-Brett Kavanaugh hearings era.
According to the Columbia Spectator, the event “invited students and panelists to reflect on ‘what justice means for survivors’” and “to question the way we understand sexual assault.”
Considering the academics on the panel, this is not at all surprising: Barnard College/Columbia U. Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department Chair Rebecca Jordan-Young whose expertise is “the intersection of scientific practice and social power,” and Manhattan College philosophy professor Jordan Pascoe who studies “how philosophy can be used as a tool for radical social and institutional change.”
Among (many) other things, the former also is a faculty fellow at Columbia’s Center for the Study of Social Difference, while the latter is director of the Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love.
During the discussion’s question and answer session, a student pointed out that the American “innocent until proven guilty” standard does not allow alleged victims of sexual assault “to be heard.”
Jordan-Young and Pascoe agreed, noting Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford “was unfairly subjected to a legalistic framework.”
Pascoe further argued that while Blasey Ford had nothing to gain from being believed, Kavanaugh had much to lose—a point that should frame the public’s understanding of credibility. Studies have shown that, on average, fewer than 5 percent of reports of sexual assault are found to be false.
“Given the statistical reality of sexual assault, we should grant those who come forward with a presumptive credibility,” said Pascoe.
Jordan-Young further emphasized that the criminal justice system enforces sexist social hierarchies, and should not be used to deal with matters of sexual assault.
“The criminal justice system is not just historically, but presently, structured in a way that absolutely reflects dominant values of all the same kinds of social hierarchies that we’re actually trying to transform,” she said. …
Pascoe called Ford’s testimony a “perfect performance of victimhood,” pointing out that her whiteness, articulation, and educational expertise should have contributed to her credibility according to conventional constructs of social hierarchy. Even this standard, Pascoe said, which is inaccessible to most women, proved not enough to warrant believability.
Both Jordan-Young and Pascoe highlighted the necessity of “transformative justice” — where people “reckon with and acknowledge how their own actions perpetuate the stigma against and continued abuse of sexual assault victims.”
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