Campus Rape's New Poster Boy

Move over, Brock Turner. Your 15 minutes of fame are over. Like teen pop stars and most tech, you’re being replaced by the newest thing. You can send your thank you note for the reprieve in publicity to University of Colorado’s Austin Wilkerson. Like you, he’s a wholesome looking, early 20s white male who committed a heinous act of violence and was absolutely unrepentant about it, claiming consent and then that he had a bright future a harsh sentence would ruin. Like you, he was involved in the sports community (not as a star athlete but as a Ralphie Handler) and opted for lies and victim-blaming over acknowledging his guilt and attempting remorse. Like you, he received far too lenient a sentence, despite his rape conviction.

On St Patricks Day in 2014, Austin Wilkerson raped a fellow student at University of Colorado Boulder. He played the concerned friend in front of others, claiming he would care for her while she was inebriated but once they were alone, sexually assaulted her instead. In May 2016, Austin Wilkerson was convicted of rape.  Austin Wilkerson is a convicted rapist. In Colorado, rape is a crime that should come with a multiple year year prison sentence. Austin Wilkerson will serve exactly 0 days in prison. Instead, he will serve 2 years of work release and 20 years of probation. Work release is a rehabilitation program which will allow Austin Wilkerson to live his daily life as normal, attending school or work pretty much as he did before. The main difference is the requirement to spend his nights at the jail instead of sleeping on campus. 

Austin Wilkerson raped an unconscious young woman over 2 years ago.  Since then, she has suffered panic attacks and nightmares about her rape.  She described her life as “ruined socially, psychologically, academically and financially.” He has continued to live his life as if the rape never happened.

Austin Wilkerson was convicted of rape 3 months ago. His victim pleaded with the judge to “Have as much mercy for the rapist as he did for me that night”. Instead, Judge Patrick Butler showed him far more consideration than Austin Wilkerson showed his victim that night. After all, he has a potentially bright future to consider. Never mind that hers is possibly ruined forever.

Brock Turner has not yet finished his ridiculously light sentence of 6 months of prison time and already we have another big campus rape case stealing national headlines for all the same reasons: the lies told by the defendant, the victim-blaming, the absurdly light punishment given the rapist in order to protect his “bright future”.  It’s wonderful that America is finally talking about this.  It’s great that people are noticing how unfair the system is, how it favors the perpetrator and punishes the victim. That is certainly Step One. Step Two is working towards fixing the issue, both by abolishing Rape Culture and the victim blaming/perpetrator defending it entails and by ensuring those in positions of authority, the judges like Jude Aaron Persky and Judge Patrick Butler, stop being allowed to value the potential of the perpetrator as more than the possibly lost potential of the victim. 

Rape is a crime. We need to insist it be treated as one, with all the appropriate repercussions. 

We need to make sure that the newest rape case doesn’t distract from the drive to correct the mistakes of the last one. The latest Stanford Rape Case with Brock Turner & Judge Aaron Persky was the rallying cry that brought thousands of people together to fight Rape Culture and they will continue to be the example. In order to create change, we need to be focused, not distracted by every new horrific rape case that emerges and there will be many.  Rape is all too common and justice will apparently only happen when we insist on it, so let’s keep insisting.

You can follow what is happening in the fight against Rape Culture here and get updates on the Recall Aaron Persky Campaign here.

Brock Turner, you will not be allowed to fade from memory. Judge Aaron Persky, your unjust sentences will not be allowed to continue forever. Austin Wilkerson, 20 years of probation is a long time. Try not to let your sense of entitlement and willingness to lie under oath get you into more trouble. Actually, do. Perhaps next time justice will truly be served.