During a speech at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School last week about sexual assault on campus, education Secretary Betsy DeVos stated, "Every survivor of sexual misconduct must be taken seriously. Every student accused of sexual misconduct must know that guilt is not predetermined.” Despite outcry that looking out for both the victim and the accused sweeps the issue of sexual assault under the rug, a strong majority of Americans agrees with DeVos’s statement, but are split on whether the federal government should even be involved in these matters. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted on September 10-11, 2017 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.