The Tracy Rule
by Dr. Stacy Kratz, PhD, LCSW, CAP
The issue: The fight against sexual violence lives in every corner of the world, in all spheres of humanity. Universities across the USA are starting to hear and respond to Brenda Tracy’s plan to fight sexual violence on college campuses.
The story: Sexual violence is a crime, and extremely difficult to measure. No one source gives a complete picture, and terminology often entangles the statistics. Sexual violence is a “catch-all” non-legal term that refers to crimes like sexual assault, rape, and sexual abuse. We do know that RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization, reports ages 12-34 are the highest risk years for rape and sexual assault, and that on average, there are 433,648 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States.
We also know that the most recent Bureau of Justice victimization report found the rate of rape or sexual assault almost doubled from 2017 to 2018, from 1.4 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older to 2.7 per 1,000.
And we know another thing: sexual violence on college campuses is common. One in five college women of all ages, races, and ethnicities experiences sexual assault. The first few months of students’ first and second semesters in college are the highest risk, and unfortunately, the crime often goes unreported. Confirming this data and further contributing to the growing body of literature examining campus-based sexual violence, the 2019 publication A Brief Report of Sexual Violence among Universities with NCAA Division I Athletic Programs, reports Division I campuses seem to be at greater risk for sexual violence. Additionally, the December 2019 USA Today expose Predator Pipeline found college athletes are disproportionally implicated in campus sexual assaults.
Brenda Tracy wants to change that, and she’s going about it by addressing college athletics at every level. Tracy is a survivor of a 2014 gang rape by four football players. She is now educating, engaging, and inspiring men and coaches to become involved in the fight against sexual violence. Travelling the country and visiting athletic programs, she wants to help build safer and more respectful cultures within athletics, and the surrounding campus community. Tracy started the nonprofit #SetTheExpectation and is changing policy, knowing social problems often require strong policy solutions. That’s where The Tracy Rule steps in.
The Tracy Rule provides a template for universities on how to deal with violent athletes. It states “a current or prospective student-athlete who has been convicted of, pleaded guilty or no contest to a felony or misdemeanor involving Serious Misconduct, has been found a delinquent in relationship to a juvenile code equivalent, or has been disciplined by the university or athletic department at any time during enrollment at any collegiate institution (excluding temporary disciplinary action during an investigation) due to Serious Misconduct shall not be eligible for athletically-related financial aid, practice or competition”. Universities are starting to move on adoption of the rule.
The first adopter was the University of Texas at San Antonio, in September 2019. Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania has committed as well. Moving forward in 2020 will hopefully show more collegiate institutions and the NCAA following their lead. Fiercely fighting sexual violence on college campuses is the right thing to do, and the Tracy Rule is a giant step in the right direction.