Comparing sexual misconduct incidents in Annual Security Reports and Title IX coordinator data: Do policies increase reporting

Examining Sexual Misconduct Incidents Reported to Title IX Coordinators: What Predicts Reporting Outcomes?

“…Regarding the 10% of incidents that were resolved through a formal investigation, nearly 60% resulted in a policy violation. While prior literature has reported higher rates of reported incidents advancing to formal Title IX complaints (i.e., with a formal investigation) after being reported to a Title IX coordinator, the rate of founded policy violations is consistent with prior research (Richards, 2019; Richards et al, 2021). Among incidents with a founded policy violation, the most prominent sanctions were suspensions and resignations (see also Richards et al, 2021; Richards, 2022) while dismissals (i.e., expulsions) made up a lower percentage of disciplinary sanctions than reported in other studies (Richards, 2019; Richards et al, 2021).…”

“…More recently, Richards et al (2021) examined aggregate data from all incidents of sexual misconduct reported to Title IX coordinators at IHEs in New York State in the academic year 2018 to 2019 ( N = 3,829) and found many consistencies with Richards (2019). Like Richards (2019), Richards et al (2021) found that less than one-quarter of incidents reported to Title IX coordinators at New York IHEs resulted in formal Title IX complaints; however, about 60% of those formal complaints resulted in a finding of “responsibility” regarding a violation of the IHE’s sexual misconduct policy. Slightly more than half of responsible students were either suspended (38.83%) or expelled (18.69%) because of the policy violation.…”

“…Indeed, Title IX coordinators may review reports to determine whether there is enough information to investigate formally, even before sending the report to an investigator. Taken together, it is unsurprising that few reports of sexual misconduct move to a formal Title IX investigation (i.e., Richards, 2019; Richards et al, 2021); however, the aforementioned “screening” of cases by both complainants and fact finders may also mean that many of the reports that are formally investigated result in a finding that the respondent was responsible for violating the IHE’s conduct policy.…”

“…At the same time, there is a paucity of research on what happens when an incident of sexual misconduct is reported to a Title IX coordinator. The few existing studies on the context, processes, and outcomes of reports of sexual misconduct at IHEs (Richards, 2019; Richards et al, 2021; Richards, 2022) have been limited in that it has used aggregate IHE-level data. To our knowledge, no research to date has examined case-level data to assess the impact of factors such as the complainant type, respondent type, or reporting source on case processes or outcomes.…”

Effects of Mandatory Sexual Misconduct Training on University Campuses

“…Our research adds additional evidence to a body of work showing that a great deal of training is of limited efficacy at reducing sexual misconduct (see DeGue et al 2014 for a review) and especially contributes to research on the relationship between policies and reporting rates (cf. Richards, Gillespie, and Branscum 2021). In contrast to many other studies on sexual assault prevention, which involve evaluations of researcher-designed training with recruited student participants, our research examines the effects of mandatory training required of all students as a condition of enrollment and designed and delivered by university staff members, not members of the research team.…”