California Is About To Pass A Law Requiring All Rapists To Serve Jail Time
Brock Turner seems to be a name that will forever live in infamy, even if it certainly won’t forever live in prison. The Stanford rapist already seems to have inspired a no-hard alcohol on campus policy at Stanford (way to ruin all the fun, Brock), and now he’s inspired a new law in the California state assembly.
The law closes a loophole that allowed convicted rapists similar to Brock Turner and David Becker to be found guilty and still not see jail time. Once this new bill is signed by governor Jerry Brown (which we hope it will be!), rapists who are found guilty will no longer be able to skip out on jail in favor of probation just because they’re “good at swimming” or “had a good future ahead of them.”
The current law in place only requires rapists to go to prison if force was used, but in the case of passed out victims, force doesn’t have to be used because the victims can’t fight back.
Obviously, this law won’t guarantee that more rapists are found guilty. Nor will it stop rape victims from being constantly chastised for what they were wearing or what they were drinking, but it’s a step in the right direction to ensure that those who are found guilty are punished accordingly.
Assemblyman Bill Dodd specifically cites the bills ability to combat campus rape cases.
“Sexually assaulting an unconscious or intoxicated victim is a terrible crime and our laws need to reflect that,” Dodd said. “Letting felons convicted of such crimes get off with probation discourages other survivors from coming forward and sends the message that raping incapacitated victims is no big deal.”
True that, Bill.
We hope that this bill gets signed off on by California’s governor and that other states follow suit. Because campus rape isn’t stopping anytime soon, but our patience with BS court rulings is running out.
