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This explosive investigation reveals the profound failures of the Title IX system and identifies concrete, surprisingly simple steps we can take to protect students.
The debate over campus sexual violence is more heated than ever, but hardly anyone knows what actually happens inside Title IX offices. On the Wrong Side provides the first comprehensive account of the inner workings of the secretive Title IX system. Drawing on a yearlong study of survivors, perpetrators, and the administrators who oversaw their cases, sociologist Nicole Bedera exposes the structures that predictably punish survivors who come forward in the service of protecting—or even rewarding—their perpetrators. In doing so, she reveals that the system tasked with ending gender inequality on campus only intensifies it, upending survivors' lives and threatening the degrees that brought them to college in the first place.
Equally heartbreaking and optimistic, On the Wrong Side makes it easy to imagine life-changing interventions for the next generation of students by proposing specific solutions to the structural problems of Title IX. Bedera proves that ending campus sexual violence is within our grasp—and dares us to be courageous enough to take action.
The debate over campus sexual violence is more heated than ever, but hardly anyone knows what actually happens inside Title IX offices. On the Wrong Side provides the first comprehensive account of the inner workings of the secretive Title IX system. Drawing on a yearlong study of survivors, perpetrators, and the administrators who oversaw their cases, sociologist Nicole Bedera exposes the structures that predictably punish survivors who come forward in the service of protecting—or even rewarding—their perpetrators. In doing so, she reveals that the system tasked with ending gender inequality on campus only intensifies it, upending survivors' lives and threatening the degrees that brought them to college in the first place.
Equally heartbreaking and optimistic, On the Wrong Side makes it easy to imagine life-changing interventions for the next generation of students by proposing specific solutions to the structural problems of Title IX. Bedera proves that ending campus sexual violence is within our grasp—and dares us to be courageous enough to take action.
Price: $26.95
Pages: 320
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date:
01 October 2024
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520395893
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
“The book’s grim conclusions are tempered with a hopeful presentation of proposed reforms.”
Dr. Nicole Bedera is a sociologist and cofounder of the antiviolence consulting practice Beyond Compliance. She received her PhD from the University of Michigan. She has spent more than a decade studying sexual violence and advocating for survivors in media outlets including the New York Times, NPR, and Harper's BAZAAR.
Contents
Author’s Note
Introduction
PART ONE. DISAPPEARING REPORTS: WHY THERE ARE SO FEW TITLE IX CASES
1. Lexie: Overwhelmed by Bad Choices
2. A Heavy Burden: The Pressure Survivors Feel to Spare Their Perpetrators
3. The Illusion of Choice: How Schools Steer Survivors Away from Investigations
PART TWO. “NEUTRAL” BUT NOT EQUAL: STUDENT EXPERIENCES OF INVESTIGATIONS
4. Marissa: Victim and Villain
5. Stacking the Deck: The System That Protects Perpetrators
6. Never Enough Evidence: The Failures of Title IX Investigations
7. The Fallout: The Unequal Impact of Investigations
PART THREE. THE COVER-UP: HOW EVERYONE COMES TO ACCEPT INJUSTICE
8. Chelsea and Elliott: A Deafening Silence
9. The Myth of Hysterical Women Ruining Lives: Administrators Rationalize Their (In)Actions
10. Gaslit and Silenced: Survivors Learn to Blame Themselves
11. Keep Fighting or Graduate: How Universities Demand Survivors’ Compliance
PART FOUR. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: FULFILLING THE BROKEN PROMISES OF TITLE IX
12. A Better Way: Creating a System That Supports Survivors
Acknowledgments
Appendix A. Methods
Appendix B. Featured Student Participant Demographics
Appendix C. Staff Participant Demographics
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Author’s Note
Introduction
PART ONE. DISAPPEARING REPORTS: WHY THERE ARE SO FEW TITLE IX CASES
1. Lexie: Overwhelmed by Bad Choices
2. A Heavy Burden: The Pressure Survivors Feel to Spare Their Perpetrators
3. The Illusion of Choice: How Schools Steer Survivors Away from Investigations
PART TWO. “NEUTRAL” BUT NOT EQUAL: STUDENT EXPERIENCES OF INVESTIGATIONS
4. Marissa: Victim and Villain
5. Stacking the Deck: The System That Protects Perpetrators
6. Never Enough Evidence: The Failures of Title IX Investigations
7. The Fallout: The Unequal Impact of Investigations
PART THREE. THE COVER-UP: HOW EVERYONE COMES TO ACCEPT INJUSTICE
8. Chelsea and Elliott: A Deafening Silence
9. The Myth of Hysterical Women Ruining Lives: Administrators Rationalize Their (In)Actions
10. Gaslit and Silenced: Survivors Learn to Blame Themselves
11. Keep Fighting or Graduate: How Universities Demand Survivors’ Compliance
PART FOUR. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: FULFILLING THE BROKEN PROMISES OF TITLE IX
12. A Better Way: Creating a System That Supports Survivors
Acknowledgments
Appendix A. Methods
Appendix B. Featured Student Participant Demographics
Appendix C. Staff Participant Demographics
Notes
Bibliography
Index