On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence

Summary

THIS EXPLOSIVE INVESTIGATION REVEALS THE PROFOUND FAILURES OF THE TITLE IX SYSTEM AND IDENTIFIES THE STEPS WE CAN TAKE TO PROTECT STUDENTS

On the Wrong Side provides the first comprehensive account of the inner workings of the secretive Title IX system. Drawing on a yearlong study of survivors, perpetrators, and the administrators who oversaw their cases, sociologist Nicole Bedera exposes the structures that predictably punish survivors who come forward in the service of protecting—or even rewarding—their perpetrators. She reveals that the system tasked with ending gender inequality on campus only intensifies it, upending survivors’ lives and threatening their degrees.

Equally heartbreaking and optimistic, On the Wrong Side makes it easy to imagine life-changing interventions for the next generation of students by proposing specific solutions to the structural problems of Title IX. Bedera proves that ending campus sexual violence is within our grasp—and dares us to be courageous enough to take action.

“Nicole Bedera is one of the most important thinkers of our time about sexual violence on campus. I am grateful for her work.”—Peggy Orenstein, New York Times–bestselling author of Boys & Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent, and Navigating the New Masculinity