AEA's lockbox: recording allegations while reserving the right to report them

The American Economic Association has announced that they have initiated a Reporting Lockbox – Now Available to Members, meant to allow members to record transgressions such as sexual harassment while reserving and preserving the right to report them later, if the same individual is named as an offender by someone else. The idea is to allow repeat offenders to be identified, even if each offense might be too ambiguous to justify an immediate complaint.

"The Reporting Lockbox enables AEA members who are not yet ready to file a formal complaint to log circumstances or conduct by other members that may violate the AEA’s policy against harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. If two or more AEA members log alleged incidents of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation perpetrated by the same person by making entries in this digital archive and indicating a willingness to communicate with other alleged victims, each member who logged an incident will be contacted separately to determine if each would consider communicating with the other members, or to otherwise keep the submission active or withdraw it. A mutual decision to contact the other members who logged an incident about the same alleged perpetrator could lead to their filing a formal complaint with the AEA Ethics Committee or pursuing other options outside of the AEA.

"The AEA will not have access to the Reporting Lockbox, and therefore will not know the identities of members or persons of interest unless action is taken by the members through the filing of a formal complaint to the AEA. Users of the Lockbox can edit or remove entries at any time."
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Earlier related post:

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Callisto: Designing a reporting system for sexual assault

Title IX reporting incentives and mis-incentives

The Atlantic has a story on a strange Title IX case (and a resulting lawsuit), with the suggestion that it might have to do with perverse legal and procedural incentives:

Mutually Nonconsensual Sex

Here's the critical paragraph:

"The event in précis, as summarized by Robby Soave of Reason magazine:

“Male and female student have a drunken hookup. He wakes up, terrified she's going to file a sexual misconduct complaint, so he goes to the Title IX office and beats her to the punch. She is found guilty and suspended.”

HT: MR

Change in Swedish law about sexual assault

From The Guardian:
Swedish rape law would require explicit consent before sexual contact

"Sweden is moving closer to making changes to its rape laws that would require people to get explicit consent before sexual contact.
...
"Under current Swedish law someone can be prosecuted for rape only if it has been proved that they used threats or violence. Under the proposal, rape could be proved if the accuser hadn’t given their explicit verbal agreement or clearly demonstrate their desire to engage in sexual activity.
...
"The proposal is part of a series of initiatives being put forward. Others would make it illegal for Swedes to hire prostitutes abroad, and increase sentences for offenders. Buying sex in Sweden is already illegal."

Callisto: Designing a reporting system for sexual assault

Callisto is an interesting website designed to reduce the under-reporting of sexual assault, and make it easier to identify serial predators. The "Match" option is particularly interesting in this regard.

"Callisto offers students three options:

Record. Survivors can create secure, encrypted, and time-stamped records about their sexual assault. On average, survivors who report begin the process 11 months after experiencing sexual assault. Callisto allows students to immediately preserve evidence on their own terms, at a time, place, and pace that is best for them.

Report. Survivors can electronically send the record they have created to their school. This equips schools with a detailed account of what happened before the student ever meets with them. Reports submitted through Callisto led to more rapid and thorough investigations and reduced the chances for human error.

Match. Survivors can help schools identify repeat offenders using Callisto’s matching function. This option allows survivors to store information about their perpetrator under the precondition that it will only be released to the school if another student names the same perpetrator."
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I can't find much about the use of the service or its impact on outcomes from their very brief annual report, however.