Brock Turner gained popularity last Summer for his sexual assault against a passed out woman behind a dumpster. Not only did the assault cause a national uproar, but his sentence, six months in county jail (though he only served three) was the main focus of the situation.
A crime worth 14 years in prison and Turner only served three months.
Though Turner’s jail sentence passed about a year ago, his troubles are far from over. The former Stanford student’s mugshot is featured in the second edition of Introduction to Criminal Justice: Systems, Diversity, and Change, a college criminal justice textbook. The textbook, by University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs’ professors Marie Dodge and Callie Marie Rennison, used Turner’s mugshot as an illustration for the “Rape” section.
Brock Turner is used as the example for a rapist in this new textbook https://t.co/I0UxNcUgey pic.twitter.com/wZdy1jOgmo
— The Cut (@TheCut) September 14, 2017
“Brock Turner, a Stanford student who raped and assaulted an unconscious female college student behind a dumpster at a fraternity party, was recently released from jail after serving only three months,” the caption reads.
The judge for Turner’s case, Aaron Persky for the Santa Clara Superior Court, claimed that though alcohol is “not an excuse” for the assault, it’s still considered “a factor that, when trying to assess moral culpability in this situation, is mitigating.” Persky determined that a prison sentence would have “a severe impact” and “adverse collateral consequences” on Turner.
For the victim and for anyone traumatized by sexual assault, this sentence and judge’s statement has never seemed so flawed.
The victim released a powerful and heart-wrenching letter depicting her feelings and the “severe impact” the assault had on her. Buzzfeed posted an article titled “Here Is The Powerful Letter The Stanford Victim Read Aloud To Her Attacker.” The post featured the 7,200-word letter the victim read aloud in court, showing the victim’s bravery and broadcasting her message nationwide. The post went viral with 11 million views in 4 days.
Though the authors have declined comment on the illustration, the captions speak louder than spoken words.
The textbook’s caption continues: “Some are shocked at how short this sentence is. “Others who are more familiar with the way sexual violence has been handled in the criminal justice system are shocked that he was found guilty and served any time at all. What do you think?”
What Turner’s father believed to be “20 minutes of action” is now a permanent textbook definition of “rape.”
Realistically, Turner wasn’t convicted of “rape.” Instead, he was charged with: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated person; sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object, and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. For “rape” California’s law requires forced sexual intercourse, to which Turner did not commit(simply because the victim was unconscious).
The post by Hannah Shuman, a freshman at Washington State University, was shared 99,672 times and continues to go viral.
“I didn’t think anyone of status or wealth would ever want to bring him up again, it seemed like America just wanted to act as if he never happened,” Shuman said to the Huffington Post. “I’m glad his name is resurfacing.”
