“Rape culture is victim-shaming a woman for being ‘too drunk,’ then defending a man by saying his actions were influenced by alcohol.”

We’ve all heard about the infamous Brock Turner, how he raped Jane Doe behind a dumpster while she was unconscious. Maybe you’ve read the letter she released, or maybe you’ve all heard Turner’s pathetic attempts to justify what he did or his parents’ responses as well. Personally, reading any attempt to justify his heinous actions make me sick to my stomach. Worse even was the insultingly lenient sentence that judge Aaron Persky issued, sending a message to victims that their safety, and the safety of others, is not a priority. He devalued and disrespected every single female on Stanford’s campus, putting them inherently at risk as well as females on other campuses, showing them their concerns aren’t viewed as viable or legitimate.

But this isn’t new.

Stanford was not quick to address this assault, and I have still yet to find a public condemnation of Brock Turner and the assault. Which is not shocking, given that in the period between 1996 and 2013, there were 259 reported sexual assaults, yet only one expulsion. While I’d like to say this is an anomaly across U.S. college campuses, it is far from it.

Dartmouth: (2002-2013) 155 reports of sexual assault, three expulsions.

University of California Berkeley: (2008-2013) 78 reports of sexual assaults, three expulsions.

UNC: (2001-2013) 136 reports of sexual assault, zero expulsions.

University of Virginia: (1998-2013) 205 reports of sexual assault, zero expulsions.

However, at the University of Virginia, in the same time period, there were 183 expulsions for cheating and other honor board violations. (Statistics courtesy of "The Hunting Ground.")

All of these universities sufficiently established that they value a reputation more than the safety of women, more than prosecuting an assault that is a war crime.

Oh, but don’t worry. A number of other universities have established a punishment for those found responsible of sexual assault.

Columbia University: suspended for one semester.

Indiana University: suspended over summer vacation.

Yale University: suspended for one day.

University of Colorado, Boulder: a $75.00 fine.

The University of Toledo: a $25.00 fine.

Brandeis University: a warning.

University of Colorado: assigned a paper to reflect on your experience.

Occidental College: required to construct a poster board listing 10 ways to approach a girl you like.

But to get to that point, the blame is too often placed upon the victim and the protection is placed upon the perpetrator. “What were you wearing?” “Did you say no?” “How many times did you say no?” “Well, did you pregame?” “How much did you drink?” “Did you try to fight him off?” And the victim is victimized and shamed over and over and over again.

If you still don’t believe that women are put at a disadvantage in pursuing reporting their rapes, let’s take a look at the number of times rape was okay.

1. Brock Turner, Stanford University.

2. Lizzy Seeberg was raped at the University of Notre Dame, and after difficulty of finally being able to report the football star who raped her, he was found “not responsible.” Following a brief “investigation,” Seeberg committed suicide, and the University remained silent.

3. Again at the University of Notre Dame, in 2002, a woman was gang-raped by four men (at that time, three current football players and one former player). “'No one's going to believe you,' the accuser says she was told. When she went to the cops anyway, Notre Dame officials 'treated [her] horribly at every opportunity.' They wouldn't let her park her car on campus, despite her fears that the players would come after her. The counseling center turned her away because of 'pending legal matters,' the accuser says, 'though the legal matter they were talking about was the state versus these four rapists.'” (Jezebel.com)

A student at the university, Erin Ryan, goes as far as to say that “it's an unspoken, unwritten rule that the football team gets to do pretty much whatever it wants, and if you mess with the team, you have not only the wrath of the student body to face, but the wrath of a rabidly obsessed and well-capitalized alumni network” (Jezebel.com). In Seeberg’s case, when word leaked that Time magazine was expecting to release a cover story on the case, the board of trustees at the University of Notre Dame called for an emergency meeting. According to a source on the call, “one trustee said there might still be one more way to try to get the piece killed” (Washington Post). The story was effectively blocked from being published--only for it to be published later by a smaller news source, National Catholic Reporter.

