If the Globe is going to publish speculative criticism from advocates for sexual assault victims, the Globe should balance them with comments from people within the justice system. There could be reasonable explanations for the circumstances, ones that differ from the complaints made by victim advocates.

For example, the "Unfounded" rate for sexual assault investigations is the same low rate for UBC as it is in Vancouver. UBC's lower numbers of cases that proceed to criminal charges could come from reasons having nothing to do with police procedures. The story briefly mentions the difficulty of getting good evidence in a party-and-alcohol fueled environment. Another factor could be the relatively young age of the complainants, who might be less willing to face the rigors of a criminal trial than older women with better established support systems. Those two factors alone might account for the difference in percent of cases that go to trial- just 10%.