“My damage was internal, unseen, I carry it with me. You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today” (Buzzfeed News). This woman, who has remained anonymous, was raped by Brock Turner on January 18, 2015 behind a dumpster at a party. On June 2, 2016, Judge Aaron Persky sentenced him to a mere six months in jail. On September 2, 2016, he was released after only having served three months of his sentence due to good behavior. Power was abused in the Brock Turner rape case through Turner’s actions, his words in court, Judge Persky’s decisions, and the reactions to the event.

To begin, Turner himself took advantage of his power in this situation through his actions. He sexually assaulted a woman. She was unconscious and therefore could not consent to what was being done. It is obvious that what Turner did was wrong, and he was aware of what he was doing. He went against the law, and that in itself is misuse of power. According to The Washington Post, “a jury found him guilty of three felonies including assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.” Turner had the power to do something illegal, and he took advantage that power by taking part in those actions. Not only is what he did illegal, but it is cruel, inexcusable, and misogynistic. He took advantage of the control and power he had over the woman he was with in the situation the second he touched her without her consent. The most obvious way power was abused in the case was the reason it started; Brock Turner sexually assaulting a woman. However, he also used his power in an unjust way during the event by laughing it off afterwards. After two graduate students saw the situation and tried to stop it, Turner ran away, clearly knowing that what he was doing wasn’t okay. When the graduate students found him and yelled at him, he could have taken the opportunity to realize what he was doing, stop it, and try to start fixing what he had done wrong. Instead, he took advantage of his power by trying not to get in trouble and leaving the victim on the ground, suffering. According to The Huffington Post, “One of the grad students, Peter Jonsson, allegedly shouted at Turner, prompting him to jump off the woman. Jonsson then pursued Turner, who ran from the scene.” This clearly shows that once Turner was caught, he didn’t want people to know what he had done, therefore he ran away. Again, he could have used his power for good and owned up to what he had done, but instead, he misused it and tried to avoid facing the consequences for his actions. The graduate student had to physically knock down Turner in order to catch him. There is no doubt that Turner knew what he was doing wrong, but continued to do it until people found him. Turner abused his power through the assault itself and by trying to get away with it.
Additionally, Turner took advantage of his power while in court through his excuses. Not once did he take ownership for the charges he was found guilty for. Instead, he apologized for drinking repeatedly, as if that were his only mistake. In his testimony during court, he mentioned not having the intention to hurt anyone and wishing he could have a do-over for the night of the party, but never did he acknowledge the fact that he did sexually assault someone. It was proven in court that he did do just that, but instead, he used his power corruptly and lied about what had happened that night. According to New York Magazine, in Brock Turner’s statement to the judge for his trial, he said, “At this point in my life, I never want to have a drop of alcohol again.” This was the main point of all that he said; that alcohol is to blame, and that drinking that night is his biggest regret. Not sexually assaulting a woman, just drinking alcohol. He used his power poorly by not owning up to his biggest mistake, and instead, making excuses. He had the power to apologize sincerely and take ownership for his actions (that, again, are inexcusable). Instead, he took advantage of that power yet again to make it seem as if he never did what he did. Additionally, he abused his power in court by making himself appear as the victim in the situation. Before the night of the party, Brock was a very successful swimmer and a student at Stanford. He was hoping to go to the Olympics in 2016. After what he did, he was no longer allowed to attend the university, and his reputation was ruined. Similarly, in his statement, he told the judge, “I’ve lost my chance to swim in the Olympics. I’ve lost my ability to obtain a Stanford degree. I’ve lost employment opportunity, my reputation and most of all, my life.” This makes it seem that he was the one who this situation hurt the most. According to Turner, it sounds as if people should have sympathy for him, because now, his life is over. If he wanted to use his power in a good way, he would have explained how his actions ruined the woman’s life, not how a drink ruined his life. He was the one who sexually assaulted a woman; any results that came from that are entirely his fault. He took advantage of his power by not taking responsibility for all of his actions and making himself appear as victim in the situation while in court.

