March 26, 2013 |
The following article originally appeared at Jezebel.
By now we're all painfully aware that our news media are apparently
incapable of sensitivity when
reporting on the Steubenville rape verdict. The undercurrent of a lot
of the coverage has been that Ma'lik Richmond and Trent Mays are not the
type of people we should put in prison, on account of their good grades
and "promising futures." It'd be so much easier if Richmond and Mays
were literal piles of garbage fashioned into human form, glued together
with feces, and covered in menacing face tattoos. Like real criminals.
The response to the verdict itself has been varied, but some wondered why Richmond and Mays were not
tried as adults, or thought they should have faced a
harsher penalty than
at least one year in juvenile detention. It's not easy for me to
reconcile my own feelings on this. Rape and sexual assault are tools of
oppression in a society that devalues women's experiences. It goes
without saying that this is a feminist issue. But
mass incarceration is
a feminist issue, too, because it exacerbates rape culture — prisoners
are exposed to sexual violence and become aggressive actors in an
environment that values hyper-masculinity. So when we call for "harsher
penalties" or for more juveniles to enter the adult prison system, what
are we asking for? Is the best way to dismantle rape culture through the
criminal justice system? (To be fair, the criminal justice system
is great at some things, like locking up every single black person. For
profit.)
The law plays a role in perpetuating rape culture by
under-penalizing crimes that disproportionately affect women (like
sexual assault or domestic violence) and over-penalizing non-violent
offenses (like all that sweet drug trafficking
your granny enjoys
so much). Unlike the victim in the Steubenville case, most rapes go
unreported. Also unlike Steubenville, most accused rapists walk — only
about
3 out of 100 reported rapes result in an actual conviction. If convicted,
the average sentence
for committing a sex crime, while varied, is about 8 to 9 years, with
offenders serving an average of 5 years of their sentence.
The
lack of sexual assault convictions is perplexing, because putting people
in jail is like, America's top hobby! We're incarcerating a lot of
people (especially nonwhite people!), but maybe not so much when they're
hurting women (especially nonwhite women!).
Richmond and Mays
will spend at least one year in
a juvenile detention center somewhere in Ohio. Mays received a sentence
of an extra year because he distributed photographs of his under-aged
victim. They could be held in juvie until they're 21 years old, but as
tempers die down and the internet stops giving a shit about Steubenville
(there may be a new puppy video by then), who knows what the judge will
do a year from now?
It may seem unfair to watch as Richmond and
Mays spend the next year in a center that, I don't know, probably has an
inspirational mural and one of those posters that says "TEAMWORK," or
whatever. (Or, you know.
Maybe not.)
After what they did to their young victim, juvenile detention may seem
like an unsatisfying punishment — they should have to go to adult
prison, right?
Prisons in the United States are a haven for
sexual violence.
The same gender hierarchies that we feminists fight on the outside are
aggravated in prison. Prisoners often adopt hyper-masculine attitudes
and behaviors as a survival strategy. Those who do not are susceptible
to sexual violence and assault. Men who display any level of
traditionally "feminine" behaviors are often "sold" into the prison sex
trade. Upon a prisoner's release, the potential absolutely exists for
these same behaviors to manifest in society at large.
How does
this dismantle rape culture? How could it? Although punishment
absolutely validates the victim's experience, and empowers other women
to come forward, we must look beyond punishment to release, too. Sending
teenaged rapists like Richmond and Mays to adult prison does not
benefit women. In fact, it puts us at risk if, upon release, they
reestablish their prison environment on the outside. Part of caring
about victims is attempting to prevent future victimization, too. But
I'm not convinced our justice system in its current form is equipped to
do that for Richmond, Mays, or any juvenile offender. Prison only
aggravates and entrenches rape culture.
So, instead of adult
prison, Richmond and Mays are heading to the aforementioned juvenile
facility. When juvenile programs are at their best, they're providing
holistic services to all juvenile offenders. For what it's worth, the
Division of Youth Services in Ohio does offer rehabilitative services
tailored to juvenile sex offenders in their custody. DYS insists these
services
have had a positive impact on statewide juvenile sex offense statistics. Rehabilitation for juvenile offenders
can work. And it's not
rape apologia to
suggest that the age of the offender matters when it comes to
punishment. There's a reason why attorneys for juvenile defenders make a
lot of the same arguments that attorneys for the developmentally
disabled do with respect to cognitive function. Teenage brains just do
not process action/consequence in the same way adult brains do. This
doesn't give Richmond and Mays a free pass to do whatever they want. It
simply acknowledges the very good science behind the idea that teenaged
dingalings can be rehabilitated.
Think about it this way: what if
there were roving bands of sentient knives that sometimes went around
slicing people. Would we send them to a knife-sharpening factory as
punishment? Would that protect our pepperonis? This is a very stupid
metaphor for a very serious problem, but without rehab for juvenile
offenders, we run the risk of turning teenaged sentient knives into
adult sentient knives.
Who knows whether or not Richmond or Mays will be receptive to rehabilitation while in detention. Mays is a
noted dope who
apparently has no functional understanding of what rape even is. It is
highly problematic that the initial reaction of these two has been
overwhelmingly selfish and full of disregard as
to the effect of their actions on their victim ("My life is over," said
Richmond). Punishment must, of course, remain an integral part of any
strategy to combat sexual assault in this country — but we need an
age-appropriate rehabilitative and therapeutic component to detention
also. The result, if we don't, is more victimization.
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