9/5/2016
nbcnews.com
NEWS SEP 4 2016, 5:20 PM ET
What Advocates Are Doing to End Sexual Assault on
Campus
by IRIN CARMON
Brock Turner, the now­expelled Stanford student convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious
woman by a dumpster, left jail Friday after serving half of his six month sentence.
Due in part to his victim's fierce and powerful statement on the case, published by Buzzfeed and the
DA, , Turner became yet another a symbol of relative impunity even after his rape conviction — which
in itself was rare.
"I want the judge to know that he ignited a tiny fire," the victim told Buzzfeed when the letter was
published. "If anything, this is a reason for all of us to speak even louder."
Brock Turner leaves the Santa Clara County Main Jail in San
Jose, California, on Sept. 2. Dan Honda / Bay Area News
Group via AP
It can seem like every few months, the country
rediscovers the problem of sexual assault on
college campuses, whether it's through
documentaries like The Hunting Ground, since­
retracted articles in Rolling Stone, or Turner's
case. The problem is much bigger than any one
case: A poll conducted last year by the Kaiser
Foundation and The Washington Post found that
25 percent of young women and 7 percent of
young men say they experienced unwanted
sexual contact in college.
Activists working on the ground to change policy
say each headline helps build momentum,
whether it's in campus systems or criminal ones.
"The awareness raising is an important piece," said Fatima Goss Graves, senior vice president at the
National Women's Law Center. "It continues to hold schools and policymakers accountable."
Annie Clark, executive director of End Rape on Campus and author of We Believe You, noted, "With
the advent of social media, you have survivors and activists that are able to talk to each other."
Those conversations, she said, have helped bolster the notion that sexual assault on campus is "not
an individual school or an individual person problem, it's systemic."
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us­news/what­advocates­are­doing­end­sexual­assault­campus­n642156
1/5
9/5/2016
nbcnews.com
It also has pushed back at mainstream reporting
that, in the case of Turner, initially focused more
on his supposedly promising swimming career
than his victim. Jessica Luther, author of the
new book Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College
Football and the Politics of Rape, said that's
common when sports coverage and sexual
assault reporting converge. "The fundamental
wrong thing we do in sports reporting is center
[on] the athlete," she said.
A woman protests the university's handling of the Brock Turner
rape case commencement at Stanford University on June 12.
GABRIELLE LURIE / AFP/Getty Images
Related: Colleges Embrace Online Anonymous
'Snitching' to Fight Sexual Violence
Here are a few relatively new solutions activists and policymakers are pursuing in order to prevent, or
better respond to, the next case of campus sexual assault.
Criminal penalties. Inspired by the Turner case, California legislators passed a bill, now before Gov.
Jerry Brown, mandating prison time for convictions where the victim was unconscious, as Turner's
was. "We can't go back and change the ridiculously light sentence, but we can make sure that the
next Brock Turner is sent away for a much longer time," Assemblyman Evan Low told NBC News.
The American Civil Liberties Union opposed the bill, citing racial disparities in how mandatory
minimums are already imposed and, in interviews, activists expressed mixed feelings. "I definitely
think it's good to have laws in place that show societal values and norms," said Wagatwe Wanjuki, an
anti­sexual violence activist who recently started the hashtag #JustSaySorry to confront Tufts
University's response to her sexual assault case. "But at the end of the day, how are these laws being
enforced? And how many people will fall through the cracks when these laws are enforced to protect
the most privileged? I firmly believe now that you can't legislate your way to justice."
"A LOT OF TIMES, THE FOCUS IS ON ONE INCIDENT OF
STOPPING AND SAYING SOMETHING AROUND THAT
ONE ACT, AND IT DOESN'T DO MUCH TO COMBAT
RAPE CULTURE."
Bystander intervention. The Turner case was actually an example of bystander intervention in action:
Two Swedish bicyclists happen to come upon the assault and helped put a stop to it. The Obama
administration's "It's on Us" campaign has focused heavily on the sexual assault version of "if you see
something, say something." It's an approach grassroots activists favor, within limits. "A lot of times,
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us­news/what­advocates­are­doing­end­sexual­assault­campus­n642156
2/5
9/5/2016
nbcnews.com
the focus is on one incident of stopping and saying something around that one act, and it doesn't do
much to combat rape culture," said Clark. "Bystander intervention is not this one­time thing, it's
something you do every day, like pushing back when your friend makes a rape joke."
Related: Chessy Prout elicits online support via hashtag #IHaveTheRightTo
Yes Means Yes. "No Means No" used to be the watchword in sexual assault prevention, back when it
was still prevalent to believe women only said no to be coy. These days, just not hearing a "no" won't
pass muster — after all, an incapacitated person may not even be capable of saying no, and fear
might prevent a victim from actively resisting.
