Universities now have full-time police departments on their campuses for the purpose of protecting students, faculty, staff, and visitors. Larger universities and most state university systems have campus police departments that are set up like many metropolitan police agencies.
You are an intern with a detectives’ unit on a major state university campus. The surrounding area of the campus has turned into an up and coming university city, with bars and clubs in a village right outside of the university entrances. There are residence halls on the university campus itself. You are working with a detective in the University Police Department who has been designated as the “go to” investigator for situational sexual assaults (e.g., date rape). A young female sophomore has been found wandering around in the parking lot in front of her on-campus residence hall. The uniformed campus police have brought her to the station because she appears to have been assaulted (there is dirt on her clothing and legs, her clothing is torn, and she is displaying incoherent speech patterns).
Her friends from the residence hall told the uniformed police that they saw her earlier in the evening in the “Student Station”, a local bar three blocks from the main entrance of the university campus. Furthermore, she was in the company of a man who was described as a Caucasian male, about 25 years old, and with short blond hair. When they saw her, she appeared to have been drinking heavily.
Review the attached resource on date rape.
Focus your discussion on the following:
- What strategy do you propose for investigating what may have occurred?
- Identify in order of sequence everything that you would do up until the interview of this potential victim.
- Explain why you would take the actions that you chose prior to the interview.
- Explain what your goals are for preparing the victim for your interview.
