A Reasonable Evaluation of Title IX: How America’s Legal System is Shaped by Patriarchy and why it Fails Victims of Gendered Violence

This paper is an examination of the Title IX system and how and why it fails to reliably provide justice for victims of sexual assault and intimate partner violence (IPV). The first two chapters are devoted to providing the ideological context for understanding the claim that the law is shaped by white male interests, using arguments from John Rawls to describe the traditional view of justice then unpacking that view from a feminist epistemological perspective. Chapter Three is an explanation of the cultural context of sexual assault and IPV, including rape culture and victim blaming, that make these kinds of violence different from those the criminal justice system was designed to manage. Also in Chapter Three, I include an overview of the nature of sexual and assault and IPV and explain why these features make it inconsistent with standards of evidence in the criminal justice system at large. Finally, Chapter Four outlines Claremont McKenna College’s Title IX procedures, points out the flaws with this system, and suggests how these issues could possibly be remedied by adding a restorative justice option