Lessons From the
Stanford Rape
The View from the Middle
A little over a year ago,
a young man named Brock Turner took advantage of an inebriated, unconscious
young woman behind a dumpster on Stanford’s campus. This opening line should be proof enough for
most of us that this was not a consensual act.
This March, a jury found him guilty of three felony charges of sexual
assault (technically not rape) and the judge sentenced him to six months in
jail and three years of probation.
This set off a firestorm
of criticism across the country suggesting the sentence was insufficient and
demanding a recall of the judge, Aaron Persky.
While this approach might make some people feel better, it has little
chance of success and even less of a chance of diminishing rape on college
campuses across this country. There are,
however, a few actions that we could take as a people that might actually put a
light on this epidemic and help bring it under control.
First, this young woman
took this to court and weathered the persecution that she knew would come with
her actions. Too many women fail to report their rapes even when sobriety is not an issue. Learn from this brave young woman and demand
justice. She also wrote a lengthy account
of her feelings about that night and the entire trial process. It is lengthy, but I have supplied a link
below for your convenience. I do
encourage you to read it to get a full appreciation of what she endured.
Second, this would show
that the system will actually work if you give it a chance. Turner was only sentenced to six months in
jail, but also got three years of probation and a life sentence on the sexual
offender register. Even a three year
jail sentence, which is what the victim in this case asked for, would have
only resulted in a year and a half of actual time served. I would have certainly approved of that longer
sentence, but the real deterrent is a lifetime of embarrassing explanations of
the disgusting behavior that qualifies any person for such a register.
We need to make these
consequences of rape abundantly clear to every incoming freshman on every campus
in America. I can’t imagine a university
that would resist delivering this sort of “no tolerance” message to their
students since the cost would be minimal and the impact could be so
dramatic. I personally can’t imagine
what pleasure a man would get from a sexual encounter like the one described in
this case, but for those who might, a vision of life on the sex offender
register might be just the medicine they need to resist the temptation.
Finally, let us address
the elephant in the room. In her petition
to the judge the victim in this case wonders if this sexual abuse could have
been avoided if she had not been intoxicated to the point of
unconsciousness. Would Mr. Turner have simply moved to a
different victim or would this incident have not occurred at all? While better judgment on her part might not
have changed the circumstances for Brock Turner, I think it is fair to conclude
that it would have changed everything for this young lady.
So the big take-away from
this terrible incident is for women (and men too) not to put themselves at risk
by over indulging in alcohol, especially when in the company of men who are
probably doing the same thing. This in
no way suggests that this young lady is to blame for this incident, but when
anyone reduces their physical and mental capabilities to the point of making themselves defenseless, it makes them vulnerable to reprobates like Brock
Turner. You can be innocent, but still suffer grave damage.
In closing, if you are a
young man who takes advantage of women as in this case, know that you disgust
me and virtually all of the rest of society and you deserve whatever punishment
our system allows. If you are a young
woman, especially on a college campus, I beg you not to put yourself at
risk. Even better, I would ask you to
keep a vigilant watch out for your fellow sisters of the world and step in when
you see situations like this developing.
While a disaster avoided cannot always be identified, it is no less
consequential.
