A space for women and girls to share their experiences and perspectives
What can realistically be done about short sentances / probation for serious sexual assault?
It goes without saying that there has been a number of reported cases of young white college men being given incredibly short sentances / probation for serious sexual assaults.
This is the latest:
David Becker, 18, was charged with two counts of rape and one count of “indecent assault and battery” in connection with an incident at a house party on April 2. This Monday, Palmer District Court Judge Thomas Estes gave Becker just 2 years probation.
“He can now look forward to a productive life without being burdened with the stigma of having to register as a sex offender,” said his attorney, Thomas Rooke. “The goal of this sentence was not to impede this individual from graduating high school and to go onto the next step of his life, which is a college experience.... We all made mistakes when we were 17, 18, 19 years old, and we shouldn’t be branded for life with a felony offense and branded a sex offender... Putting this kid in jail for two years would have destroyed this kid’s life.”
I'm simplifying for the sake of brevity but it seems that a lot of the judges in these cases are older white dudes who over-empathise with the perpetrator and disregard or minimise the impact of the crime. These assaults are often put in terms of "promising young man gets a bit drunk and makes a silly mistake, let's not ruin his future".
I don't know about you but I've got drunk heaps - really drunk - and never sexually assaulted anyone. If, like David Becker, you wait until women are asleep to attack them, well that's more than an accident or mistake. That's a truly terrible and harmful action. David Becker is a sex offender whose life should be impacted by the crime they committed.
I feel that much of this is down to community standards. How can we change this? What can be done? Does anyone else feel the rage I do about these cases?




There aren't many realistic solutions I can think of that wouldn't end up hurting the victim more than the rapist.
Maybe vote for more women judges? Continue working towards eradicating rape culture? To me that's really what it comes down to: We have too many judges who look and think like the rapists instead of the rape victims and who end up upholding the rape culture we live in.
it's a fine line to walk. on one hand, you want a judge who will give sentences to rapists--proper sentences, with jail and rehabilitation and hopefully the rapist can fully atone and accept responsibility for the terror they caused.
however, you don't want a judge who adverts themselves as 'tough on crime'; those are the judges who will use the death penalty whenever they can, only care about having a high rate of conviction, and overall make a mockery of justice.
where possible, campaigning for judges whose philosophy on justice is appropriate is the key solution. of course, that campaigning will be difficult. first, you'll run into people (like some in my community) who believe anything higher than stealing a candy bar is deserving of life in prison, and that the death penalty is the best thing in the world despite how often innocents get executed.
second, you'll have to deal with the sitting judge, who will absolutely go to extremely dirty tactics to say anyone judge who isn't 'tough on crime' supports rapists and child molesters.
third, even if judge's are elected in your area, you may not have anyone interested in running for judge against the incumbent. so you might be in a situation of trying to attract people to that position from somewhere outside the community, which comes with its own problems.
and then fourth, you have the fact that the general pop only cares about voting during presidential elections (and even then, majority don't vote anyway). so you'll have to convince enough people to go to the polls on a day they'll have to probably take off work, and in enough numbers to overcome the retired folks who have nothing better to do than vote on that day.
all of this is assuming you're in a place where judges are elected rather than appointed. if you're in the latter, you need to deal with all of the above but for county officials, state senators/reps, etc.
as far as community, i do believe community standards can be changed. holding events where survivors willing to speak go before a crowd to describe what happened to them and why judges need to stop with the 'he needs a college experience' crap could be helpful. asking a local business if you could stand in front of their store to ask people's knowledge on these issues and give them literature or information could be helpful. making local groups through social media could be helpful.
the main thing is to not put all this weight on yourself. find a friend who cares about this, or someone you know in the community, and work with them. the more people involved, the better it will work and the less chance you'll get disheartened and feel defeated.
This is why politics are so frustrating. I legitimately have no idea how to change anything.