Stanford shows responsible case-handling
Campus sexual assault is obviously a national epidemic. Despite recent measures to investigate sexual assault cases at many universities, including USC, and California’s fairly recent passage of “Yes Means Yes” legislation, there appeared to be no definitive answers to the problem. Fortunately, the handling of Stanford University’s recent sexual assault case reveals a possible solution. Though the assault’s occurrence shows we are still nowhere near the end of this battle, the legal response to the situation sets a respectable standard for addressing campus rape.
The attack in question took place at Stanford in the early hours of Jan. 18. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, two graduate students who were biking stopped and called the police when they saw the assailant — freshman athlete Brock Allen Turner — on top of an unconscious woman. The students called the police and then physically restrained Turner until authorities arrived at the scene. Turner was arrested and subsequently charged with five felony counts. As if this level of adjudicating competence were not unusual enough for a campus sexual assault, Turner withdrew from the university, despite his athletic talent.
It is bizarre in itself that this case has yielded actual consequences for the assailant, but what really sets this particular incident apart is the involvement of law enforcement professionals. Instead of reporting the incident to campus authorities, the witnesses contacted local police directly. The Daily Beast points out that “while counseling services and other resources for victims of rape and assault can almost certainly always be improved, it’s a mistake to make university officials the main investigators, let alone judge and juror.” After all, university adjudication often serves to muddle the due process of the accused and fails to provide victims with sufficient support and protection. The situation is not always clear-cut, as definitive witnesses and clear visibility are rare in such cases, but dealing directly with the law prevents image-conscious universities, which includes most if not all institutions of higher education, from having their judgments influenced by fears of a tarnished reputation. We cannot eradicate campus sexual assault until perpetrators assume full responsibility — in the eyes of the law and society as a whole. Because so many cases of campus sexual assault are swept under the rug or mishandled, this one stands out for its proper adjudication. On the other hand, public reactions to this case have revealed America’s deep-seated misogyny. Chronicle writer Kurtis Alexander reports that students were utterly unsurprised that “a star athlete [had] been accused of raping an unconscious woman outside a campus party.” Alexander quotes Stanford student Hannah Abolos, who commented that she was “surprised and also not surprised,” since “[t]here’s a lot of things in the party culture that are conducive to this.”
Abolos’ sentiments reflect the common misconception that alcohol and party culture are responsible for sexual assault. A controversial October 2013 report from USA Today stated that alcohol is the most common date rape drug. As CNN’s Matthew C. Whitaker stated, “[w]arning women about heavy drinking places the burden of not being sexually assaulted squarely on the shoulders of victims, and when they are raped this twisted dynamic often leads them to blame themselves.” Indeed, women appear to be disproportionately saddled with unprecedented repercussions of their drinking; Alexander’s Chronicle article reveals a glaring double standard in the words of Stanford junior Kimberly Kreb:
“If you’re a guy, you can go out and drink all you want and the worst you end up with is a hangover. If you’re a woman, you have to assess.”
This double standard reveals the biggest stumbling block for those working to eradicate campus rape. Victim-blaming harms the offended party and absolves assailants from their full share of public disdain — even if they’ve been arrested. Whitaker likens “blaming women for their own sexual assault, no matter how much they drank”, to blaming “someone who left their keys in their car for the theft of their vehicle.” He asks readers, “Is leaving your keys in your car unwise? Yes. Is it the cause of your car being stolen? No. The person who stole your car is the responsible one. Besides, they do not need your keys to take your car.” Indeed, it is always best to be on your guard, but if someone is intent on harming another person, alcohol is not the determining factor.
Efficient legal handling is a step in the right direction, but deciding whether to report a rape to the police or university officials would not be an issue if campus assault weren’t so rampant. Rape is a matter of power — an assertion of archaic ideas of masculinity. Until society reconsiders its notions of gender and places 100 percent of the blame on the attackers, campus sexual assault will never cease. Changes to university protocol will not hurt, but campus sexual assault — and sexual assault in general — will not disappear until society stamps out misogyny for good.
Jennifer Frazin is a sophomore majoring in English and theatre. Her column, “Not That Kind of Girl,” runs Wednesdays.