Out of every 1,000 rapes, only six people will be incarcerated.
The number is a painful reminder of how survivors are regarded in the American justice system. They do not matter.
As Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation is stained by sexual misconduct allegations, a broader issue has been intensified by #MeToo advocates: misogyny in the legal system and what to do about it.
If the movement to protect survivors proceeds, it must reform the legal infrastructure. The system is as guilty as the perpetrators in sustaining misogyny.
We must demand its radical change.
For too long, the justice system has remained entrenched in a sexist culture, frequently expressed by powerful jurists.
Take the example of Aaron Persky — the former judge who presided over the Stanford rape trial, People v. Turner. The perpetrator, Brock Turner, was guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
The judge overrode prosecutors’ recommendations for punishment — 6 years’ imprisonment. Instead, he ruled that Turner should spend six months in jail with three years’ probation.
Persky reasoned that an extended prison sentence was too harsh for the first-time offender. It would ruin Turner’s life.
Thanks to the example of Persky’s royal stupidity, sexual predators find their greatest defenders in the courts. They receive greater sympathy than their victims.
Arizona Superior Court judge Jacqueline Hatch is another proliferator of court-sanctioned misogyny. Before sentencing an officer for groping a woman at a bar, the judge said to the victim “If you hadn’t been there that night, none of this would have happened to you.”
Orange County’s judge Derek Johnson provided another example of judicial sexism.
“If someone doesn’t want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down,” Johnson said.
He declared a rape was only “technical,” because the victim did not “put up a fight” against her ex-boyfriend.
Johnson ignored the perpetrator’s threats of genital mutilation and battery the victim endured. He gave a six-year prison sentence instead of the 16 years prosecutors wanted.
Texas judge Jeanine Howard sentenced a convicted rapist to probation.
In her sentencing, Howard said the accuser “was not the victim she claimed to be” and the accused was “ not your typical sex offender.”
In all of the above, judges showed more compassion to perpetrators than victims.
Victim blaming from the bench is unacceptable — it comprises justice and social progress.
Judges and courts hold the most power. The time has come to extend the #MeToo Movement into the courts.
The movement has successfully chastised powerful politicians and pop-stars for their crimes. But that attention is not enough to protect rape and sexual assault survivors.
Judges and courts hold the most power; they must be held accountable for their decisions, too. Judicial prejudice poses the greatest threat to justice.
People should demand the ouster of victim-shaming judges.
Vote to recall any judge whose sentencing undermines the severity of rape and sexual assault. Investigate the judicial records of people running for office.
Persky was successfully recalled. The same can be done for many judges who act similarly.
Don’t let the Me-Too Movement become a Me-Too Moment or else we would have failed lady justice.
A legal system must be purged of corruption to administer justice.
