Hayley Glatter: When you wrote your report in December 2015, there were 23 states that had taken some sort of legislative action on campus sexual violence. Nine of them had actually enacted policy. What are the trends now in state legislatures related to Title IX enforcement?

Andrew Morse: It’s a little uneven across the states. There isn’t necessarily explicit policy architecture across the states directing Title IX compliance. What we did find is that there were a number of policy proposals that sought to add how campuses in particular address incidents of sexual violence as one element of Title IX compliance. There’s not really consistency in protecting victims of sexual violence broadly. For instance, a 2015 analysis noted that though all 50 states have one criminal statute addressing sexual assault broadly—not just on campus—the concepts articulated in those statutes were often ill-defined or undefined and do not produce adequate support structures to adjudicate the handling of campus sexual assault.

Glatter: You mentioned there is that wide variance, so ultimately what does that mean for victims on a state-by-state level?

Morse: It means that there’s an uneven legal and regulatory architecture at the state level about what states and campuses can do to prevent and address incidents of sexual violence. That’s why there needs to be consistency and focus in legislative and regulatory approaches at the federal level to prevent and address sexual violence.

So, for instance, in our report we noted that there were some states considering legislative measures to affirm the rights of survivors following an incident of sexual violence in accordance with overarching Clery Act policy, which is a federal statute. So survivors would be able to choose whether or not their report of sexual violence to the institution would be turned over to local law enforcement. In direct conflict with that were policy proposals like that in Virginia where a report of sexual violence on campus is expected to be turned over to local law enforcement. And the problem with that, from a trauma-informed standpoint, is that survivors often don’t feel comfortable going to local law enforcement. They still want protective measures while on campus but don’t want to relive the trauma of their incident for years, potentially, in a court of law. And so there is an uneven support and protective structure across the states.

Glatter: If that federal oversight is so important, to what extent does the legislative action taken by states have any bearing on the outcomes for the victims themselves?

Morse: Without federal oversight or consistent emphasis on enforcing its existing law and regulation, the potential outcome is that state law will not provide the accurate enforcement mechanisms to protect survivors. And that will have a negative impact on affirming the rights and protections of survivors of sexual violence in accessing college or university experiences.