Trigger warning: rape

In a previous article, I talked about rape culture as a whole: how our society is inclined to make jokes and not take rape cases as seriously as they need to be taken, very briefly mentioning white privilege and victim-blaming and the role they play in sentencing rapists.

Brock Turner furthered white privilege and the acceptance of victim-blaming earlier this year (and no, that's not a good thing.) He was sentenced to six months in jail for raping an unconscious woman, potentially only serving three, because he was a white athlete attending Stanford University and she was intoxicated. His sentence sparked fury across the country.

But what happened to him? Since the case died down, he's moved away from the spotlight--along with the issue of rape culture as a whole. If it's not new news, no one pays attention (remember Judge Persky and the recall movement? It's still on-going).

So what happens when a 15-year-old is raped by a bus driver and dropped off an hour from their house?

He gets 10 years probation and a GPS monitor because the victim "had 'credibility' issues" and he "had already served 100 days." According to Rodriquez's lawyer, the plea agreement "hinged on the victim's contention that he had forced her into sex" and the evidence "didn't really bear that out."

But hey, Mr. Lawyer, he pled guilty. Guilty. Last I checked, that means Rodriquez admitted to raping the child. Point blank. That doesn't mean you make a plea based on pain. Pain doesn't have to be present for rape to occur. Yes, it often accompanies the crime, but it isn't a defining factor. Rodriquez pleading guilty should have been the end of things.

Instead, you're showing a 15-year-old child and their family that the justice system is continuing to fail. 100 days in jail wasn't enough for Rodriquez. Four years wouldn't have equated to the trauma and emotional pain that child has been left with.

A man, a bus driver who parents are supposed to trust to bring their kids home safely five days a week walks away without a scratch. A school system that a child was supposed to learn from and trust is now a trigger for them. They won't be able to step foot in the building or on a bus without remembering, without flashbacks. And that kind of pain doesn't go away. You can't make a plea deal with trauma and bargain for less scarring.

In Rodriquez's case, there was victim-blaming. The problem is, I can't find any sources that go in-depth about the victim's "credibility issues." Why is that? Maybe because they're nonexistent. Maybe because they're capitalizing on the victim's weakness. Maybe because making a plea agreement based on pain instead of the rape is completely atrocious.

I want to see exactly why they deemed the victim to be a non-credible source in their own rape case. Where's that information?

The involvement of victim-blaming and white privilege in rape cases is growing. The more lenient sentences pop up, the more lawyers will start arguing with judges for giving a stricter sentence. "Why should my client get 14 years if Brock Turner only got six months?" "My client committed the same crime as Alexander Rodriquez and deserves probation, not jail time." Those are the types of statements our justice system is slowly cultivating.

We can't keep telling victim's that it's their fault for being raped. We can't treat them like a discarded piece of cardboard on the side of the road. Any further blaming we do to any victim of any form of sexual assault only furthers the trauma they're experiencing.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a world where we let rapists walk away from their sex crimes. And if we keep following the trend we've started this year, that's exactly what we're going to end up with.