Contact: Gina Lauterio
Email: glauterio@saveservices.org
Stanford Sex Case Highlights Dangers of Campus Rape Adjudications
WASHINGTON / June 14, 2016 – The recent sentencing of Brock Turner, former Stanford University student convicted on three counts of felony sexual assault, has stoked national outrage, and refocused attention on the proper role of the criminal justice system in handling campus sex crimes. Turner was sentenced to six months in jail for his sexual assault of an unconscious woman.
The letter written by the victim has registered over 16 million views (1); a petition calling for the impeachment of the presiding judge has generated over one million signatures (2); and Vice President Joe Biden has penned an Open Letter to the woman (3).
The case has also stoked public awareness of the shortcomings of campus committees in handling felony-level crimes.
Washington Examiner writer Ashe Schow explained, “the worst thing a campus can do to someone like Turner is ban him from campus, leaving him free to prey on off-campus victims.” (4)
Writing in the Washington Post, KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor noted, “the Turner case shows that the best way to deal with a campus sexual assault problem is to rely on law enforcement professionals to protect women and to pursue justice, not on campus disciplinary systems run by amateur sex bureaucrats.” (5)
Spotlighting the role of binge drinking, National Review columnist Mona Charen decried how campus hook-up culture is the “greatest petri dish for enabling rape and sexual assault imaginable.” (6)
SAVE has recently released a bill, the Campus Equality, Fairness, and Transparency Act (CEFTA), which encourages the referral of campus sex crimes to criminal justice authorities, and requires colleges to implement policies to curb binge drinking (7).
- https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra?utm_term=.eg4MkJQMp#.qdy9m5r9e
- https://www.change.org/p/california-state-house-recall-judge-aaron-persky
- https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomnamako/joe-biden-writes-an-open-letter-to-stanford-survivor?utm_term=.yhDeBOaeQ#.cfZ89Wv8y
- http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-stanford-swimmer-isnt-part-of-rape-culture-hes-just-a-sexual-offender/article/2593195
- http://wapo.st/1PnhSw6
- http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436403/stanford-rape-case-hook-culture-root-campus-sexual-assault-problem
- http://www.saveservices.org/sexual-assault/cefta/
SAVE is working for evidence-based solutions to campus sexual assault: www.saveservices.org