Psychologist and rape prevention researcher accused of sexual harrassment and sexual assault

[futureapppsy2]

Rape-Prevention Scholar Who ‘Celebrated #MeToo’ Is Accused of Sexual Assault and Harassment

Six current and former graduate students filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Illinois at Chicago, its Title IX investigators, and the accused professor, Paul Schewe. “Nobody is safe in the #MeToo era,” he says.

www.chronicle.com

Thoughts?

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[Seven_Costanza]

Rape-Prevention Scholar Who ‘Celebrated #MeToo’ Is Accused of Sexual Assault and Harassment

Six current and former graduate students filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Illinois at Chicago, its Title IX investigators, and the accused professor, Paul Schewe. “Nobody is safe in the #MeToo era,” he says.

www.chronicle.com

Thoughts?

I was actually really disturbed because I recently read that one out of every 12 male therapists have engaged in inappropriate sexual relationships with their patients. And when I went to look into that information, I saw another statistic that placed it at 12% of all male therapists (according to an APA anonymous survey). This is the screenshot I took from the book I read the original stat in.

 

[deleted656923]

I’ve heard of “method acting,” but not “method research” like this.

 

[PsyDr]

1) Why in the hell is this dude partying with students?!

2) This guy definitely sounds like a creeper, straight out of an Applebee’s bar at happy hour.

3) The drugs are gonna be the nail in the coffin of this case.

4) How does a guy who makes ~$113k afford a place in Chicago, a boat, and cocaine?

 

[ExploringOptions]

Just not sold on this. It's a tricky situation, but I feel for the professor too as much as I do for the student. Either way, the professor crossed many ethical lines in his behaviors with not only her but his grad students in general. It seems that his ability to maintain an objective supervisory role per the standard on education and training puts at risk his ability to assess student and/or supervisee performance in the classroom (i.e., inviting them to his home, drinking, etc.). Had he conducted himself differently, he may have never been put in this precarious position to begin with.

Why do you feel for the professor? He crossed so many boundaries and admitted much of this is true. Don’t get why you “feel” for him. Getting drunk with students. Laying in bed with them? Offering them drugs? Yeah, he sounds so worthy of pity.

 

[BuckeyeLove]

2) This guy definitely sounds like a creeper, straight out of an Applebee’s bar at happy hour.

this is the greatest comment ive ever seen on this board.

 

[erg923]

Whether this is exaggerated or misinterpreted or 100% true.....all this is likely to be avoided by simply having common sensical boundaries between yourself and students. Boating, happy hours? What world is this? I mean seriously, alcohol themed social meetings, inviting all female grad students back to your apartment, half naked in front of supervisees/students on a boat??? How dumb are you, dude?

“Maybe it’s a warning to everybody that nobody is safe in the #MeToo era,” Schewe said. And his takeaway? “That guys should stay away from any woman because they have the potential to destroy their life with a couple of words with no consequence to them.”

Holy ****? This guy is a sexual violence scholar?! Sounds like he just fell off the turnip truck to me.

 

[Seven_Costanza]

Whether this is exaggerated or misinterpreted or 100% true.....all this is likely to be avoided by simply having common sensical boundaries between yourself and students. Boating, happy hours? What world is this? I mean seriously, alcohol themed social meetings, inviting all female grad students back to your apartment, half naked in front of supervisees/students on a boat??? How dumb are you, dude?

“Maybe it’s a warning to everybody that nobody is safe in the #MeToo era,” Schewe said. And his takeaway? “That guys should stay away from any woman because they have the potential to destroy their life with a couple of words with no consequence to them.”

Holy ****? This guy is a sexual violence scholar?! Sounds like he just fell off the turnip truck to me.

Thank you, erg. Was disturbed by other people’s empathy for this guy.

 

[ExploringOptions]

The fact that some people are saying there isn’t proof so we must believe him, think about that. You’re saying without physical proof we should automatically believe the man. Why does he get the benefit of the doubt and she gets skepticism. Don’t need an answer here, just something to think about and examine what that says about your thoughts on veracity and your default settings on whom to believe.

 

[DynamicDidactic]

pity.

One can have empathy for people that do harmful things. Having empathy does not mean condoning.

Based on this professor's direct quotes, emails, and agreed upon facts, I have very little empathy for him (I'd have to know more or work real hard to find some).

