“Keeping the Wound Open”: Survivor Experiences with Title IX Investigations

Abstract

Sexual violence on college campuses is a pressing issue that harms both undergraduate and graduate students. Title IX requires educational institutions to take prompt and equitable action to ensure that students who experience sexual violence can fully participate in and benefit from the institution’s educational program. Despite institutions’ legal obligations to adhere to Title IX policy, the evidence suggests that Title IX practices are often more harmful than helpful to survivors. We use qualitative interview data from a U.S. sample of N = 21 sexual violence survivors to explore undergraduate and graduate student experiences with Title IX reporting and investigation processes. All survivors in our sample perceived some aspect of their reporting experience to be negative, and for many survivors the Title IX investigation process resulted in further harm including secondary victimization, emotional/psychological, academic, and financial consequences. We discuss implications for research and university responses that can promote healing for survivors.

Keywords:

• Higher education
• sexual assault
• sexual violence
• Title IX

Notes

1 We use this term to include graduate students and graduate students who may also be employees of the HEI. We differentiate these statuses as student/worker status can create complexities in experiencing and reporting sexual violence (O’Callaghan et al., 2021).

2 We interviewed 22 participants total, but one participant’s experience did not align with our thematic findings for the other participants and therefore is treated as an outlier.