By Katelyn Needham/ campus editor
One in five women and one in 16 men will be sexually assaulted while in college, and more than 90 percent of those victims will not report it, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
With numbers that startlingly high, why are we allowing known offenders like Brock Turner to serve short jail sentences?
Turner is an ex-Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted a female behind a dumpster on campus after a party.
He was caught by two people on a bike ride who then held him down until the police arrived.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average sentence time for a sexual assault is 11 years.
But Turner only served half of his six-month county jail sentence.
Three months in county jail for a sexual assault is not enough. The six months that Turner was originally sentenced was not enough either, but three is absolutely unacceptable.
Allowing him to walk free after such a short time in jail just reinforces the idea that even if victims do come forward, they will not receive the justice they deserve.
Turner’s case lasted a year, and the whole year was spent trying to justify his actions, blame it on party culture and, more disgustingly, blame it on the victim.
We cannot keep allowing sexual predators like Turner to skate by with a slap on the wrist and very few other penalties.
Turner must register as a Tier III sex offender every 90 days, is banned from USA swimming and has to complete three years of probation. While these are all steps in the right direction, nothing will make up for the initial mistake the judge made.
When caught with weed in the state of Ohio, the possible sentence is a year. Someone caught with the least offensive of the illicit drugs could serve more time than a sex offender.
Not to undermine the importance of the war on drugs, but that is outrageous.
Drug addicts are only damaging their own bodies while rapists are taking away the victims’ rights to feel comfortable in their own bodies.
Turner’s victim will never get the justice she deserves in a system that awards sex offenders with less jail time than someone caught with pot.
