Yesterday we covered the White Houses suggestions for universities to better combat and handle sexual assaults. As we mentioned 1 in 5 women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape during their time at college. This issue may seem faraway from you but it could very well be something your friend is going through: 1 in 5.
Iowa’s Central College found a male student guilty of raping his classmate so naturally, because the world is a horrifying place for rape survivors, they let him pick between two punishments. The university allowed the rapist to choose between expulsion before graduation or he could graduate without walking. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I wonder which one he picked. The latter choice allows the university to maybe if they feel like it call his future employers and let them know he is a rapist. I sincerely doubt they would ever do that because they’d have to take the time to find out where this guy is working. They couldn’t even be bothered to take the time to come up with two equal and fitting punishments.
After finding a rapist guilty they gave him two options: you can either graduate or not. That is literally what happened.
Jezebel points out, according to the Des Moines Register, “The committee said the man was offered a choice of sanctions because of “discrepancies between the two individuals’ perceptions and explanations of their relationship and the incident.”
Haaaaaaa. Do you see this rationalization? Because the rapist said one thing and the victim said another, the rapist was given a lighter punishment. Imagine that. Imagine that someone accused of a horrific crime might come up with a less horrifying version of that crime when on trial? If this rationality applied to any other crime murderers would nary be punished. “Yes, I shot the victim but I thought I was just giving her a bullet massage. You see, it was just a misunderstanding.”
This is what happens when rape cases are handled internally on universities and not in criminal courts. This slap on the wrist even after “The panel said it believed her mental health plummeted directly after the assault last year and concluded there was no evidence her symptoms were ‘feigned or attributable to any other cause.'” The panel saw this student going through psychological trauma, they attributed this trauma solely to the rape, they found the rapist guilty but that’s not worthy of a more serious punishment than “not walking” during graduation. That kind of punishment is the equivalent of your parents grounding you for forgetting to do your chores one day.
This is the world we live in. To add insult to injury instead of finding the student guilty of rape the panel said they found the perpetrator “slightly guilty” of “non-consexual sex.” That is the biggest fuck you to any rape survivor. It’s not rape, it’s just the kind of sex where you didn’t want it but he did it anyway, NO BIG DEAL.
Thank heavens this woman is filing for an appeal because this is not justice. This is not even close.
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Iowa College Lets Rapist Choose His Punishment Because The World Is Horrifying
