Due Process and Unintended Consequences: Contradictions Between Campus Sexual Assault Support Services Create Barriers for Service Delivery

Changes in Title IX policy feature questions about due process and procedures, however campus response to sexual violence includes a wide array of support professionals each with their own guiding principle, or institutional logic. Building on prior research identifying contradictions between service professionals and the theory of institutional logics, this study draws on a thematic analysis of qualitative interviews with service professionals from two universities to further examine the root of these contradictions that restrict vital services to student victims. Findings highlight how the Title IX logic of due process operates as a limit on confidentiality becoming a harmful contradiction to other units' logics. Strategies to resolve contradictory logics that limit service provision for students through Title IX policy are discussed.