 

[ExploringOptions]

I would caution against presuming my character based on the fact that my approach to this differs from your own. I am simply stating that I have empathy for the fact that this professor 1. made poor choices that could cost him his job, and/or place him in legal trouble, 2. that it is POSSIBLE, that he may also be a victim in the situation. I think we can agree that in cases of alleged rape, the woman will always get the benefit of the doubt. IT is unfortunate that there have been cases where this benefit has been extended to individuals who have otherwise taken advantage of it, thus, casting doubt to some accusations. With us being in a field of not just science, but also one that deals with human emotions, I think it prudent to factor this in. I also feel for the young woman/student who is most likely conflicted with a variety of emotions. Nevertheless, we as a consumer audience do not have all the facts, thus, for anyone of us, including you, to presume innocence of guilt for one party over another would be misguided. Perhaps you can ponder that yourself and what that says about your default mode.

My default mode is based on the fact that false claims of sexual assault are rare. And sexual assaults are already underreported. This man is not a victim. He egregiously abused his power. That is not in question. I don’t empathize with him at all even if the assault did not happen as he grossly abused his power and was totally behaving unethically and the fact that he is supposedly trying to prevent assault makes it worse.His comments after the fact cement the idea to me that he is not worthy of my empathy. he laid in bed with her and pushed himself against her at the very least. And maybe “accidentally” Touched her breast. give me a break.

 

[YungPsy]

I don't think you need to automatically presume he's guilty but you probably should a) consider the scenarios he put himself in and b) read his directly quoted statements

Because in my opinion, both of those are cause for serious, serious concern, regardless of whatever happened or didn't happen

He sounds like a huge ***** at the minimum. Not sure how he got to where he is but then again with everything I've seen in the field and outside of it, nothing surprises me anymore

Plus some of those "scenarios" he put himself in were HIGHLY reminiscent of the ones presented in my ethics class, you know like the ones that touched on guidelines for professors mingling with students and how basically everything he did are things you should never do

 

[WisNeuro]

I think we can agree that in cases of alleged rape, the woman will always get the benefit of the doubt.

Umm, actually, especially historically, this is not the case at all. In my olden days of doing more therapy work, primarily with female sexual assault survivors, when the victims reported the assault to police, very few cases were ever even investigated. Other times, you had the same refrain, people said she "shouldn't have drank" etc. So, I actually don't think we can agree to this at all. Heck, just look at what happened to Dr. Ford in the national arena. Believing sexual assault survivors appears to be the exception, rather than the rule.

 

[erg923]

My default mode is based on the fact that false claims of sexual assault are rare. And sexual assaults are already underreported. This man is not a victim. He egregiously abused his power. That is not in question. I don’t empathize with him at all even if the assault did not happen as he grossly abused his power and was totally behaving unethically and the fact that he is supposedly trying to prevent assault makes it worse.His comments after the fact cement the idea to me that he is not worthy of my empathy. he laid in bed with her and pushed himself against her at the very least. And maybe “accidentally” Touched her breast. give me a break.

You should empathize with his wife, for at the very least, scumbag behavior/bad husbandry.

 

[Seven_Costanza]

Nevertheless, we as a consumer audience do not have all the facts, thus, for anyone of us, including you, to presume innocence of guilt for one party over another would be misguided. Perhaps you can ponder that yourself and what that says about your default mode.

Except it isn’t just one party over another. There are now 6 accusers. Given that these cases are extremely difficult to prove, I’m wondering what it would take for you to believe the women.

 

[cara susanna]

I would caution against presuming my character based on the fact that my approach to this differs from your own. I am simply stating that I have empathy for the fact that this professor 1. made poor choices that could cost him his job, and/or place him in legal trouble, 2. that it is POSSIBLE, that he may also be a victim in the situation. I think we can agree that in cases of alleged rape, the woman will always get the benefit of the doubt. IT is unfortunate that there have been cases where this benefit has been extended to individuals who have otherwise taken advantage of it, thus, casting doubt to some accusations. With us being in a field of not just science, but also one that deals with human emotions, I think it prudent to factor this in. I also feel for the young woman/student who is most likely conflicted with a variety of emotions. Nevertheless, we as a consumer audience do not have all the facts, thus, for anyone of us, including you, to presume innocence of guilt for one party over another would be misguided. Perhaps you can ponder that yourself and what that says about your default mode.