4. At Amherst College, student Angie Epifano was raped in May of 2011. She reported her rape a year later to a college sexual assault counselor, who skeptically questioned Epifano if “it might just have been a bad hook-up,” (The Atlantic) then later advised against pressing charges on account of Epifano’s alleged attacker being close to graduating. “It wouldn’t get you very far to [press charges]” she was told (The Atlantic). Epifano’s request to change dorms went on to be rejected, but she did receive some hearty advice from the university: “to forgive and forget” (The Atlantic). Epifano’s safety was finally taken into account when she requested to study abroad in South Africa. She was denied the opportunity by the concerned dean of Amherst, who said "It [was] for the best; Africa is quite traumatizing, what with all those horrible third world conditions" (The Atlantic).

5. At the University of Michigan, student-athlete Brandon Gibbons was accused of rape in 2009. Gibbons’ roommate, All-American LT Taylor Lewan, threatened to rape the victim if she pressed charges against Gibbons. Two teammates reported the threats to the police, but nothing was done by anyone in the Michigan program to punish Lewan. Gibbons continued his football career until November of 2013 when Coach Hoke said Gibbons suffered from an injury preventing him from playing. Gibbons continued to practice through December but did not play in games. On Dec. 19, Gibbons was expelled from his graduate program.

“Knowing that a permanent separation would render an athlete ineligible to participate in any NCAA event, Michigan coach Brady Hoke still said at a Dec. 23 press conference that Gibbons didn’t travel to Tempe, Ariz., for the Dec. 28 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl because he was dealing with a family matter at home” (Chat Sports). Essentially, what happened was that Hoke was informed by his employer that Gibbons was a suspected sexual predator and under investigation, but Hoke decided to keep Gibbons playing for as long as possible to generate the most wins and win all of the “must-win” games. The victim’s attacker was allowed to finish his undergraduate degree and enroll in a graduate program while the victim was haunted every day by what had happened to her. The University of Michigan did not punish the attackers (both Gibbons and Lewan) timely nor justly, effectively disregarding the safety of and justice for the victim.

6. The University of North Carolina. In 2012, Andrea Pino was raped on her way back to her dorm. She was sober and had attended a party that evening only to look for her friend. Pino suffered from a concussion during her attack, leaving her to remember just a hazy walk back to her dorm. She woke up to a bed covered in blood, to this day not knowing her attacker. She suffered from PTSD and depression; when Pino applied for medical withdrawl, Pino reports being told from the Academic Advising committee that she was just “being lazy” (Huffington Post).

Annie Clark, also a student at UNC at the time of her attack, was asked by the college sexual assault counselor that “Rape is like football, and you’re the quarterback; when you look back on a game, Annie, how would you have done things differently?” (Huffington Post).

I won’t even begin to explain what is wrong in these situations, with this school, because it should be evident.

7. Yale effectively bred a draconian environment when they did not punish adequately those involved in a campus-wide march with the destination being outside of an all-female dormitory, chanting “No means yes! Yes means anal!” (Newsfeed).

These are all situations that a simple Google search surfaced. It is not an in-depth look at all of the crimes that were not pursued justly. This is a snapshot of the corruption that plagues college campuses all across the United States.

We are all shocked when situations like Brock Turner’s are brought to light, to the media. We all look at each other in disbelief, wondering how the hell rape, a war crime, could be treated so nonchalantly. However, when an assault like rape on a college campus is brought to the media’s attention, it is merely magnifying one puzzle piece of the entire picture that a team of officials is trying to effectively minimize. We like to think that women, and victims in general, are treated with respect, treated as if their concerns are viable. It is all an illusion. Too many times victims are forced to question what they did to deserve/provoke an attack; too many times victims are rejected by those who are supposed to help them. To think if one accuses another of rape and that it will be treated timely and respectably is ignorant. The law-and-order society in which we live is muddled by a dark group of members who value a win over integrity, a name over safety, and a reputation over justice.