Was Justice Served?

Was Justice Served?

On January 18, 2015 law enforcement officers responded to a report of an unconscious female near Kappa Alpha fraternity house where they found a young woman on the ground in the fetal position.  Once at the hospital here blood was taken at her blood alcohol level was at 0.12% and physicians estimated at the time of the assault to be around 0.22 %.( cnn.com/standfordrapecase).  Here are few excerpts from the victim’s statement during the trial “Alcohol is not an excuse. Is it a factor? Yes. But alcohol was not the one who stripped me, had my head dragging against the ground, with me almost fully naked. Having too much to drink was an amateur mistake that I admit to, but it is not criminal.” “Ruin a life, one life, yours, you forgot about mine. Let me rephrase for you, I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin two lives. You and me. You are the cause, I am the effect.”(paloaltoonline.com) The Attacker Brock Turner has been under public outcry, his father wrote a letter to the judge arguing that his son should receive probation, not jail time, the following are excerpts.” His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve,” “That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.” These are both powerful statements from two different people, however Justice was not served in this case.  The statements from the victim are profound and as she stated her life is ruined.  Turner’s father’s statements are ones that will haunt him for the rest of his life because of the language without emotion used.  

When the case is looked at all the information must be examined. Brock Turner comes from a middle class white family attending a prestigious college. Judge Aaron Pesky is a Stanford graduate and former men’s lacrosse coach.  He has been known to hand out strict judgements on sex offender cases.  According to reports he told the courtroom” A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him (Brock Turner). I think he will not be a danger to others.”  Brock Turner has placed the blame on a “party culture” of “drinking”, in one year alone 300,000 college women, over 5% of women enrolled in college experienced rape. (Kilpatrick, Resnick, Riggiero, Conoscenti, & McCauley, 2007) 98% of perpetrators are men (; Sedgwick, 2006) Men who consume alcohol two or more times a week and who have peer support for behaving in an emotionally violent manner toward women and for being physically and sexually violent toward women are 10 times more likely to commit sexual aggression toward women than men with none of these three characteristics (Schwartz, DeKeseredy, Tait, & Alvi, 2001). These figures are alarming and these men just like Brock Turner have used alcohol as the excuse for sexual assault towards women.  Justice was not served in this case like many others hopefully this story will shed light to an upcoming epidemic.

Foubert, J. D., Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., Brasfield, H., & Hill, B. (2010). Effects of a rape awareness program on college women: increasing bystander efficacy and willingness to intervene. Journal Of Community Psychology, 38(7), 813-827. doi:10.1002/jcop.20397