Why do we protect rapists?
It is difficult to know where to start when looking at the Stanford University rape case. The circumstances which have followed show just how incapable we are to deal with sexual violence. I find it terrifying that a rapist is being presented with such pity, and you should should be scared too.
For some bizarre reasons, we are very unwilling to present rapists as legitimate criminals. Naturally, cases involving children or weapons tend to garner little to no sympathy. However the case of convicted Stanford student, Brock Turner, shows how willing the world is to forgive young man who seemingly has his whole life ahead of him.
This makes little conceivable sense though. Is Turner’s ‘bright’ future worth more than the future of his victim? How many women would Turner have needed to sexually assault or rape before the façade of naïve teenager was dropped? Instead, the public seem to be mourning more for the lost swimming scholarship than the women who was his victim. This alone says a lot about the media treatment of women and their perception of female worth.
I find it terrifying that a rapist is being presented with such pity, and you should should be scared too
He is followed around not only by sweet, youthful images, but also by the epithet of ‘champion swimmer’ and the like. We are constantly reminded that he has lost so much, and that he has lost his life, when he seemingly had so much to offer. But where are the headlines which details what his victim lost? Rape is not the sort of crime which one can just get over.
She will likely relive and suffer as a result from that trauma a very long time. It likely has and will continue to shape her life differently. However, no one seems to focus on that. Turner got “20 minutes of action” all right, but his victim will likely have a lifetime of remembering and reliving that horrific series of events.
He is followed around not only by sweet, youthful images, but also by the epithet of ‘champion swimmer’ and the like
When people have the audacity to question Turner’s punishment of being a registered sex offender for the rest of his life, it seems fitting to remind them that the woman involved will also bear what happened for all of her life. If she has to carry the weight of that night with her for the rest of her life, why shouldn’t Turner?
However, possibly the most disturbing part of this whole case is that it is not isolated. Campus rape is an epidemic. In many ways,Turner’s victim was fortunate – or at least as fortunate as one can be – because two witnesses apprehended Turner and testified. However the documentary film The Hunting Ground revealed just how prevalent instances of unpunished sexual violence are on US campuses. The same can be said the UK, and an Australian NUS survey also reflected this truth. It even happens at Warwick.
Campus rape is an epidemic
We need to start caring about rape not to protect rapist, but to support survivors. You wouldn’t pity any other criminal, so don’t pity rapists. No matter how innocent they look or what they lost when they decided that they just really needed to have sex, they are criminals. Survivors are not.
Comments (2)
Mr. Deutsch,
Perhaps it’s worth noting:
*My awareness and happiness at the backlash surrounding the sentence
*My signing of numerous petitions to recall Judge Aaron Persky
*Keep the reprisals coming, it’s a good sign that they are being called out
Society has never been and is never entirely sympathetic toward rapists. In this article I speak specifically of the perpetrators of campus rape. However I have now met numerous victims of campus rape who are routinely and systematically told not to report nor go to the police. It is still a huge problem that university students are given sympathy even if they have committed an act of sexual violence. This is the point of this piece.
I did not laud The Hunting Ground, merely stated it as evidence that campus rape is an international problem. It may have innacuracies but, unless you refute all of the claims of sexual violence in the documentary, it fulfills the purpose for which it is stated here.
Ms. Johnson,
I suppose you haven’t noticed:
* So many people speaking out against the arguably light sentence
* The movement to actually recall Judge Aaron Persky, who followed the recommendation of the probation office when imposing that sentence
* The reprisals against others who dared speak up — however misguidedly — in favor of Brock Turner. And even “collateral damage”. Such as Turner’s childhood friend Leslie Rasmussen. She wrote to Judge Persky to ask for a lighter sentence for him. So her *band*, Good English, has now been blackballed and even their previously scheduled events have been canceled.
Yeah, tell me how society is so in favor of Brock Turner in particular and rapists in general. Most people *hate* rapists, perhaps even more so than murderers.
And about The Hunting Ground? It’s kind of flawed:
http://saveservices.org/camp/the-hunting-ground