What’s an acceptable punishment for rape? Apparently not community service.
If you haven’t seen the Huffington Post article that started blowing up on Facebook and Twitter feeds Tuesday night, here’s the gist: last year, a freshman woman attended a fraternity party and drank enough to be escorted to the dorms by a male classmate, where they then had sex, despite the woman asking him to stop. Yes, the male classmate even admitted to authorities that this was true, but area police and the local district attorney have yet to prosecute him, though they did threaten to punish the girl for underage drinking. Although KU did find him guilty of “nonconsensual sex,” his list of punishments included probation, a ban from university housing, a four-page reflection paper and counseling. What was not included was community service, which the university decided was too punitive.
Whew. Have you taken a few seconds to let that soak in? Because ready or not, it’s time to dive in. There are a lot of things wrong with the story, and if you’re like me, your immediate reactions are probably some confusing concoction of disbelief, anger, sadness and disappointment. And then some more anger. If it does the same to you, then good. As a community and as decent human beings, we have the right to be angry. But as a community and as decent human beings, we also have to look critically at all of these anger-inducing facets of the story.
Let’s dissect this piece by piece, shall we?
1. A woman was raped, the man who raped her admitted to it, and local authorities continue to do nothing about. I may not be well versed in the ways of the law, but I don’t think that’s necessary to realize that there’s something very wrong about this. It’s already difficult enough for women to get justice for reported rape cases against men who deny the crime. Why is it that, even when there is an open admission, authorities still hesitate to prosecute? Is rape considered that petty of a crime? If authorities aren’t going to hold people accountable for their actions, we can’t we expect people to take these laws seriously.
2. Authorities threatened to punish the woman for underage drinking. So many rapes go unreported, whether this is because of fear, a lack of faith in the legal system, or the concern that they’ll be seen as a victim. This woman was brave enough to report her rapist, and in return, she was told that she did something wrong. I get it, she was a minor and it was illegal, but drinking is a huge part of college culture, and if we hold that against men and women who report sexual assault, people may become too afraid of the backlash to ever open their mouths against these injustices.
3. The university found the man guilty for “nonconsensual sex.” Some may argue that this is just semantics, but it’s semantics that are pretty important. Recently, some institutions (especially universities) have begun to label rape cases as “nonconsensual sex.” To which I reply: Sex, by definition, can’t be nonconsensual. Sex is consensual. Do you know what isn’t consensual? Rape.
The change in vernacular probably has to do with the connotations that the word “rape” carries. Language is important to the way we perceive things, and changing the term to “nonconsensual sex” softens the blow. Rapist is not a pretty word, and some feel it’s too harsh of a label. But why not call it what it is? A rapist is one who rapes. A rapist is a person who engages in sexual activity without the consent of another person. Changing the terminology is almost like holding the person unaccountable, at least to a certain degree. Because what they did was bad, but I mean, it wasn’t that bad, right? (Answer: wrong.)
4. Community service was considered too “punitive” of a punishment. Yes, because how dare we make someone who forced himself sexually on a non-consenting, intoxicated girl spend time working toward making the community a better place to live? Because violating a person’s body should be punished by asking the violator to write an essay shorter than most professors expect of their students, but it’s too much to ask them to spend any extra time reflecting on what they did wrong.
It’s not even just that the man wasn’t punished more harshly. It’s that community service was an option, but it was decided that it was too much. What does that say about the sexual assault policy on campus? If the school isn’t about to take these punishments seriously, how can we expect students to take sexual assault policies on campus seriously, either? Sexual assault is already such a big problem, and the fact that we can’t uphold stricter punishments points to why this might be the case.
These are the concerns we have to raise. These are the things we need to be talking about. Ignore it all you want, but this is happening in the town you live in, in the school you attend. Similar situations have happened to the people you talk to on an everyday basis. We are living in a time when rape culture has never been more examined. What better time to speak up?
This isn’t just a problem we’re facing here in Kansas. Sexual assault is a huge problem on campuses all around the country, and stories about universities taking rape cases lightly are starting to pop up everywhere. And as horrible as this is, it’s also good, because it means people are finally starting to talk about it. One student from Columbia University has made it her senior thesis to carry her mattress around campus until her rapist is either suspended or expelled. If that’s not taking a stand, then I don’t know what is.
We don’t all have to carry mattresses to our classes or the library. If you want to, more power to you, but there are a lot of ways to voice your opinions and get people thinking about what these lenient sexual assault laws on campus can lead to. In fact, students on Twitter have taken to using the hashtag #agreatplacetobeunsafe in conjunction with the #exploreku tag to gain more attention on campus. Let’s keep it going, ladies. I love our school as much as the next person, but we’re one of the 76 higher education institutions currently under federal investigation because of how sexual violence is handled on campus. We need a change, and we need it soon.
What’s an acceptable punishment for rape? I’m not sure I have an answer to that, but I do believe that a good start is treating rape as what it actually is–a violation of human rights. And until we reach that point, I, for one, am going to keep talking.