Over the past few months we have all become familiar with the Brock Turner case. He was a former student and swimmer at Stanford and was convicted on three felony accounts of sexual assault for raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. Judge Aaron Persky, the judge who presided over Turner's case, sentenced Turner to a mere six months (only three of which he actually had to serve) behind bars for this heinous crime when the recommended minimum was ten years with the prosecutors arguing for six. The sentence Turner received was so short because he had no previous criminal record and Judge Persky believed that prison would have too severe of an impact on him and would be unnecessary because he doesn't think Turner would be a danger to others. Since then there has been a huge backlash and Judge Persky has since stopped hearing criminal cases for at least a year. The collective outrage over this short sentence, Turner's actions, and all the victim blaming that Turner and his family and friends took part in is a nice refresher and will hopefully lead to a culture change where rapists are called out and held responsible for their actions. This problem is much more systemic than just Brock Turner and Judge Persky however.

This past week the Canadian Judicial Court held a hearing for Justice Robin Camp to determine whether comments he made to the victim in a rape trial in 2014 were grounds to remove him from the bench. He told the victim that "sex and pain sometimes go together...that's not necessarily a bad thing." The victim testified that Justice Camp asked her why she "couldn't just keep (her) knees together" and made her feel like the assault was her fault. Camp also illegally admitted testimony about the victim's sexual history. Releasing information about the victims sexual history is humiliating and would discourage victims from coming forward. It is also irrelevant to the assault case they have at hand, just because someone has consented to an action in the past does not mean they consent to it for all times after. In the United States we have a rape-shield law that limits defendants' ability to bring up the victims sexual history in court. This law is currently being debated in Seth Mazzaglia's appeal. Mazzaglia was found guilty of murdering Lizzi Marriott and then raping her, later tossing her body into a river. In the original trial Mazzaglia's lawyer argued that Marriott was a willing sexual partner who died by accidental smothering and he thought that her past sexual history should be used as evidence to support that. The judge decided that her sexual history was irrelevant, but it now might be brought up in the appeal.

The judicial system isn't the only establishment that continues to have issues with victim blaming. There have also been cases of police officers and departments belittling and taking advantage of victims. When Emma Sulkowicz a student at Columbia was reporting her assault to the police the officer she had been speaking with allegedly told her friends once she was out of earshot that "Of all these cases, 90 percent are bullshit, so I don't believe your friend for a second." Women of color are also much more likely to be marginalized and assaulted. In the case of former cop Daniel Holtzclaw, who raped at least 13 women (12 of whom are black) while on duty. He targeted these women because he knew they were the least likely to be believed: most of them black, low-income, and with previous run-ins with the law, the odds were against them. The investigation into the Baltimore Police Department recently also revealed that the way they treat sexual assault investigations needs a lot of improvement. The department often fails to test rape kits and follow up on serial rapists and they often don't take reports from sex workers seriously. The rape kit backlog and the disposal of evidence is a problem nationwide. It's great to see so many people rally around in support of victims in heavily talked about cases such as Brock Turner's, but we also need to work to make sure victims who do report are treated with compassion and taken seriously. Until we fix the problems in police departments and court systems, rapists will continue to get away with little to no punishment, and that is a dangerous precedent to set.