It will take more than just prison time to rehabilitate Ched Evans
Just because Ched Evans has “served his time”, it does not mean that justice has been done for his survivor.
A while ago for Abstract Mag, I wrote about how our reliance on the justice system is failing rape survivors. This seems more relevant than ever after a week when Ched Evans was allowed to train with Sheffield United again after being prosecuted for rape and serving just half of his five-year sentence.
Our models of justice when it comes to rape are so skewed that people are claiming that it is unfair that Evans’ career is ruined, that he has served his time and should be allowed to play again. The survivor and the effect the rape had on her life is, conveniently, never mentioned.
When Olympic Gold Medallist and Sheffield lass Jessica Ennis-Hill said she wanted her name removed from a stand at Sheffield United should Ched Evans be offered a new contract by the team, she received rape threats on twitter. If that doesn’t tell you something about the kind of role model Ched Evans is for his fans, I don’t know what does.
Obviously, rape culture is a problem here. But the issue goes wider than that, to the very core of how people understand the term “justice” in our society. Consciously or unconsciously, people are buying into a model of “retributive justice”. This is the idea that punishment, if it’s fair, is the best response to a crime. We are all taught from infancy that this is the natural balance in society — if we do something wrong, we will be punished — so it’s no wonder that we don’t question it.
There are problems with this model though, the most obvious being “what is a fair punishment?”. If you’re a victim of a crime, you’re going to argue for a harsher punishment than someone who has been left unaffected — that’s why Evans’ fans are happy that he has only served two-and-a-half years in prison. Those in favour of retributive justice argue that retribution should be distinguished from vengeance, so we have created an “impartial” legal system; victims do not get to decide on appropriate punishments. But in reality, there is no way to objectively decide what punishment fits a crime — so the whole model of “retributive justice” is fundamentally flawed.
If we believe in retributive justice, then Evans has served the legally mandated punishment for his crime, and therefore his punishment is over — he should be able to continue his life as before. But what if we moved away from this broken model to one of “restorative justice”? This argues that society should focus on the needs of the victim, and that criminals should focus on restoring the damage they have done. If the damage cannot be restored, then the focus would be to prevent such crimes from happening again.
Prison time, then, would be not be about punishing the victim, but giving them a space to realise their wrongdoing, and to discourage others from committing the same crime. Evans has left the prison system as comfortable as ever that he did nothing wrong. Immediately restoring him to a position of power, a position where he can claim that what he did was “not rape”, will do nothing to prevent future crimes. Restorative justice has not taken place.
Ched Evans raped a woman while his footballer friend watched and encouraged him. Rape happens because we live in a society where rape is seen as acceptable. The only way to stop rape happening is to make it unacceptable. Evans’ peers and the football community must restore the damage they have done by making it clear that rape is unacceptable to them. He must be made to understand that having sex with a woman too drunk to consent is a violation that will destroy his career. He must be made to see that; his teammates must be made to see that; his fans must be made to see that; and young boys who aspire to be him must be made to see that.
Ched Evans’ career does not have to be ruined, but he must acknowledge what he has done. He must show his remorse and he must actively campaign against sexual violence. People who want second chances have to earn them, and justice for survivors of sexual violence is only truly served when everyone joins their fight.
Originally published at abstractmag.com on November 17, 2014.
