So unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two weeks you’ve definitely heard of the Stanford rape case. Or as I like to call it, Brock Turner is a rapist and it doesn’t matter what prestigious school he goes to. Just in case you haven’t heard, the gist of the case is that the Stanford freshman and Olympic hopeful swimmer raped a 23-year-old woman at a frat party on January 17, 2015 behind a dumpster. He was caught in the act by two young men passing by who restrained him until police showed up. Even with these firsthand witness accounts he was only sentenced to six months of jail time (a maximum of 14 years was possible for the sum of his convictions) because a longer sentence would “have a severe impact on him”. The American public was outraged when news broke, as they should be, and the boy’s father put out a statement saying his son shouldn’t be judged so harshly for “20 minutes of action” because he was a great swimmer and he had no prior record. And most recently, Brock Turner’s booking records, which are public information that anyone has access to, revealed that his scheduled release date is September 2, 2016. That means he will only actually serve three months of his sentence and will spend the rest of his time on probation but walking around as a free man.
Okay, so now that everyone is cleared up on the unbiased facts, what. The. F**k???
There's so many problems with what happened. There's the fact that it took over a year and a half for Turner to even receive a sentence for a crime he obviously committed, seeing as how there were multiple witnesses who were there as it was happening. There's the fact that a young, white, upper middle class boy was able to get lawyers who could take what he did and spin it into nothing in front of a judge and jury. There's the fact that this boy's father, the man who is supposed to be guiding him to making good choices, condensed what he did into "20 minutes of action" as though it was a light workout or a consensual quickie. There's the fact that we live in a society where a swimming career is more important than the life time of trauma that woman now faces, that he's labelled in headlines as a swimmer who raped someone and not as a rapist or a criminal who also just so happens to swim, as if his time in the pool is at all relevant to the horrible crime he committed.
These are very important issues but to me they aren't the worst part. There are always going to be bad people, people who break laws and do bad things. As tragic as it is it's also unavoidable. The world isn't perfect. As Americans we're supposed to be able to trust that our legal system will serve justice to these bad people. We're supposed to know that once proven guilty (especially when there's so so so much proof and evidence that someone did commit the crime) that the criminal will receive a just sentence. So why, when there's medical evidence and witnesses, when the maximum sentence is 14 years (which still seems unfairly short to me but that could just be my bias against rapists) did this boy only get 6 months? Why is the "trauma" to his swimmer career so much more important than the trauma that woman will spend the rest of her life coping with? It absolutely disgusts me that a judge, a man who is supposed to uphold the values of the American justice system, could place the importance of a few more years of swimming over the importance of what he did to her and her suffering. In my opinion that judge, Aaron Persky, should be disbarred. What he did was blatant sexism and shows how extreme rape culture in our society has gotten.
For those of you still living under rocks, rape culture is the extremely prevalent aspect of American culture that allows, condones, and ignores rape and other sexual violence and blames the victims for what has happened to them. It’s based in the societal standards for gender and sexuality and it’s seriously messed up. Rape culture is crippling our society and hurting the collective psyche of everyone, not just women. We’re taught that “boys will be boys” and girls should never set their drinks down and not get too drunk and heavens forbid wear something that shows skin because then they’re “asking for it”. And then we let people like Brock Turner off with light sentences because it would mess up his training schedule too much but, because the woman he attacked has no memory of her assault, Brock Turner gets to write the history of what happened that night. He gets to lie and twist the truth and walk free in just three months’ time while his victim will still lie awake at night, afraid to fall asleep and face the nightmares of what happened to her. Brock Turner will get back to swimming and his victim will try not to drown in the trauma of what she has survived.
The saddest part is, while this case gained a lot of publicity very quickly (and don’t get me wrong it deserves every second of media coverage it’s received) it is not unique. It is not rare. As a matter of fact, similar situations are very common and this is how the legal system has let us all day. People nationwide are enraged because Brock Turner will only serve three months but the sad reality is that is significantly more time than most rapists spend behind bars. The CDC reports that 1 in 5 women will be raped in their lifetimes. Twenty percent. But less than 1% of rapists will spend a single day behind bars. Eighty percent of sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows and will probably see again. Good luck sleeping tonight with that on your conscience, America.
Unfortunately, the problem isn’t just with judges throwing out light sentences. It’s the fact that rape and sexual assault is so painfully under reported in the US because women are afraid to come forward. It’s common knowledge that saying “I was raped” doesn’t get answered with “are you okay? How can we help you? Who was it?” but instead with “what were you wearing? How much did you drink? Why were you near your attacker in the first place? You were asking for it.” Victims are forced to relive their assault over and over and over again, only to often have the case dropped because “it’s just a case of he-said/she-said and we can’t confirm anyone’s story”. Now I’m sorry but who are you to say that women are the liars even though both accounts are equally unreliable? Who are you to say my case doesn’t deserve to go before a jury? Who are you to say that women’s clothing, alcohol consumption, or friends are reason their bodies are violated and their sense of safety are stolen from them? My body is not property for the taking if it’s easily accessible.
Rape is not theft. Rape is assault. Rape is a crime and we need to stop letting criminals walk away. That is rape culture. That is the legal system letting all women down. It’s appalling. I’m ashamed to live in a society that condones these things. I’m disgusted to know my country’s legal system that was set up by our founding fathers to protect me is blaming victims and letting attackers walk the streets to do the same thing to more women because they know they can get away with it. It is not “20 minutes of action”. It’s rape. Sending him to prison for 14 years is not “a severe impact on him”. It’s justice. It’s what the system is supposed to do. The problems with Brock Turner’s case are all relevant. They’re all important. But they all come back to our underlying rape culture and disappointing and defective legal system. It’s a society that allows and condones this behavior. It’s so much bigger than this one case and it’s time for a change. It’s time to tell our police officers, detectives, judges, prosecutors, and people that we won’t stand for this anymore. It’s time to stop allowing our legal system to let us down. It’s time to end rape culture.
