For the majority of 2016, America was in outrage over the events of the Brock Turner trial. The case went national after the victim wrote a letter to Turner, the man who assaulted her. People were infuriated by how lenient the judge was in giving Turner such a short sentence.

Despite having more than a dozen witnesses and the victim’s blood alcohol content being above 0.2 at the time of the assault, Turner was sentenced to only six months in prison. He could have served up to 14 years for the assault. Instead, he only served 3 months.

A prison sentence would “have a severe impact on him” according to the judge, Aaron Persky. Yet, have they considered the impact his actions had on the girl he assaulted? While Turner’s parents worry about his loss of appetite, his victim says she “wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else.” She also wrote that she “didn’t talk, didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, didn’t interact with anyone.”

“These verdicts have broken and shattered him and our family in so many way,” Turner’s father argues. He seems to forget about what the victim and her family had to go through. She had to sit through a year-long trial while the man who assaulted her claimed his only fault was in drinking too much.

Rape culture is defined as blaming the victims of sexual assault while normalizing male sexual violence. The letter Turner’s father wrote in response to the victim’s letter spoke of how Brock Turner’s life was affected by what happened. He wrote that “incarceration is not the appropriate punishment for Brock” and “probation is the best answer.” Showing Turner leniency would only be showing other rapists that they can get away with similar actions.

Some judges show leniency to those who show remorse in court, while others shorten the sentence for those who plead guilty. Brock Turner has done neither of these things. He refused to acknowledge that he assaulted the woman through the entire case, yet still was only sentenced to three months.

The U.S. court system was put into place to provide justice for the victims of a crime. Judges like Persky prevent that from happening by showing leniency to criminals based on their background. Turner being a Stanford athlete shouldn’t allow him to get a shortened sentence than anyone else who committed the same crime.

Disclaimer: Articles designated as “Editorial” represent the views and opinions of the author, not the 2016-2017 Periscope staff, CHS Administration, or the CHS student body.