Trigger Warning: This article includes topics of sexual assault/rape, PTSD and other mental illnesses, as well as criminal behavior.

It's amazing how incredibly flawed our criminal justice system is that people arrested for drug possession can end up serving longer sentences than those charged with sexual assault/rape who are often leaving their victims with monstrous mental illnesses for the rest of their lives. In the unfortunate instance where a survivor of sexual assault commits suicide, we do not charge the attacker any further for the victim's death, whether they are in prison or out. We still revere statements like Jefferson's in the Declaration of Independence that echo, "…all men are created equal," and even though different waves of feminism have applied this back to women, children, and other marginalized groups: there is still inequality.

Sexual attacker, Brock Turner, recently was released from prison after just three short months—a time some internet users are indignantly joking is shorter than the time barbecue sauce spends in the refrigerator. Joking aside, Turner raped a defenseless woman behind a dumpster in January of 2015, causing her mental anguish she is still grappling with today. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison, the lightest sentence a person guilty of this crime can receive; on top of it all, he was released after just three months, or half of his sentence, due to "good behavior." While his sentence was given months ago, America is still haunted by the assumption made by Judge Aaron Persky: "[H]e wouldn't be a threat to others."

This assumption completely disregards psychology and other social sciences that predict behaviors like sexual assault are often reproduced and that criminal and deviant behaviors can seem reasonable to those conditioned to be accustomed. This assumption puts an infinite amount of other women and other persons at risk, not just in the Turner case, but in the cases of millions of other rapists in the United States alone. This assumption is how 39 NFL players and countless other college athletes like the ones seen in the film, The Hunting Ground, can walk free. Moreover, this assumption perpetuates the idea that when Corey Bateywas charged with the same crimes, he faced a minimum sentence of 15-25 years compared to Turner's six months; this is an idea of white supremacy.

Lastly, this assumption is based on the negligence of the humanity of any person who is a survivor of sexual assault and rape. The indifference towards individuals who have been stripped of their humanity by the crime itself and the trauma and mental illnesses including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Depression, Anxiety Disorders, Agoraphobia, and a wide array of addictions is appalling. A larger percentage of survivors of sexual assault and rape, "…experience moderate to severe distress, a larger percentage than for any other violent crime." But we are not doing anything to combat this.

So, what do we do? The answer, while idealistic, is as simple as it seems: teach people not to rape. Rape is a socially accepted construct, despite its status as a crime, because we teach men, primarily, through the media and our culture that they can get away with it. While masculinity and power differences set up by society don't help, cracking down further on these criminals (and acknowledging they are criminals in the first place), and giving longer sentences. There is no one way to solve this problem, but acknowledging that these are criminals and believing accounts of sexual assault are two of the biggest things we must do.