TW/CW: sexual assault
In late March, the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned a felony rape conviction because the survivor was voluntarily intoxicated during the assault. The unanimous decision, written by Justice Paul Thissen, stated that the lower court’s definition of mentally incapacitated “unreasonably strains and stretches the plain text of the statute” since the survivor was already voluntarily drunk when she met her attacker.
Under the current Minnesota state statute, a person is considered mentally incapacitated and incapable of consenting if they are under the influence of alcohol, a narcotic, anesthetic or any other substance that is administered to them without their agreement.
Many other states also hinge consent on whether the intoxication is voluntary or involuntary. However, even survivors of sexual assault who voluntarily become intoxicated deserve justice because making that decision does not negate their right to consent.
Such statutes are also extremely concerning as roughly one-half of sexual assault cases involve alcohol, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The rates on college campuses are even higher. Intoxication can alter cognition, desire and emotion, cause complete loss of consciousness, and can lead to inauthentic consent or a complete lack of consent.
The survivor in the Minnesota case, who was found to be not mentally incapacitated, even reported losing consciousness multiple times during the assault. However, because she was voluntarily intoxicated, she was denied justice. A clear double standard exists in these cases. While the perpetrator can use the intoxication as an excuse and is given the benefit of reasonable doubt, the survivor is directly blamed for making the decision to become intoxicated.
From the way a woman dresses to the activities she decides to participate in, our society almost always seeks to blame the survivor rather than the perpetrator. Therefore, it’s not surprising that our laws reflect those views, especially since many of them have not been updated in decades. New York just changed their definition of mentally incapacitated to include involuntary and voluntary intoxication last year. This was the first time legal definitions and conditions of sexual assault had been updated in the state since 1995.
The goal here, though, should not be to pump more people into the prison industrial complex but to analyze the social dynamics of power that are coded into our laws in the first place. They represent the minimal value we place on women’s autonomy and perpetuate a culture where women are taught how not to be raped and men aren’t taught not to rape.
Women can’t walk at night without carrying mace. They can’t wear a short skirt without fear of being victim-blamed. They can’t get drunk or high on their own free will without wondering if they’ll be sexually assaulted and then retraumatized through a painful, unjust trial. It’s time to move beyond a punitive framework that puts the responsibility of justice in the hands of the systems that are already oppressive and even perpetrate violence themselves. These systems, defined by a patriarchal society, clearly do not create justice, healing or accountability.
Transformative justice demands, instead, that we think deeply about the root causes of all forms of gender-based violence. Nothing is going to change by making women change their behaviors, activities or clothes to protect themselves from sexual violence. Moving towards transformative justice also demands that we uplift and promote survivor healing and real accountability. Through this, we can work towards creating strong, connected and responsive communities that actually protect people and prevent violence.