Violated frankly makes my skin crawl. Not because of the book which is very well written, but because of the events depicted within the book. Baylor is the country’s largest Methodist institutions, but when it comes to sexual assaults, the morality that religion would seem to dictate seems to have been missing in action against the rather earthly pleasures of successful athletics and enhanced national reputations. The authors suggest that the religious nature of the institution played a role in how widespread the scandal got.

If you can stomach the explicit detail contained within the pages including descriptions of sexual activity and alleged rape and are seeking to know how something like this could happen at a religious institution which parents sent their children to in no small part due to its reputation as a religious institution.

Sexual assaults on college campuses have been a problem that has gained more notoriety in recent years as universities have been held responsible to create a safe environment for women. The institutions have been accused of protecting athletes accused of assault, especially football players. Baylor University, a Baptist school in Waco, Texas was exposed to enhancing this culture and the investigation into this culture is the topic of this excellent book by investigative reporters Paula Lavigne and Mark Schlabach.

The book begins with stories of unwanted advances, rape and even gang rape of female students by various football players on the Baylor team. The victims are from various backgrounds, races and interests. The accounts of these attacks are difficult to read – detailed enough to make the reader uncomfortable, but necessary to illustrate the magnitude of the crimes. These victims are followed through most of the book as their lives are changed forever. Those that were brave enough to come forward then faced more problems on several fronts. Whether it was Baylor officials not believing the victims, assailants being protected by coaches and other school officials, or investigations that ranged from incomplete to poor, the book shows the lack of compassion the university gave these young women.

As for the players, they are not given any slack by the authors – they are held responsible for their actions and the excuses or protection provided by the university’s athletic department are exposed for the obstruction of justice that they are. The football coach and athletic director eventually lose their jobs over this issue. Other players who are not accused or took part in any of these assaults for the most part are not affected, but those who would protect teammates or accuse the victims of lying or consenting are criticized just as much as those who assaulted the women.

Even more than the players, however, is the harsh criticism that Baylor University took by the authors and it was well-deserved. In addition to the aforementioned lack of sympathy for the victims, the compliance with Title IX, the federal law that promotes gender equality on college campuses, was poor as well. The authors expose Baylor’s reporting of sexual assaults and subsequent interviews and closing of cases that left a lot to be desired. The people responsible are many and not just those in the football program. Like most scandals, the responsibility comes from the top, as college president Ken Starr (yes, THAT Ken Starr) had to give up the position.

While this was a very difficult book to read on all fronts and in all chapters, it is one that is necessary to read in order for one to comprehend the scope and horror of the sexual assault crisis. The reader will not only be angry at the men who assaulted these women, it will be clear to the reader that the university must bear the ultimate responsibility for the victims and must work to change their culture.

I wish to thank Center Street for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have recently either read or been interested in reading quite a few fiction titles that deal with the the issues of gender inequality and stereotypes, rape culture, and sexual assault. I thought it imperative I discover a non-fiction counterpart and educate myself on the real-world equivalent to these fictional stories.

This book focuses on these topics, with a particular emphasis on Baylor University. Baylor is acclaimed for both its safe and inclusive Baptist community and its highly competitive athletic programmes. More troubling is its more recent image as a place where a a startlingly high number of sexually assaulted women have spoken out about their abuse and the subsequent lack of support they received. Few offenders were disciplined or faced criminal consequences for their actions.

Despite not ever having heard of Baylor University before, this book used this focus on one particular institute to broach larger and more wide-spread topics, that affect many other institutions and communities across the world.

I usually prefer the non-fiction I read to have a more lyrical and fiction-inspired approach to the facts they are discussing. Here, due to the horrifying nature of the topics covered, I was glad for the often clinical and distant feel of the prose. I felt it did the victims and their sorrow justice, as well as allowing the reader to tackle the facts from a less emotional view-point.

Despite this being a painful read I also found it very educational and well researched. And it is titles such as these that will hopefully help provide an abolition of the rape culture dominant in many similar establishments.

"According to national statistics, at least one in five college women experience some type of sexual assault."

Paula Lavigne and Mark Schlabach are ESPN reporters who have done a comprehensive investigation into injustices and cover ups of a prominent Christian college, Baylor University, in Waco, Texas.

The book contains many stories of Baylor female students who reported sexual assaults by athletes to their university over a period of several years which went unanswered until the administration had to confront the realities happening on its campus. Not only did the university ignore the victims’ cries, but the city police department was inconsistent in their investigations and withheld police reports involving students and student athletes. One case included five victim reports involving the same male football player, a serial rapist. Once this sexual assault case came out, other cases (old and new) started surfacing.

Under pressure from the public, the Baylor board of regents hired a Philadelphia law firm to review the school’s response to sexual assault complaints which did not fair well for the university or the football program. It found “willful intent” of college employees to silence women who reported sexual assaults by some Baylor football players. For the first time ever, a major Division I university ousted its president, athletic director, and head coach of one of the most prominent football program in the country. Victims were getting justice by seeing their rapists pay for their crimes and federal Title IX lawsuits were being filed against Baylor as well as U.S. Department of Education investigations, and an NCAA inquiry. Once this travesty came out about Baylor in the media, more and more colleges and universities started experiencing reports of inaction by administrators and athletic departments to help sexual assault victims.

