Your assumption of lower training is unwarranted. Your assumption that the police take these cases as seriously as the University and devote as much time and effort into the investigation is unwarranted.
So, what training do you feel the university investigators have which matches the investigative training which police and DAs get? If my assumptions that it is lower are unwarranted, I would be more than happy to change my position on the matter, but in all the threads on this subject, I've never seen anything to warrant changing those assumptions.
IIRC, the most detailed explanation of their training that's ever been given is that Nice Squirrel once mentioned that his school gives eight hours worth of training and that was a standard to which they wanted other schools to aspire to, meaning they don't even give that little bit. I see no reason to have more confidence in their ability to deliver quality results than I'd confidence in the average cop's ability to do a quality job grading a term paper.
Other differences to consider are case load, types of cases, and mission and goals. Not to mention differing views how groups view women, women who may have had too much to drink, women who may be sexually active, student athletes, campus safety, perception of class differences and biases, etc. Do you believe that there is more or less bias against blacks on a university campus compared with a town? More or less bias against women? For or against student athletes, or just athletes? Do you believe that drinking among students is viewed differently between campus officials and law enforcement? Do you believe that any of the biases towards or against any of these things play a role in how crime and especially sex crimes are perceived by university administration and by town law enforcement?
In virtually any university town, even reasonably small ones, crime on campus or involving students is a much smaller portion of criminal activity, much less serious criminal activity compared with what is happening in the town or city. If it is a larger city, such as Minneapolis, this is even more true.
Obviously, I have not viewed any of the suspect supplied videos of the incident, but having read the police report, I see a number of flags. Given the brevity of any one of the clips, it boggles the mind that the police felt able to assess the victim's level of sobriety. Stating that when she asked if she should remove her gum prior to engaging in oral sex is seen by the police as proof that she wasn't 'too drunk' and was willing. I read that and think this is someone who is trying to delay what she feels is coming. This does not sound like eagerness to please to me but an attempt to delay or avoid or at least placate. The 'flirting' behavior described could be flirting--or it could just as easily be someone who is attempting to get along to avoid conflict. Conflict meaning physical harm in this case. Someone who is drunk or vastly outnumbered might engage in all sorts of placating behavior. Throw in gender (women are socialized to placate, to be nice) and the sheer size and athleticism of the athletes and it boggles the mind that anyone would consider what was happening to be consensual and not coerced by intimidation. In fact, at least one of the witnesses in the university report states that he didn't think she was 'into it.' Why he didn't come to her aid or call the police is an interesting question. Possibly, he was also intimidated by the sheer numbers of large, well muscled athletes present. Possibly, something else prevented him from taking more action. Something that I have learned is that in fact, very few individuals will come to the aid of someone being assaulted. Personally, I don't understand this.
We know that in general, a lot of people engage in victim blaming, especially in cases of sexual assault. Police are not immune to this behavior. A friend of mine in high school used to spend summers with her grandmother in another town. Things were not good at home for my friend and her grandmother's place was a welcome respite for her, and also for her parents, something of a relief from the financial burden of feeding another person at home. So a win/win. At the end of one summer, when we were back in school, my friend told me that one night, her grandmother's home was broken into. Intruders entered her grandmother's bedroom through the window and raped her grandmother. The police said that it was must have been my friend that the intruders were after. So, one does not even have to be the rape victim to be blamed for the rape of another person. Oh, for the record: my friend was dumpy, wore thick glasses, with a chronic untreated sinus infection and stringy, greasy hair. She dressed mostly in her grandmother's hand me downs, which mostly came from Goodwill and was too shy to talk to boys. But still, to the police, it must have been HER fault.
