Jessa Crispin

How the good intentions of Title IX ended up punishing the innocent

Plus: BBC's Bad Cops shows how the Baltimore police committed murders, sold drugs and planted evidence, and were allowed to operate with impunity

The BBC’s investigation into the Baltimore Police Department is a wild ride. Photo: J.M. Giordano / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images 
issue 18 September 2021

How do we have difficult conversations? Especially in an age of polarisation, where everything is immediately politicised? But also where calls for ‘nuance’ and ‘complication’ are sometimes used to justify what is really just bigotry. Is it possible to be both protective of the vulnerable and to allow for a larger pursuit of justice and compassion? These are the questions I was left with after listening to the podcast series The Inbox (part of the larger anthology The 11th), a tricky but sensitive look at the questions that surround the adjudication of sexual violence accusations on college campuses through the Title IX system.

Sarah Viren wrote an essay for the New York Times about the accusations of sexual harassment against her wife that went viral. Her wife Marta worked as an assistant professor at Arizona State University, and one day she was informed she had been accused by her student of sexual harassment.

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