On January 17, 2015, a 22-year-old woman went to a party with her sister and woke up in a hospital bed surrounded by nurses informing her that she was raped. The 20-year-old man who raped her was Brock Turner. According to her statement to the judge in this case, she overestimated her tolerance for alcohol and blacked out, was taken behind a dumpster, was stripped from the waist down, then penetrated while unconscious. Brock Turner was convicted of three sexual assault charges that March.
This situation could have been much worse. Two graduate students happened to be riding their bikes by the scene while this rape was in progress and were able to put a stop to it, get Brock Turner into custody, and get the victim to a hospital. This made it possible for physical evidence to be collected, as well as provide the victim with two witnesses.
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One of the parts about this case that gets everyone riled up is the portrayal of Brock Turner by his family and the media, which ultimately effected his sentencing. Until early June, authorities refused to release Brock Turner's mugshot, so media outlets used his yearbook picture. Not only this, but the media referred to this man not as a criminal but as an "all American swimmer," and in articles regarding the rape that he committed, talked more about his swim records than his actual crime.
This outraged people, and for good reason. It seemed that because this man was a middle class, white athlete meant that he shouldn't be held accountable for his actions.
His father thought so. In Brock Turner's father's letter to the court, he states that Brock is paying a "steep price" for only "20 minutes of action," and claims that he "has never been violent to anyone including his actions on [that] night."
Hold on. So rape isn't violent?
Apparently the judge agreed, because Brock Turner was sentenced to only six months in county jail, with the ability to shorten that time frame with "good behavior."
Yes, this case is horrible and makes me sick to my stomach. But let's take a step back and look at the bigger picture for a second: this situation happens all the time. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), out of 1,000 rapes that occur, 344 will be reported, 63 reports will lead to arrest, 13 will be prosecuted, 7 will be convicted of a felony, and only 6 will be incarcerated. That means that out of 1,000 rapists, 994 of those rapists are like Brock Turner.
So why does this happen? Unreported rapes. Why are rapes going unreported? Cases like Brock Turner's.
Why report it when the rapist will get away with it, even when convicted?
Victims who report rape are often blamed for their own rape. Many are asked how much or why they were drinking that night, what they were wearing, if they were sure they didn't consent, and sometimes just outright are believed to be lying.
So what can we do to keep this from happening? Keep talking about it. What makes this case stand out from others is that people are sharing this story. Too often victims' stories are swept under the rug, like the media attempted to do in Brock Turner's victim's case.
As a society, we cannot allow victims of sexual assault to be silenced. We cannot let the Brock Turners of this world have their swim records and yearbook pictures plastered everywhere for sympathy. We must see the mugshot of the rapist that got little punishment for the heinous crime that he or she committed.
"When I was finally allowed to use the restroom, I pulled down the hospital pants they had given me, went to pull down my underwear, and felt nothing. I still remember the feeling of my hands touching my skin and grabbing nothing. I looked down and there was nothing. The thin piece of fabric, the only thing between my vagina and anything else, was missing and everything inside me was silenced. I still don’t have words for that feeling." [1]
"After a few hours of this, they let me shower. I stood there examining my body beneath the stream of water and decided, I don’t want my body anymore. I was terrified of it, I didn’t know what had been in it, if it had been contaminated, who had touched it. I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else." [2]
We must remember to hear the victim's voice, because sometimes it feels like no one will.
