Wednesday, April 24, 2013 Great gatsby hits theaters May 10th
Sports salary debate
court of appeals visits monarch
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The Howler Volume 14
A student publication of Monarch High School since 1998. 329 Campus Drive, Louisville, CO
Issue 8
Steubenville
She asked for it, Right?
Steubenville brings up controversy over rape culture in United States by Aleiya Evison
F
ollowing the accounts of a rape in Steubenville, Ohio, a shockwave surrounding rape culture has surged through the United States. Two high school football players, aged 16 and 17, raped, assaulted, and inappropriately photographed one of their peers, parading her unconscious body to several parties throughout the night. Although the rape occurred last summer, photos documenting the crime surfaced on the internet, serving as sufficient evidence to convict two of her peers of rape. For the past month, the media, internet, and conversations across the country have been buzzing about the rape, and subsequently about the rape culture that has developed in the United States. It is no secret that sexual assault and rape
are not uncommon in the United States. According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, someone in this country is sexually assaulted every two minutes. Of those 207,754 victims per year, 80% are under the age of 30. What is more shocking is that experts and police estimate that the rapes and sexual assault cases that are reported are only a fraction of the sexual crimes occurring each year. In contrast to the conviction of the rapists in the Steubenville case, 97% of rapists in the United States never go to jail. In the rare event that a rapist is convicted, the sentencing is often minimized. The two rapists in the Steubenville case were sentenced in March with only three years combined. If the two had been adults, they would have faced first degree felony charges, but like many rape cases, the charges were reduced. One of the boys’
lawyers tried to argue that his client did not deserve to be found guilty because his “brain is not fully developed,” based on the fact that the average male brain is not fully developed until their twenties. In a society where rapists are often excused and even supported, it has become understandable that victims feel afraid to step forward when they have been assaulted. The victim in Steubenville has been consistently ostracized, and even received death threats for “ruining” her attackers’ lives, even though she did not report the crime herself. One student in Steubenville posted about the victim on Twitter, “You ripped my family apart, you made my cousin cry, so when I see you bitch it’s going to be a homicide” (dailymail.co.uk). Countless additional Twitter accounts and news reports blamed the victim for
Illustration by Aleiya Evison
inappropriate clothing and for being intoxicated at the time of the rape. Meanwhile, major news networks such as CNN spoke sympathetically of the rapists, suggesting that they didn’t deserve to be found guilty and lamenting about how sad it is that their futures have been jeopardized (huffingtonpost.com). It is as though the nation forgot who was raped. Numerous protests have stemmed from the Steubenville case. Horrified Americans are trying to address why American culture is prone to victim shaming and blaming, instead of support and justice. Steubenville has inspired Americans to address this question: Why is rape a part of our society? Coverage continues on page 8 and 9.