Contact: Rebecca Stewart

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

 ‘Start By Believing’ Investigations: Dishonest and Unethical

WASHINGTON / March 4, 2019 – Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) is today launching a national campaign designed to alert college administrators, public officials, attorneys, and the public to the perils of Start By Believing and other “victim-centered” investigative methods.

Ethics codes call for investigators to conduct their investigations in an impartial, unbiased, and honest manner (1).

In contrast, Start By Believing programs instruct investigators to start the probe with an “initial presumption” of guilt and engage in dishonest practices such as (2):

1. Concealing inconsistencies in the complainant’s statements and “minimize the risk of contradiction.”
2. Making sure the sexual encounter does “not look like a consensual sexual experience”
3. Slanting the investigative report to focus on evidence that serves to “corroborate the victim’s account.”

Such methods are an anathema to the principles of fairness, due process, and the presumption of innocence.

Federal Title IX regulations require that college grievance procedures be “equitable” (3). Colleges that did not employ equitable investigative procedures in sexual assault cases have lost numerous lawsuits (4).

Over 150 professors and legal experts have signed an Open Letter criticizing the use of “victim-centered” methods such as Start By Believing (5). A formal complaint was filed with the Department of Justice in February 2018 regarding its funding of Start By Believing (6). One year later, a reply has not been received.

More information about SAVE’s #StartByListening or #StartByBelieving? campaign is available online (7).

Citations:

1. http://www.prosecutorintegrity.org/sa/ethics-codes/
2. https://www.evawintl.org/library/Detail.aspx?ItemID=43
3. https://www2.ed.gov/policy/rights/reg/ocr/edlite-34cfr106.html#S8
4. http://www.saveservices.org/wp-content/uploads/Victim-Centered-Investigations-and-Liability-Risk.pdf
5. http://www.saveservices.org/wp-content/uploads/VCI-Open-Letter-7.20.18.pdf
6. http://www.prosecutorintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/OIG-complaint-Start-by-Believing.pdf
7. http://www.saveservices.org/camp/sbb/

SAVE (Stop Abusive and Violent Environments) is working for effective and fair solutions to sexual assault and domestic violence: www.saveservices.org