Hannah Kendall Shuman was trying to finish up homework for her college Criminal Justice 101 class earlier this month when she stumbled upon a familiar face: Brock Turner.
The freshman at Washington State University told HuffPost she was surprised to see the Stanford rapist’s face in her textbook “Introduction to Criminal Justice: Systems, Diversity, and Change 2nd Edition.” Turner, who served only three months for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman at Stanford in 2015, is featured under the definition of “rape” in the textbook, which was published in January 2017 by Callie Marie Rennison and Mary J. Dodge.
“A recent highly publicized example is that of rapist Brock Turner. Turner, a student at Stanford University, was caught in the act, and ultimately convicted of three felony charges: assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object, and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object,” the textbook reads. “Turner’s victim was unconscious during the attack, as it happened behind a trash container outside of the Kappa Alpha fraternity house on campus.” (Flip to page 20 to read the page in full.)
On Sept. 7, Shuman published a photo of the textbook page to Facebook, writing: “He may have been able to get out of prison time but in my Criminal Justice 101 textbook, Brock Turner is the definition of rape, so he’s got that goin for him.”
Underneath Turner’s image, the textbook gives some context about the former Stanford student’s controversial sentencing.
“Some are shocked at how short this sentence is,” the textbook reads. “Others who are more familiar with the way sexual violence has been handled in the criminal justice system are shocked that he was found guilty and served time at all. What do you think?”
As of Wednesday morning, Shuman’s post has received over 40,000 likes, 91,000 shares and 3,500 comments.
“I didn’t think anyone of status or wealth would ever want to bring him up again, it seemed like America just wanted to act as if he never happened,” Shuman told HuffPost. “I’m glad his name is resurfacing.”
HuffPost has reached out to the textbook’s authors for comment and will update accordingly.
