The case of Brock Turner is one that shocked the nation. Brock Turner was a nineteen-year-old swimmer at Stanford who was arrested after sexually assaulting a woman at a frat party. Both were very drunk, the woman passed out, and Brock carried out the deed behind a dumpster. Two Swedish grad students caught him in the act and were able to stop and apprehend him. Brock Turner was then arrested and hauled off to jail; he was banned from Stanford and went on trial for attempted rape and sexual assault charges. While he was not formally charged for rape, the other charges were very serious and he was ultimately convicted after a controversial trial.
His punishment - 6 months in jail and 3 years probation. And he is now free after having served only 3 months, released early due to “good behavior”. And he supposedly feels remorseful and guilty for his crimes, his judgement was impaired by alcohol, and his life is now “ruined”. He can no longer compete for a spot in the Olympic swimming team and has to register as a sex offender. Judge Aaron Persky justified the lenient sentence instead of a recommended 6 year sentence by saying that such a sentence would harm him and be traumatizing to him.
Wait hold up. The judge basically decided to give a lenient sentence to Brock Turner on the grounds that it would ruin him and that he should just be allowed to move on with his life. This seems to be ignoring the fact that his victim endured significant trauma and abuse. The trial alone was also a tough ordeal for her since she and her family were bombarded with questions, trying to find ways to victimize her. She is still struggling to put the pieces of her life back together, to find new strength and rebuild her life. The leniency of his sentence and the fact that it was below minimum guidelines feels like a slap in the face, a mockery of the ordeal she has faced since that incident.
Similar situations of athletes committing sexual assault have happened before. In 2012, a high school girl in Steubenville, Ohio was raped after being intoxicated at a party by a few football players from the same high school. They filmed videos and took photos of the incident and circulated it around social media, showing just how sick the whole ordeal was. In this same case, the coach and several other school officials tried to cover up the incident and protect the football players; others blamed the girl for getting raped. In the end, the football players were convicted for their crime and several school officials were forced to resign for what they did, but their responses showed a significant amount of favoritism for the athletes. But recently one of the hackers who helped uncover evidence leading to these convictions was arrested and now faces 12 years in prison for his “crime” of hacking into the website used by the football players.
This case, along with the case of Brock Turner, illustrates a problem with our country’s justice system; it is biased in favor of people who have higher social class and social status, who come from privileged backgrounds or have prominence. In this case, the defendants in these cases were athletes who were popular and respected in their communities for their athletic prowess. Brock Turner was practicing and intending to make the US Olympics swimming team in 2016; he also came from an affluent white family. Because of his status, the judge had much more sympathy for him and decided to give him a more lenient punishment. If Brock Turner had been someone different, an average college student or a person of color, his sentence probably would have been much longer and the judge wouldn’t have taken such pity on him. Same with the athletes from Steubenville; they only got 2 years of jail time for their crimes. It is clear that our justice system, especially in cases like these, is not fair at all.
It is time to change this reality. The fact is, a crime is a crime no matter who perpetrates it. While there are always extenuating circumstances and each situation is different, a person should not be given lenient treatment just because they come from an affluent family/are a star athlete/are attractive. In the court, all people must be held to the same standard of the law, regardless of background or social status. Otherwise, it undermines the legitimacy of the legal system and faith of the people in its ability to provide justice. This is not about the existence of a rape culture; the defendants faced near universal condemnation from the rest of the country for their crimes. The two grad students who helped stop Brock Turner were men; they saw what was wrong and swiftly put a stop to it. Rather the issue is that the perpetrators had a higher social status than their victims and thus were treated more leniently than they should have been. That is the central legal issue that needs to be combated, and the sooner, the better.