Campus Sexual Assault And The Lessons We Should Be Learning
Since Cain killed Abel there has been a continuous struggle regarding the line that should be drawn between one person’s pleasure and another’s pain.
Even the most selfish person should consider:
1) any pain another may experience due to the pleasure he seeks, and
2) any pain he or she may endure as a result of the pleasure he or she experiences.
Lives have been totally ruined as a consequence of driving under the influence of an intoxicating substance. Lives have been ruined while participating in illicit activities. Even selfish considerations could wisely lead to avoidance of such. Wise and thoughtful considerations beyond self would increase the unlikely-hood of participation in such illicit and potentially dangerous activities. Human suffering around the world, the absence of peace, the spread of poverty, disease, and every other ill from refugees to accidents and hatred could be seriously diminished if not eliminated.
Stanford Student Brock Turner And “20 Minutes Of Action”
Recently, a young man was caught in the act of raping and assaulting a young lady who was unconscious or perhaps inebriated. He tried to flee the scene but was apprehended by others more thoughtful and compassionate.
When the judge sentenced him to six months in county jail, the punishment was compared to the few minutes of pleasure, as though a few minutes of punishment would have been sufficient for his few minutes of pleasure.
“Widespread outrage has erupted over a California judge’s decision to give a former Stanford University swimmer a six-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman,” observed CNN’s Ashley Fantz. “Critics are blasting the decision as far too lenient.”
According to the CNN report, the young victim wrote a letter detailing the horrible treatment and process she endured before the assailant could be prosecuted. She reportedly felt physically violated all over again with shots, multiple swabs, and a camera for humiliating photos.
“After a few hours of this, they let me shower. I stood there examining my body beneath the stream of water and decided, I don’t want my body anymore. I was terrified of it, I didn’t know what had been in it, if it had been contaminated, who had touched it. I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else.”
Curing The Selfishness Before It’s a Problem
The problem of these crimes against young women on university campuses is too serious to be further ignored by police, prosecutors, college administrators, families, and community leaders. A Washington Post-Kaiser poll released in June 2015 found that 1 in 5 women say they were sexually assaulted while in college. Statistics within the Criminal Justice System suggest the system needs prosecution or at a minimum, overhauling. Consider the following criminal justice system statistics: Out of every 1,000 rapes, 994 perpetrators will walk free.”
Too little “justice pain” will continue the results of too little gain in the way of reduction of these crimes. Our institutions, especially families, churches, schools, and even judges have a far greater responsibility than they have exercised. It is not about pleasure. It is about saving our children from victimization and perpetration.
Curing this after-the-fact is good, but prevention before-the-fact is far better. Too many brains with tremendous potential have not been utilized to the extent possible. Some could have solved problems of the community or the world. Caring adults, professionals and family members, could have made the difference. Dropouts could have become graduates. Problem children could have become problem solvers. Critics could have become mentors and everyone could have become someone’s best friend.
The lives of victims and perpetrators can be virtually destroyed, wrecked forever by a simple failure to stop and think. To consider just the pleasure is not thinking. Teach them to think about the pain and what they can gain.
