Peer pressure can be an awful thing. Peer pressure can lead a student to do something the student would never have done without the pressure. Students, like other individuals, young and old, properly adapt their behavior to conform to group customs and norms. Group membership can be critical to a student's success. Indeed, adopting the customary behaviors of professionals in the student's chosen field of study is a big part of what students hope to accomplish in an educational program. And some peers can be good influences, too, on things like study habits, exercise regimens, and even positive social norms. But that power of a group to influence a student can turn ugly in some circumstances, like a late-night fraternity party involving drugs or alcohol and mixing the sexes. Peer pressure in those circumstances can lead to inappropriate sexual advances, even sexual assault, or deep regrets that spawn false allegations of sexual assault.

What to Learn About Peer Pressure

The main thing to learn is that when peer pressure leads to sexual misbehavior at a college or university, Title IX charges can easily result. Criminal charges for sexual misconduct at a college or university campus are unusual. Instead, colleges and universities deal with on-campus sexual misconduct through their Title IX policies. Federal regulations require schools receiving federal funding to maintain those policies. Under those Title IX policies, college and university Title IX policies, like the ones at the University of Texas, University of Florida, and the University of Illinois, prohibit not just sexual violence, domestic violence, and dating violence, including date rape. Title IX policies also prohibit sexual harassment, including its hostile environment form. Even if no forced sexual contact occurs, unwelcome sexual advances, jokes, comments, and innuendo, if severe and pervasive enough, can bring about Title IX sexual misconduct charges, leading to suspension or dismissal. Frat party peer pressure resulting in inappropriate sexual activity can go terribly wrong.

What to Do About Peer Pressure

The first thing to do about peer pressure to engage in sexual activity is to avoid that pressure. Don't attend parties and other gatherings and events where you know that other students are likely to do things that you shouldn't and wouldn't ordinarily do. That's what peer pressure makes you do: things you shouldn't and wouldn't ordinarily do. So avoid places where you know peer pressure is possible and probable. But if you do get pressured into sexual activity that somehow, whether by misunderstanding, confusion, lies, or regrets, ends up in Title IX charges, the thing you must do is to retain a skilled and experienced Title IX college sexual misconduct defense attorney-advisor.

National Title IX defense attorney-advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm's college misconduct defense team are available to help accused students nationwide. Attorney Lento and his expert team has successfully defended hundreds of college and university students against Title IX sexual misconduct charges. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now.