Brock Turner Case Study

Brock Turner is a Stanford athlete, a victim of college drinking culture, but also a sex offender. In any case of duplicity, the perpetrator can be defined in one way, but also the opposite depending on what lens is adopted. In the case of Turner, what is true from every perspective is on a Saturday night, January 17th, 2015, Brock Turner was found on top of a half-naked girl behind a dumpster by two graduate students (Stack). He did not rape her, but he was convicted of sexual assault on three felony accounts and sentenced to 6 months of prison and 3 years of probation (Stack). According to Turner and his father, he was a victim of college drinking culture. According to the girl, he is a sex offender.
In order to plea innocent, Brock Turner …show more content…
According to Emily, Brock Turner sexually assaulted her that night (Bever). The amount of alcohol that flowed through his and her body was not the issue, because “alcohol is not an excuse. Is it a factor? Yes” (Bever). But, from Emily’s perspective, “alcohol was not the one who stripped me, fingered me, had my head dragging against the ground, with me almost fully naked” (Bever). Brock is responsible for his actions no matter what state he was in. The fact Brock was a Stanford athlete does not excuse him for his actions either. Considering Brock proclaimed he was the victim proves there is a problem larger than just Brock. Rather than blaming the drinking culture, what is to blame is that Brock adopted society’s general view on women and sexual assault. These views are the foundation of the rape culture on college campuses. Emily was clearly unconscious and not able to give consent. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, sexual assault is define as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient” (Sexual Assault). Emily could not even speak, let alone give explicit, verbal consent (Bever). Brock had the choice to take as many drinks as he did. He had the choice to continue dancing with Emily inside at the party. But, Brock chose to bring Emily outside, he chose to separate her from the party, and he chose to sexually assault her. He made all of these decisions for Emily because she was not able to do so at the time. Many college students do not understand the definition of sexual assault. According to a study done by professor Mary Koss at University of Arizona, “7.7 percent of male students reported anonymously they had forced or tried to force someone to have sex with them, but almost none of them considered that