Normally I'd laugh at this, but after reading Chanel Miller's book and watching Unbelievable on Netflix I'm not really in the mood to see this myth continually be perpetuated. There is numerous reading you can do on the subject but here's a good starting point:

An Epidemic of Disbelief

What new research reveals about sexual predators, and why police fail to catch them

www.theatlantic.com

Anyway, regarding the case: this guy sounds like one of those "woke" dudes who is convinced that he'll never be a problem because of how enlightened he is.

 

[calimich]

at best it seems this guy has terribly abused his power, of which he is somehow totally oblivious, and has placed students in impossible situations. Perhaps explained by serious lapses in judgement, substance abuse, and marital strain. He should resign and seek treatment to get his life in order.

at worst he's a rapist who should go to prison

 

[erg923]

at best it seems this guy has terribly abused his power, of which he is somehow totally oblivious, and has placed students in impossible situations. Perhaps explained by serious lapses in judgement, substance abuse, and marital strain. He should resign and seek treatment to get his life in order.

at worst he's a rapist who should go to prison

How can someone with his experience and CV believe that we should stay away from woman because they can make accusations "with no consequence to them.” That's just such bizarre black-and-white thinking and and so contrary to the evidence, I do wonder if he is impaired (psychologically) in some significant way? There are alot of alcohol-involved incidents described here too. Wonder if that's a issue? And, yea, where was this guys poor wife during all this?

 

[calimich]

How can someone with his experience and CV believe that we should stay away from woman because they can make accusations "with no consequence to them.” That's just so bizarre and and so contrary to logical thinking and evidence, I do wonder if he is impaired in some significant way. There is alot of alcohol involved and described here too. Wonder if that's a issue? And, yea, where was this guys poor wife during all this?

agree. I also wonder what the alleged "friends" are like who he brought with him on the boat. Like, the first time a married friend intentionally excludes their spouse and invites me along to use illegal drugs with them and their much-younger subordinates, I'm gonna ask, "Is everything ok friend?"

And even if Schewe is only guilty of what he's already admitted, he's got a serious mess to clean up.

"Schewe denies that account in the Title IX investigation report, which states that after the other guests left, he removed his jeans and climbed back into bed with O’Callaghan. “They spooned, and she pressed her hips into his hips.” He “may have inadvertently touched her breasts,” but at one point she tensed up. He “took this as indication that she was not interested, and rolled over and fell asleep,” the document reads."

 

[erg923]

agree. I also wonder what the alleged "friends" are like who he brought with him on the boat. Like, the first time a married friend intentionally excludes their spouse and invites me along to use illegal drugs with them and their much-younger subordinates, I'm gonna ask, "Is everything ok friend?"

And even if Schewe is only guilty of what he's already admitted, he's got a serious mess to clean up.

"Schewe denies that account in the Title IX investigation report, which states that after the other guests left, he removed his jeans and climbed back into bed with O’Callaghan. “They spooned, and she pressed her hips into his hips.” He “may have inadvertently touched her breasts,” but at one point she tensed up. He “took this as indication that she was not interested, and rolled over and fell asleep,” the document reads."

Dude seems to have what kids these days call: "maj ween probs"....that much is pretty clear.

 

[Ollie123]

When the best defense someone can put together to justify their actions is "I only accidentally groped the drunk student I was in bed with" I am not really sure what else needs to be said at that point.

 

[Fan_of_Meehl]

Normally I'd laugh at this, but after reading Chanel Miller's book and watching Unbelievable on Netflix I'm not really in the mood to see this myth continually be perpetuated. There is numerous reading you can do on the subject but here's a good starting point:

An Epidemic of Disbelief

What new research reveals about sexual predators, and why police fail to catch them

www.theatlantic.com

Anyway, regarding the case: this guy sounds like one of those "woke" dudes who is convinced that he'll never be a problem because of how enlightened he is.

Or a socialized psychopath who found a way to optimize his position of victimizing young women--appearing, on the surface, to be 'mega-woke' and a champion against this sort of thing while carefully selecting and preying upon them while they were in a maximally vulnerable position during their careers. Wolf in sheep's clothing sort of thing. Pure speculation, but I'm sure it happens more often than most of us are comfortable acknowledging.

 

[Sanman]

When the best defense someone can put together to justify their actions is "I only accidentally groped the drunk student I was in bed with" I am not really sure what else needs to be said at that point.

Someone, somewhere is wondering how they lost a job to that guy.