As one who works in a liberal arts college, it was a very eye-opening read. The authors did a thorough job of research for this book which can be seen in the timeline of the Baylor sexual assault scandal and a detailed bibliography with resources worth reading. This book will bring out many emotions in the reader such as disbelief, disgust, anger and so much anguish for the victims. I highly recommend this book!

Loved this! The entire story is so hard to believe. Great author

As a Baylor alumnus, life-long Baylor football fan, and now a Baylor parent, the last couple of years have been really tough to stomach. The firings, the scandals, the abhorrent behavior by football players and other students, the responses of coaches and university officials to reports of rape and other crimes, and the bumbling PR treatment the university has put together has been painful and disheartening. If you follow Baylor news closely, little in Paula Lavigne and Mark Schlabach's new book Violated: Exposing Rape at Baylor University Amid College Football's Sexual Assault Crisis will be new to you. If you have not followed the news and fan message boards and rumor mills about Baylor closely, consider yourself lucky, but if you want a comprehensive treatment of the scandal, Violated is a good place to start.

Lavigne and Schlabach, ESPN reporters, have been at the forefront of the national media's coverage of Baylor. They were instrumental in bringing broader attention to the scandal and churning out stories about it. I felt like they had a vendetta against Baylor and was prepared to hate Violated. I am forced to admit, however, that while they definitely have an agenda, their treatment is, for the most part, even-handed. Many of the facts are indisputable. There were predators on campus, including some on the football team. Many women did not feel comfortable working with campus judicial affairs because of what they perceived as a judgmental culture. Coaches, judicial affairs employees, counselors, and other university employees responded inadequately and, in some cases, offensively, to reports of rape.

Lavigne and Schlabach, as well as other journalists, exposed deep cultural and administrative problems that had persisted for a long time. Thankfully, the light has been a disinfectant and things have been cleaned up and are in the process of being reassessed and restructured. Interim president Dr. Garland may have been a little over exuberant when he claimed that Baylor would now be "the safest place on the planet," but I have not doubt that Baylor is becoming "a model for the rest of the country, of how to address these issues," as he said.

Given their mission--exposing rape at Baylor--it was unsurprising that Lavigne and Schlabach leaned hard toward believing every word any victim said and casting doubts on anyone associated with Baylor. When there are two sides to any testimony or recollection of an event or conversation, the benefit of the doubt goes to the accuser. The other side might be mentioned, but parenthetically or as an after thought. In my limited knowledge of the events, I know that in many cases it's not as cut-and-dried as they imply.

I like the fact that they include in the subtitle "Amid College Football's Sexual Assault Crisis." While the bulk of the book is focused on Baylor, they briefly place Baylor in the larger picture. They write, "In fairness, Baylor wasn't alone when it came to college football's sexual assault crisis." But then, sort of contradicting themselves, they assert that "the depth of its problems and sheer number of cases--and victims--set it apart from other schools" while also claiming that "if there were indeed seventeen incidents over five years, then Baylor's numbers are actually close to other college athletic programs recently studied." I know "it happens everywhere" is a weak defense, and I don't want to diminish what was clearly a series of terrible events at Baylor. But I still believe that if other schools were put under the microscope the way Baylor has been over the last couple of years, many of them would look as bad or worse.

What I hated most about the book, as an alumnus and now especially as a parent, was the characterization of student life. Sure, there are parties, and kids drink and have sex. To read their account, you might think that every weekend in Waco, there are house parties where people engage in gang bangs, and that every frat party has frat boys dropping drugs in girls' drinks so they can have sex with them. Interviewees have testified that such things happen, but I object to the impression given that these activities are widespread. I hope readers will recognize the limited scope of the book, and realize that much of Baylor's culture, even among student athletes, is wholesome, Christ-centered, and life-giving.

As much as I hated reading Violated, and as sick as these allegations against my alma mater make me, I have to acknowledge that Lavigne and Schlabach have done a service by bringing light to these events. They pull no punches and spare few details. I felt like I needed to take a hot shower after reading some of their accounts. I think Baylor has taken great strides in student safety and engendering a culture of respect, and I continue to pray that Baylor will exemplify the ideals upon which it was founded for the sake of my son and other students, now and in the future.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

It is incomprehensible how an entire university and local police department could be so blind to sexual abuse. The football team will get the majority of the headlines (and they certainly earned their headlines), but the controversy spreads across the entire campus and administration. Reading these accounts is sickening and what makes it even worse is how little compassion these victims received from the police and university. In many instances, the response exacerbated the negative impact of the crimes.

This book should serve as a warning to university administrators across the country of what not to do. It also should be used as a case study as how important a quality Title IX coordinator and policy is for an university.

Hopefully the release of this book and other similar articles will assist in bringing more change to how individuals react to sexual assault.