Lets Blame “Party Culture” for Sexual Assault…

Brock Allen Turner, a 20 year old Stanford University star swimmer, who sexually assaulted an unconscious girl behind a dumpster, is compelled to say that he too had been “shattered”not by remorse over the assault but by “party culture.” This assault happened on January 18, 2015, but there is still a lot of controversy on this case.

Now, we college students cannot lie. The Party Culture comes with a lot to handle, such as a mixture of liquors, with drugs ,and now (legalized) marijuana. It is normal especially during college to go out, get wasted, and have some fun. There is no shame in that. Especially if you are 21.

But it is never okay to rape or sexual assault anyone, male or women, especially if they are intoxicated ! If you are intoxicated, then that is a sign that you are done for the night. Blaming alcohol for foul conduct seems to be the norm to try to get away with committing a crime or to try to persuade for a shorter sentence. But, there is a common attitude that alcohol causes sexual assault. But multiple studies suggest that this is false.

If it wasn’t for two cyclist on campus grounds, Stanford University, who witnessed a man on top of a defenseless half naked woman. Gratefully and luckily, they took the courage to tackle the man who was sexually assaulting the woman, behind the dumpster. This shows, there is still good people in the world and not all are just bystanders. If they have not done what they did to help this woman, probably there would have been no one to punish for the wrong done to her.

Now, people are so easy to jump and defend a loved one by blaming the Party Culture. For example, Turner’s father wrote, “Brock was desperately trying to fit in at Stanford and fell into the culture of alcohol consumption and partying. Well, there seems to be this sole blame on alcohol consumption, instead of questioning what was going on in his head that made him believe that he was not going to get punished for his crime.

Along with the father, a childhood friend, Leslie Rasmussenm, jumped in to save his friend by writing, “this is not rape” followed by this is “idiot boys and girls having too much to drink.”

Well yeah, as a response to Leslie, Rape is Rape, call it like it is. Don’t be scared. The harm to the survivor has been done. And it has caused her irreversible harm. According to her testimony, she describes her memories after waking up,“All that I was told was that I had been found behind a dumpster, potentially penetrated by a stranger, and that I should get retested for HIV because results don’t always show up immediately.”

Well it seemed that the white privileged boy was finally being punished as the law states. He was sentenced to 14 years… But, a judge in 2016 reduced the sentence to only six months in jail and three years of probation. Oh snap, white privilege strikes again. The Judge’s explanation was that a stiffer sentence would have a “severe impact” on Turner.

According to Kimberly Crenshaw and her “Mapping the Margins” analysis on intersectionality, we come to the conclusion that this fits into the political. When a sexual assault goes into play, factors such as race, economic class, and gender seem to be the major elements to deciding a sentence. For example,Time tells us that there has been countless accusations have been downplayed or outright dismissed under questionable circumstances, especially if the accused is privileged and/or white. When it comes to privilege white male they often are freed from the full punishment. They use their social class and economic class to get out of severe punishment. But if this same crime was committed by a male of color, I can guarantee that the punishment would have been severe.

There is research published in Sociology of Sport Journal in 1997, found that even though athletes are more likely to be arrested for sexual assault than the general population, they are less likely to be convicted. And still today the statistics are true. For example, 54% of arrests in the general population for sexual assault result in conviction, compared to 31% of athletes arrested for sexual assault.

Brock Allen Turner did not only have his sentence reduced to six months, but was able to get out in three months after good behavior. Just two months ago on December 2, 2017 he announced that he was going to appeal his sexual assault conviction. His lawyer decided to claim that it was not a fair trial and that the victim was to be blamed as she was highly intoxicated. “The jury heard the evidence and decisively rejected Turner’s efforts to blame the victim.” This shows how Brock Turner is clearly using his social economic place in the society to try to erase the past. He believes he is above women, and now above the law. But his privilege within the society doesn’t provide a get out of jail card but as witnessed does help his situation. He obviously is not taking responsibility for his action, but is trying to direct the blame.

Michele Dauber, a professor of law at Stanford and the chairwoman of a committee to recall Judge Persky, said on Saturday. “The problem with this case is not that Judge Persky was unfair to Brock Turner, it’s that Judge Persky was unfair to the victim.” This is the sad but truth, we live in a society that has been embedded to put white male over anyone else. We as a society have places the blame on the victim without questioning why being intoxicated gives anyone an excuse to take advantage of someone in that state. Don’t blame alcohol for bad decisions, but blame the perpetrator and the system that has failed the victims so many times.