ement.
             Silber (1996) writes that: "Today colleges and universities increasingly tend to circumvent the courts and bury serious criminal cases in their own judicial systems. For instance, a young man at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, is being allowed to graduate this year even though he was put on 'student conduct probation' after he was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old freshman who was sleeping" (PG).
             Most colleges and universityies have established some form of a "student judicial code." In gneral, they are utilized as a means to assure civil condfuct in the classroom or as a course of action to be followed when a student breaks college policy or standards. Typically, such codes begin with an introductory phrase such as: "The ______ [trustees, student council, associated students union, etc.] has determined that the judicial procedures of the College should be as informal and flexible as possible; to that end, this Code attempts to set out an orderly, yet hopefully unnecessary, process for the disposition of disputes internal to the College" (Hanszen College Judicial Code http://hc.hanszen.rice.edu/cabinet/constitution/judicial.html). Such a statement makes it clear that school adminisdtrators, teachers, staff, and students understand that there is a mechanism in place to assure that they conduct themselves within the confines of what the school has determined to be appropriate and law-abiding behavior. On the surface of it, it appears that it also serves as a means through which the institution makes it clear that penalties can be imposed against a student, staff, or faculty member for breaking the law. OStensibly, it should serve as ad eterrent. In reality it is often the means through which a college student can actually avoid civil or criminal prosecution.
             It is important to understand that, in general, such judicial codes are created to place responsibility in the hands of students, as well as as...