Violated

August 21, 2017
ESPN reporters Lavigne and Schlabach spare no detail in this shocking account of rampant sexual violence at one of America’s most revered religious universities. Between 2011 and 2015, there were 125 reports of sexual assault at Baylor University in Waco, Tex., according to the school’s legal office, though other school officials suggest the number of assaults was much higher. In that period, 17 women reported allegations of sexual assault or domestic violence involving 19 Baylor University football players. Using extensive research, including interviews with victims, coaches, players, and university officials, Lavigne and Schlabach chronicle the ways the football program fueled a hostile and abusive environment toward women and the school’s epic failure to address it. The damning account is made all the more horrific by graphic descriptions of the abuse—including multiple gang rapes—and the authors show how the school’s administrators, who refused to believe that a school with such deep Christian roots could foster an environment for sexual assault, built a “doesn’t happen here” culture that resulted in both implicit and explicit victim blaming among campus officials. In one instance, a student had to recount her sexual assault to 27 people before she was allowed to switch majors to avoid encountering her alleged attacker. This is a comprehensive and disturbing account of a particularly stark example of an epidemic facing American universities.