Next, Judge Aaron Persky abused his power through the sentence he gave Brock Turner and his reasoning behind the sentence. Turner was only sentenced to six months in jail and three years on probation for all that he had done. He only ended up serving three of those six months for behaving well in jail. Persky had the individual power to give Turner a sentence that his crime was deserving of, yet he misused that power and let Turner off without even a full year in jail. According to Cable News Network, the prosecutor in the case requested a six-year prison sentence for Turner, claiming that “This behavior is not typical assaultive behavior that you find on campus, but it is more akin to a predator who is searching for prey.” Giving Turner a six-year sentence would have taught people all over the world, including himself, that what he did is not okay. It would have taught him a lesson about respect and that there are consequences for every action. A sentence that long would have taken away a lot of opportunities for him, but it would prevent a lot of situations similar to this from happening, not to mention the fact that a sentence of that length is what he deserves for his actions. However, instead of using his power for good as explained above, Persky abused it and gave Brock a short sentence. Many argued that because of Turner’s lack of criminal history and all of his potential in school and swimming, a punishment of that length wasn’t fair. They claimed it would ruin his life, and that he had no intention of hurting anyone. According to The Washington Post, Santa Clara County probation officials asked that a shorter sentence would be given to Brock due to his “lack of a criminal history, his youthful age, and his expressed remorse and empathy toward the victim.” Judge Persky clearly listened to their advice. He chose to give Turner a more than generous sentence. Although he claims it will teach him the lesson he needs to learn (and that he has already learned it), this gives people similar to him everywhere the message that they can sexually assault whoever they’d like and only get three months in jail. It also gives women everywhere the message that someone can do something as awful as Brock did, and they won’t be given justice. It shows the victim in this situation that Brock’s future is more important than what she went through. Persky took advantage of his power by not giving Turner a sentence that matched his crime.

Finally, power was abused in this situation through some of the reactions to what happened. Although some people supported the victim and pushed for Turner to be given a long sentence, his family (and many others) defended him. For example, many, such as Turner’s father, Dan Turner, used Brock’s past as an excuse. It is inevitable that Brock’s family will be biased towards their own son, but their defense of him can’t be unconditional in situations like this. According to The Washington Post, Turner’s father claimed in a letter that his future shouldn’t all be thrown away “for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.” Turner and his father have the power and privilege of not being the victim in this situation. Turner’s father doesn’t have a son who was just sexually assaulted; he doesn’t have to worry about how to handle that. Instead, he has the upper hand in the situation, and he is abusing that power for the good of his son and himself. He knows that many people will listen to him. Therefore he is using that leverage to get the outcome he wants in a way that is unfair due to how it victimizes Turner. On the other hand, many people, such as Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen, agree that Turner’s father’s statement was unfair. According to The Washington Post, Rosen “criticized the letter for reducing a brutal sexual assault to ‘20 minutes of action.’” Rosen is claiming that Turner’s father and his supporters aren’t fairly assessing the situation, and they are abusing their power by doing that. Rosen is using his power for good, and Turner is not (as Rosen stated). Similarly, Turner has the privilege of not experiencing this assault, along with the privilege of being able to rewrite the story because the victim was unconscious. He is abusing that power and making the situation appear as a small, casual event, when really, it is much more serious than that. Many people, such as Turner’s family, misused their power by defending the horrible acts that Brock did, as Rosen stated.

In summary, the abuses of power in the Brock Turner rape case include Brock Turner’s actions, Turner’s words in court, the sentence given to him, and the reactions and excuses made around the case. Although many wrongs were done in this situation, a lot can be learned from it to make sure that it never happens again. Society needs to learn that sexual assault and misogyny are  not okay, no matter who is involved or what the excuses are. Because of other situations similar to this, women learn to stay quiet when something similar happens to them, because no matter how loud they are, many people will be implicitly biased towards believing men. Instead, as the victim closed with in her letter to Turner, girls need to be taught that “you are important, unquestionably, you are untouchable, you are beautiful, you are to be valued, respected, undeniably, every minute of every day, you are powerful and nobody can take that away from you.”