A recent headline reads, "No jail for 18-year-old accused of raping 2 teens." It is headlines like these that have become a thing of commonality in the media lately. It is headlines like these that represent how inhuman some people can be. David Becker of Massachusetts is one of the humans represented by this. Becker was accused of raping two unconscious high school girls at a house party back in April and was in fact found guilty. However, the tragedy of this is that he was only sentenced to two years' of probation according to the New York Daily News.
The judge who convicted him said he made his decision based on the fact that he thought Becker still deserved to have a normal "college experience." However, allowing a young man a college experience who literally admitted to one account of rape I might add, only means this man's college experience will most likely include raping unconscious women yet again. As college is a mix of parties and booze (let's be honest), I have high doubts imagining this young man will not act again. I have high doubts imagining he will not degrade women and unrightfully take away the choice that is theirs.
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What really upsets me is that the judge in this case also referred to Becker's actions as a "mistake" one makes when they're young. He also stated his reasoning for choosing said sentence was that he didn't want to destroy the young man's life. However, what about the lives of the young girls that Becker raped, what about how their lives were destroyed? I guarantee it will not be easy for these women to bounce back from this, for them to not carry this around for the rest of their lives. It may cause them to lose faith in people, and it may impact them in more ways than one. These girls are only in high school, after all, they are on the road to adulthood, a time when confidence is needed, and of course someone came along and took this away from them, made them not feel safe.
I will say this again, any person capable of rape is a person with zero regards towards humanity. Any person capable of violating someone in such a way does not deserve to get off easy. These people need to pay for what they did or else how will they ever learn there lesson?
Rape needs to be taken more seriously and unfortunately I feel like it's not. Instead of dissecting the people who commit the crime, people seem to rather dissect the victim. "What were they wearing? Was it provactive? Did they lead you on? Were they asking for it?" These questions are absurd.
Frankly, it doesn't matter how a person was dressed, it doesn't matter if they were flirting with you at one point and not the next, it doesn't matter how strongly you think they came on to you, none of this matters. People need to stop psychoanalyzing the victim and instead analyze the person who would be capable of doing something so disgusting.
I feel that judges need to be further educated on this as well. While I blame and hold the person responsible who committed the rape to a much higher extent, I still hold some anger towards the judges that are letting these rapists off so easily. You would think they'd think about their daughters, their nieces, and their granddaughters in these circumstances, rather than protecting the view people hold about the male species, and protecting these heartless human beings. While I know men can be raped as well, and my heart goes out to them too, the recent cases that have been in the news involve women as the victims and men as the criminals.
Essentially, more has to be done about this issue. We can talk about it all we want, but not much may get accomplished. People need to take the statistics seriously, to realize that rape happens in our own backyards. And judges need to come to an understanding that despite the age of the rapist, they don't deserve protection or to get off scot-free. Even as high schoolers, these young men know what they're doing and they know they're in the wrong. They deserve to be punished just the same. Why do they deserve a life when they took away one of another? That is the real question.
