I’m sure by now, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have heard about Brock Turner, a former Stanford University student. If you haven’t, allow me to give you the run down of everything you need to know. On January 18th, 2015 two students found Brock Turner, a collegiate swimmer, raping an unconscious and exposed woman outside of a fraternity house at Stanford. When the woman finally regained consciousness, she found herself in a hospital with nothing on except the hospital gown. She was made aware of complete details of the assault from the news. Brock Turner plead not guilty to five felony charges the following month. Despite the serious charges including attempted rape, rape of an intoxicated person, and sexual penetration of an unconscious person, Turner stayed true to his story claiming that they were hooking up consensually and he simply “fondled her.” He was released on a bail of $150,000.
Later that year, Turner faced a hearing where two of his five felony charges were dropped. In March of 2016 Brock was found guilty of raping the woman and was scheduled for sentencing in June, facing a maximum of 10 years in prison. However, on June 2nd, 2016 he was sentenced to just six months in prison followed by three years of probation. He was also required to register as a sex offender.
Judge Aaron Persky made his sentencing decision based on the fact that he believed “a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him (Turner).” Persky also stated that he did not believe Turner would pose as a danger to society. There were two letters submitted to the judge encouraging opposing sentences; one from the victim of the assault and one from Turner’s father. The victim’s letter was 12 descriptive pages of the terrifying and tragic events. However, Turner’s father explained the rape as “20 minutes of action.” How despicable does a human have to be to diminish a rape down to just 20 minutes of action!
Growing up, my mom always reminded me that it doesn’t take much for your life to take a major turn in the wrong direction. “Just 30 seconds of stupid.” I know people whose 30 seconds of stupid resulted in death or jail time, yet Brock Turner had 20 minutes of repugnant actions and not once did he stop to think what he was doing was wrong. His victim describes the moment she started to find pine needles stuck throughout her hair because Turner dragged her outside and raped her under a tree. His actions were not those of a mistake or “30 seconds of stupid,” but rather a conscious decision to absolutely denounce a person’s ability to defend themselves.
According to RAINN, the largest anti-sexual violence network in the country, over 285,000 people are victims of sexual violence each year in the United States. However, only 15-35% of those cases are actually reported to the police. People often question the reason as to why victims don’t report their abuse right away or even at all. Unfortunately, the outcome of Brock Turner’s case is one of the reasons people stay quiet. The young woman’s statement from the sentencing was released and is truly heartbreaking. In her statement, she describes both the assault and the fact that her life will forever be different because of this individual’s shameless decision. After suffering through countless interrogations from attorneys and police officers, consistently reliving her worst nightmare, the selfish degenerate walks out of jail after just six months.
In the statement released, we experienced just how in depth the conversations were with the attorneys. They questioned the victim’s every move even prior to the party at the fraternity house that night. “What were you wearing? Did you have dinner that night? Did you drink with dinner? No? Not even water? Did you drink when you were in college? You said you were a party animal? How many times did you black out? Are you sexually active with your boyfriend? Would you cheat? Do you have a history of cheating?” While I understand that the attorneys needed to paint a clear picture of the situation in order to provide full details to the jury, I do not believe there is ever a reason to take advantage of another human being sexually or otherwise.
I, too, am guilty of not reporting my experience with sexual assault to the appropriate people in a timely manner. At the age of 17, facing the reality of what happened to me was agonizing to say the least. I had just started college and wanted to continue to live out the “true college experience” just like the rest of my peers. What would people think of me if I told them what happened? Who would believe a young and naïve college freshman? I had actually convinced myself that somehow it was my fault; that maybe I encouraged it and that he was simply following my lead. I didn’t actually tell anyone about my experience until almost a year after it had happened. Looking back, I wish I had said something that night, that weekend, or at least that month. Reporting it doesn’t change the fact that it happened, but it means you don’t have to deal with the situation alone; constantly eating away at you.
Despite the fact that it has been five years since my assault, the feeling of vulnerability never truly goes away. If I am out in public and even see someone who looks like him, I get nervous. For a very long time, I felt as if he damaged me so much to the point that no one would ever look at me as someone who deserved the be loved and respected. I felt broken and who in their right mind would want a broken human to fix? Fortunately, I have people in my life who remind me daily how worthy I am of love and affection. It is never the victim’s fault, regardless of how they were dressed or how intoxicated they may have been.
Honestly, this was not a topic I anticipated to write about for a number of reasons. I am a firm believer in keeping criminals’ names out of the equation in order to avoid them receiving “fame” even if it is bad publicity. However, in this case, I hope Brock Turner and the word rapist are forever synonymous, encouraging massive disgust against the coward. The great sensitivity of this topic is also one of my reasons for initially shying away from expressing my opinion on the issues. However, this sentencing was morally corrupt and I can’t seem to keep it off my mind.
What kind of message does Brock Turner’s sentencing send to the world, sexual abuse victims, and sex offenders? If you’re a privileged white college athlete with no previous convictions, odds are, you can probably get away with stripping someone of their human rights and dignity. The cowardly judge didn’t want to ruin Turner’s life despite the fact that Turner destroyed someone else’s. Now, you know about Brock Turner, the rapist.