In the past year, lawmakers in California and New York State have passed legislation making
affirmative consent the standard on campuses and in public schools. There's also been a push to start
consent education much earlier; Clark's group worked on local legislation in Virginia to start teaching
consent before teens graduate from high school.
"There are patterns of rape going on in high school," said University of Arizona professor Mary Koss,
who has been studying violence against women for decades, "and it's not a magical line that starts in
freshman year of college. ... I have sensed movement in the public health community to say that we
need to start earlier."
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us­news/what­advocates­are­doing­end­sexual­assault­campus­n642156
3/5
9/5/2016
nbcnews.com
Caroline Hurwitz, a student facilitator from Cleveland, Ohio, leads a small group discussion during the session at a "Yes Means
Yes" seminar at Colgate University. The student­led seminar covers topics relating to consent in sexual encounters. Brett Carlsen
/ for NBC News
Title IX Investigations. Using a longstanding federal law mandating gender equality in education, the
Obama administration has ramped up both prevention and enforcement efforts. It's even launched
proactive Title IX compliance investigations, a move the Bush administration did not pursue. "They
have signaled strongly to institutions that they are taking this seriously," said Goss Graves. Clark said
that's a result of years of pressure from student activists.
"This administration has been more open to listening to survivors in trying to find solutions," said
Wanjuki. Still, she added conversations with other activists suggest frustration at the focus on
legislative solutions or Title IX enforcement, which can take years and trip on technicalities.
Banning Alcohol. In August, Stanford, Turner's alma mater, announced it would bar "high­volume
distilled liquor containers" for all students living on campus and all parties held there. Ralph Castro,
who directs Stanford's Office of Alcohol Policy and Education, called it "a targeted approach that limits
high­risk behavior and has the backing of empirical studies on restricting the availability of and access
to alcohol."
"RAPISTS CAUSE RAPE, AND THEY USE ALCOHOL AS
A TOOL TO ESCAPE CULPABILITY."
Many activists recoiled. "By banning hard liquor, it sends the subliminal message that alcohol causes
rape," said Wanjuki. "Rapists cause rape, and they use alcohol as a tool to escape culpability." Karp, a
professor of sociology and director of the Project on Restorative Justice at Skidmore College,
suggested that focusing on alcohol obscures how students are using it to avoid healthy
communication about sex. "They're managing their sexual relationships through alcohol, which is a
primary indicator that those relationships are anxiety provoking," he said. Koss is a bit less hard on
the alcohol bans, comparing them to legislation that taxed cigarettes and banned where they could be
smoked. "There's a whole body of research of prevention intervention," she said.
Restorative Justice. Karp and his colleagues recently collaborated on a report about campus sexual
assault and restorative justice, an anti­violence approach in which both parties meet, sometimes in
the company of community members, to acknowledge and discuss harm to the victim without explicit
punishment to follow. It may appeal, Karp said, to students who already feel marginalized on campus
and don't want to go forward with an "adversarial and punitive process," but rather "want to
communicate to the accused student how they have been harmed and make sure they understand
that and don't do it to someone else."
The approach hasn't actually been implemented on U.S. campuses because of fears it would violate
the Obama administration's 2011 letter to university administrators saying mediation would violate
federal guidelines. "That has had a chilling effect on campus use of restorative justice," said Karp. He
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us­news/what­advocates­are­doing­end­sexual­assault­campus­n642156
4/5
9/5/2016
nbcnews.com
and his colleagues recently met with the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education and the
White House Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault to make a case for the potential for restorative
justice.
Related: Six Questions Parents Need to Ask Before Their Daughter Starts College
Unlike mediation, restorative justice dictates that an offender must take responsibility before the
dialogue. "It's not a process for deciding if they're guilty," said Karp. The approach may work best, he
explained, for cases prosecutors would likely not take to trial because of lack of evidence or
ambiguity, and where the parties may already have a relationship.
Many advocates are cautiously intrigued by the possibility of restorative justice, but are concerned
about how it will work in practice. "I do think we have to worry about schools maybe going too far
pressuring students to either go down a particular path, or do whatever's easiest for them to resolve
and to minimize harm to someone who is accused," said Goss Graves.
The victim's own words suggest that under different circumstances — namely, if Turner had taken
responsibility for the crime he was convicted of — restorative justice might have appealed to her. She
wrote that she "told the probation officer that what I truly wanted was for Brock to get it, to understand
and admit to his wrongdoing. Unfortunately, after reading the defendant's statement, I am severely
disappointed and feel that he has failed to exhibit sincere remorse or responsibility for his conduct."
As of this writing, Turner has made no additional statements. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us­news/what­advocates­are­doing­end­sexual­assault­campus­n642156
5/5