Should we lower sentences for some sexual offenses? They’re widespread in America and we’re not solving the problem.

A victim objects to a 6-month sentence for non-consensual sex

This Washington Post article tells a story about a young white Stanford student who had non-consensual sex with a drunk woman and received a 6-month sentence, while the prosecution recommended 6 years.

The victim submitted a letter to the court:

“As this is a first offense I can see where leniency would beckon. On the other hand, as a society, we cannot forgive everyone’s first sexual assault or digital rape. It doesn’t make sense. The seriousness of rape has to be communicated clearly, we should not create a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error.

 

Is a 6-month sentence enough?

This boy spends six months in jail and has a permanent criminal record. That’s serious. That’s not forgiveness. That communicates the seriousness of his crime (which wasn’t rape, although I don’t know why…) While six months might seem short, can you imagine having 180 days of incarceration because you were unable to think straight, fueled by alcohol and testosterone? That’s a huge punishment. And it’ll teach a huge lesson.

More than that, the trial went for a year, a year of hell, fretting, worrying. And a lifetime of regret. Not just regret that he threw his life away, but that he hurt someone. And apparently he still thinks his experience was that of getting drunk and making a mistake. Whatever forces were running him, he lives knowing he can’t trust himself when drunk, and that he did something horrible.

Meanwhile, the victim continues to suffer. She wrote a powerful description of her experience, and its lasting effects. He has to live having caused that. I don’t know if he admits it secretly to himself or if his brain has closed it off, hiding in denial. Both are high prices to pay for a few minutes of horrible actions.

About the Stanford student, the judge said: “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him … I think he will not be a danger to others.” We can safely assume the boy also expressed remorse.

My points are these:

• Having a record is a severe penalty.
• Being locked up for six months is a BIG deal.
• Large penalties have much higher costs, both to society as well as to the criminal
• Large penalties cause fewer crimes to be reported so the problems continue

Half of college sports athletes coerce sex

Then I saw this article: “more than half the men who played an intramural or intercollegiate sport reported coercing a partner into sex.” But even more, consider the flip side of this, that almost none of these “coercions” are reported. Part of that is that women are afraid it was partly their fault (even though it wasn’t). Part is because they don’t want people to know what they were forced to do, they don’t want the embarrassment and humiliation. But part of it is that the penalties for this kind of behavior are so high. Women often feel responsible for not subjecting their attackers to a huge ordeal.

I suggest we lower the penalty for first-time offenses if it wasn’t rape and the circumstances suggest that the perpetrator will learn from the experience and not do it again.

Maybe the penalty should be 1-3 months in jail, a good series of classes about morality and personal responsibility and self-awareness, and a temporary record. By “temporary”, I mean after 2-4 years it no longer needs to be declared to employers, on housing applications, etc. But it’s still on the record in case another such crime occurs, to support its value as a deterrence.

I don’t know if there’s a fair penalty for these crimes. I don’t know if there’s a fair penalty for Brock’s crimes. Fair to whom? It seems like the most important thing is to eliminate these crimes, to prevent them.

Years of jail isn’t workable. A shorter sentence is.

Under current law, given the article above that says 50% of men that play IM sports coerce sex, a large fraction of the young men in our society should be put away for years. That’s clearly not a workable solution. And the current huge penalties help these crimes to continue, both by deterring victims from reporting them, and by making the trial such a big deal. He, and I’ll bet his family and lawyers, felt they had to do everything they could to avoid the huge penalty that was possible. So it took a year to go to trial. A year of hell for Brock, but an incredible year of hell for the victim.

Now imagine we adopt my suggestion. We COULD put even half of young men in jail for 1-3 months, and give them a series of classes about morality and personal responsibility and self-awareness, and a temporary record. The record would effectively disappear if they become respectful members of society. Plus, with a program like this, women could feel confident that reporting coercion or date-rape will teach a guy a lesson AND not ruin his life. And they’ll know that if he ever does it again, he’ll go away for years.

With a lesser penalty, more guys would be identified and convicted. With the chance that it wouldn’t destroy their careers, many more would accept the penalty instead of putting the victim through a trial. And with more guys convicted, it’d be a much more powerful message to men that they’ll likely not be able to get away with it.

Even better, prevention

But the most important thing is the learning. I suggest that all young men have such a series of courses. Even better than effective punishment is effective prevention. I even know the perfect course to start with.

I never coerced sex. But boy, did I want to at times. I had to handle those pressures alone, ashamed, with no idea how common it was, nor how natural. Plus I had no real tools for helping sort through it. Back in the 1970’s, we just didn’t talk about that stuff, nor was it on TV. Though now it’s on TV, they still don’t deal with it very effectively. I knew it’d be wrong, but I had no idea how damaging it’d be to a woman. Knowing that would have helped a lot.

Let’s use our heads, not our anger. Let’s talk about solving the societal problem, not just punishing one guy who happened to get caught, and second-guessing the judge.