Our society has long acknowledged rape as wrong, but recent events have made it clear that there is a disconnect between acknowledging that it is wrong and punishing the perpetrators as violent criminals who have made their victim(s) suffer from terrible long-term psychological consequences. When rape actually happens, we somehow gravitate towards asking what the victim was doing to encourage rape instead of blaming the person who committed the crime.
Lately, the men who are supposed to be delivering justice fail to do so because they worry for the rapist’s future—not the woman whose life have been torn apart at the seams. Not the woman who will live with fears and nightmares for, quite possibly, the rest of her life. Not the next woman who, now blissfully ignorant, will be his new victim when the justice system proves to him his importance and invincibility. There is no out for these women—but hey, why ruin the rapist’s future?
Let’s make one thing clear: the victims of rape are never at fault. If a store leaves its doors open with money sitting on the counter, it’s still robbery for someone to walk in and take that money. Women certainly aren’t objects—rape is a very physical, forceful and intentional crime. You don’t accidentally rape someone. It is not a mistake; it’s calculated. Rape is still the rapist’s fault no matter what state they found the woman in. Period.
It’s this kind of attitude that leads judges like Robin Camp, who is a Canadian judge, to ask a rape victim in 2014, “Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?” and why she couldn’t just “skew her pelvis or push her bottom to the sink to avoid penetration?” This same judge advised the nineteen-year-old woman’s rapist to “tell your [male] friends that they have to be far more gentle with women. They have to be far more patient. And they have to be very careful. To protect themselves, they have to be very careful.” He acquitted the rapist, a verdict that has, thankfully, since been overturned; but these words were said either to directly the victim or to her rapist while she was present. This attitude towards rape is barbaric and unacceptable.
Similar outcomes have resulted in the American judicial system. Brock Turner was infamously convicted of raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. He was caught as “red-handed” as you can possibly get; he was pulled off of her by bystanders. He faced a maximum sentence of fourteen years in jail; and yet, because Judge Aaron Persky felt that “[a] prison sentence would have a severe impact on him,” he was given a mere six months in a county jail (not a prison) under protective custody. That infinitesimally small sentence was minimized to just three months for “good behavior,” but did he seem to care about good behavior before he stepped inside a jail cell? I think not.
Then, on August 15, 2016, 18-year-old David Becker was charged with two counts of rape and one count of indecent assault and battery. Although prosecutors recommended two years of jail time, the court case has been ordered continued without a finding for two years, during which time Becker will undergo probation. If he abides by his probation, he won’t just avoid registering as a sex offender; the case will be dismissed, and he will avoid having a criminal record at all. Becker’s defense attorney argued that “he does not need the jail door slammed on his opportunity to attend college.” The young women he raped will have to live with the pain and fear for the rest of their lives—but hey, at least he gets to go to college!
Why do we care about rapists’ futures? I certainly don’t. By ages 18 and 19, these young men have known for years that rape is barbaric and just plain wrong. They made a decision—a monstrous one—and one that doesn’t take a single second to enact. It takes thought to rape. These men knew what they were doing, and they knew that it was wrong, but they did it anyway, and our judicial system has let them get away with it. Letting these men get away with rape sends a very clear message to every man who has ever contemplated committing the same crime.
There is something to be said about ensuring that criminals, in general, have the opportunity to rehabilitate and contribute to society—but only after they have paid the consequences for their crimes. I don’t care if Brock Turner or David Becker are geniuses who may or may not discover the cure for cancer. They raped someone. I do not care about their future until after they have suffered legitimate consequences for their actions and genuinely repented for them.
As Christians, we must remember that repentance is always an option. God would have forgiven even Hitler, so He is certainly willing to forgive rapists, but that does not change the fact that these men have committed a crime. Their victims have no way out, and we are teaching these men—and the other young men out there—that it doesn’t matter if you are caught red-handed. No matter how bad rape is, these men’s futures are more important than their victims’ pain. So why not? What’s stopping them? Certainly not us.