Brock Turner is a convicted sex offender. Most of us consider him a convicted rapist, although he was not convicted of rape. He was convicted of three counts of sexual assault. The rape counts were dropped by the prosecutors because of the results of DNA testing and based on what they knew they could prove. The fact his 22 year old victim was intoxicated to the point of unconsciousness has nothing to do with this case, other than to serve as positive proof that she could not have consented. It is not her fault in any way, shape or form. Brock Turner was only 19 years old when the sexual assault took place. He was intoxicated to the point of having a blood alcohol level of 0.17. Nearly twice the legal limit.
So his victim bears no fault or responsibility for what happened, and he is the one who is guilty. Except that our society is complicit to a degree in what happened. Would he have sexually assaulted this woman if he wasn't drunk? We will never know that with certainty and it doesn't begin to excuse or mitigate what this scumbag did. But there is no denying that absent the alcohol, it might not have happened. If eliminating alcohol on college campuses resulted in even a minor reduction in the number of sexual assaults, would that not be a good thing?
Our collective blame comes from the fact that in this nation, the law limiting alcohol purchase and consumption to only those 21 and over is universally ignored. A few states have exceptions to this age limit for religious ceremonies, and when those under 21 are in the company of a parent or teacher. You can examine those exceptions here if you wish.
When it comes to drinking on college campuses we look at those laws with a wink and a nod. College drinking becomes little more than a joke used way too much in comedy films. Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds and more recently Accepted and Neighbors are prime examples.
We ignore the drinking on campus because the overwhelming majority of the time, no one gets hurt. Or so we are led to believe. Research tells us that roughly 80% of college students consume alcoholic beverages. It also indicates that 70% of that student population limits themselves to four drinks or less when they do drink. If we do the math this means that 24% of college students who drink take five or more drinks when they do drink. Another study by the NIH's National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), nearly 60% of students between the ages of 18 and 22 reported drinking alcoholic beverages in the month prior to the survey. Nearly 2 out of every 3 of those reported that they had engaged in binge drinking during that period.
There are other troubling numbers in that study. Roughly 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die annually from injuries received in alcohol-related incidents (this includes DUIs). Nearly 700,000 college students in that age range reported being assaulted annually by another student who had been drinking. Roughly 97,000 students in that age band report being the victims of date-rape and/or sexual assaults where alcohol was involved. Finally, a CDC report on binge drinking indicates that an average of 35 college students die each year from alcohol poisoning.
That NIAAA report had recommendations on how colleges could combat on-campus alcohol use. Let me use an extract from the Wikipedia article on the National Minimum Drinking Age act on how colleges have responded to those recommendations.
Many factors may explain colleges' failure to implement the NIAAA's recommendations to control underage drinking on campus: a lack of university funding, a lack of time, a perceived lack of authority or jurisdiction within the community, or even a lack of interest on the part of the university, many universities even see the program as a waste of resources. Whatever the reasons may be, a multitude of options are available should colleges choose to institute programs to decrease instances of underage drinking on campus. These options include, but are not limited to, alcohol education programs, social norms campaigns, substance-free housing, individual interventions, parental notification policies, disciplinary procedures for alcohol-related violations, and amnesty policies to protect the health and safety of students.
A waste of resources? There is our collective complicity. How many of those deaths, assaults and rapes could have been prevented by enforcing a law that few want to enforce? More than a few. But as long as our response to college drinking is to wink and nod, there will be more Brock Turner's and more victims. How sad.
So his victim bears no fault or responsibility for what happened, and he is the one who is guilty. Except that our society is complicit to a degree in what happened. Would he have sexually assaulted this woman if he wasn't drunk? We will never know that with certainty and it doesn't begin to excuse or mitigate what this scumbag did. But there is no denying that absent the alcohol, it might not have happened. If eliminating alcohol on college campuses resulted in even a minor reduction in the number of sexual assaults, would that not be a good thing?
Our collective blame comes from the fact that in this nation, the law limiting alcohol purchase and consumption to only those 21 and over is universally ignored. A few states have exceptions to this age limit for religious ceremonies, and when those under 21 are in the company of a parent or teacher. You can examine those exceptions here if you wish.
When it comes to drinking on college campuses we look at those laws with a wink and a nod. College drinking becomes little more than a joke used way too much in comedy films. Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds and more recently Accepted and Neighbors are prime examples.
We ignore the drinking on campus because the overwhelming majority of the time, no one gets hurt. Or so we are led to believe. Research tells us that roughly 80% of college students consume alcoholic beverages. It also indicates that 70% of that student population limits themselves to four drinks or less when they do drink. If we do the math this means that 24% of college students who drink take five or more drinks when they do drink. Another study by the NIH's National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), nearly 60% of students between the ages of 18 and 22 reported drinking alcoholic beverages in the month prior to the survey. Nearly 2 out of every 3 of those reported that they had engaged in binge drinking during that period.
There are other troubling numbers in that study. Roughly 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die annually from injuries received in alcohol-related incidents (this includes DUIs). Nearly 700,000 college students in that age range reported being assaulted annually by another student who had been drinking. Roughly 97,000 students in that age band report being the victims of date-rape and/or sexual assaults where alcohol was involved. Finally, a CDC report on binge drinking indicates that an average of 35 college students die each year from alcohol poisoning.
That NIAAA report had recommendations on how colleges could combat on-campus alcohol use. Let me use an extract from the Wikipedia article on the National Minimum Drinking Age act on how colleges have responded to those recommendations.
Many factors may explain colleges' failure to implement the NIAAA's recommendations to control underage drinking on campus: a lack of university funding, a lack of time, a perceived lack of authority or jurisdiction within the community, or even a lack of interest on the part of the university, many universities even see the program as a waste of resources. Whatever the reasons may be, a multitude of options are available should colleges choose to institute programs to decrease instances of underage drinking on campus. These options include, but are not limited to, alcohol education programs, social norms campaigns, substance-free housing, individual interventions, parental notification policies, disciplinary procedures for alcohol-related violations, and amnesty policies to protect the health and safety of students.
A waste of resources? There is our collective complicity. How many of those deaths, assaults and rapes could have been prevented by enforcing a law that few want to enforce? More than a few. But as long as our response to college drinking is to wink and nod, there will be more Brock Turner's and more victims. How sad.
posted by me at 4:00 PM
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