"She was drunk"

"She didn't say no"

"I drove her home. I deserved something in return"

None of these are excuses for rape. The rape culture in society today, especially on college campuses has gotten drastically worse in the past years. One in four college women have reported an act of rape within their lifetime. One in five women will be raped at some point in their lives while one in seventy-one men will. It has been common knowledge that women are blamed for rape in recent years, "she shouldn't have gotten so drunk," "she was wearing promiscuous clothing," "she let him drive her home."

Last time I checked wearing shorts and a crop top to a party wasn't asking for someone to force themselves on you, and getting a ride home wasn't an invitation to come in. Yet, these are all common excuses for those accused. Excuses such as these cause women to be scared to report the crime that has been committed due to the fact that they feel they will be held accountable rather than those accused.

In Brock Turners recent case he had used the excuse of alcohol for his actions. Alcohol is no excuse for inhumanly holding down another human and forcing yourself on them. While alcohol has a role in 97 percent of rape cases, according to Harrington and Leitenburg (1994), it does not make the crime any less punishable. Both victims and the accused will blame alcohol for the actions that had occurred but alcohol isn’t the only problem here.

While college students could take preventative actions by not drinking excessively, they shouldn’t have to. Not only women but everyone shouldn’t feel that it is unsafe to go to a party and drink without the night ending in a world shattering way.

Sixty two percent of women, who participated in a study at George Washington University where college students who had survived rape were surveyed, blamed themselves for being raped. Sixty-two percent just let that number sink in. Victims should not blame themselves.

Rape is never acceptable, never excused, and there is never a situation where a victim should be blamed by themselves or others. None of these factors should matter, not how drunk each party was, not how late it was, not if the accused did something nice for the victim before, not even if the parties were in a relationship. But they do. Unfortunately, sex offenders like Brock Turner get let off with a reduced sentence because of their privilege and their excuses.

Those who commit heinous crimes such as rape deserve to have their lives ruined, whether or not it was a drunken “mistake” they made the choice to commit the crime that ruined their life, the victim did not choose to have their lives ruined that night.

Rape culture on college campuses needs to drastically change, some campuses are feeling less and less safe for women due to the high counts of sexual assault. It is not fair to those women who are there for their education and to have some fun along the way. As a society, we need to step up and have a voice in this epidemic if we want to see a change.