On January 18th, 2015, 20-year-old Brock Turner, former Stanford swimmer, was arrested on five charges of rape, for raping an unconscious female after a party behind a dumpster. When police arrived, they found Turner pinned down by two Swedish graduate students, Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson. After his trial in March of 2016, he was convicted of three cases of sexual assault . These charges have a maximum 14-year sentence, however, Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to six months in prison and three years of probation, however, new reports suggest that Turner could be released after serving half of his sentence. Judge Persky’s “lenient” sentencing has sparked national and international rage, from Congressman Ted Poe calling the sentence ‘pathetic’ while speaking to the House of Representative, to 1.1 million people signing the change.org petition to “Remove Judge Aaron Persky from the Bench For Decision in Brock Turner rape case.”. The outcry that this case has sparked has been unprecedented, especially when Turner’s father released a letter asking the judge to lighten Turner’s sentence. rape culture and the way the U.S. treats their rape victims is becoming center stage and breaking through barriers, such as when Vice President Joe Biden wrote An Open Letter to a Courageous Young Woman, in response to the victim’s own letter to BuzzFeed News. For more information about the case, check out this video.
As a young woman who is eventually going to be off in the world on my own, learning and growing, the statistic that 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted, including rape, on U.S. college campuses, is absolutely terrifying. Even more so, according to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), only about “6% of rapists ultimately go to prison for their crime.” Over and over again I have read the stories of girls who have been raped, but when they report it, the focus is not on the rapist or the rape itself. It is about the clothes she was wearing or how much she had to drink or if she was flirting with her rapist before the actions occurred. Reading the incredibly heartbreaking letter of the victim of the Turner case, it was no surprise to see how she was told to “go home and get back to [her] normal life,” victims are often told to do so after something so horrific has occurred. It gave me hope, however, when Vice President Biden made is very clear in his own letter that “What [she] endured (rape) is never, never, never, NEVER a woman’s fault.”. This is a critical moment in this case, and for our society. Although the murmurs of some state similar messages, and although it seems so obvious, never before has this message been said in such a strong stance by someone so important as VP Biden. Biden’s statement could be a game changer. His words have the potential to empower so many women to report their cases of rape, and although he can’t change the way our judicial system works, his words and pressure from the public have the can ensure that rapist in the future do not walk free and could end rape culture.
It makes me wonder if not knowing the identity of the victim has allowed others to put ourselves in her shoes and has let us empathize more with her. I wonder if the reactions to the case would have been different if she was a different race. I wonder if Turner hadn’t been from a prestigious school or an athlete if this case would have gotten the same amount of attention. I wonder if Turner had been African American or Hispanic/Latino if he would have gotten as lenient of a sentence as he did. Feel free to comment or share your thoughts on any of these question or the article as a whole below!
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