Brock Turner Trial Essay

In our opinion, it’s too difficult to incorporate the victim’s reaction into sentencing because measuring this reaction is such a subjective process. It is very difficult to objectively and reliably measure the detrimental impact sexual assault has on a victim’s life. If a court were to try and measure this impact, the primary approach they would likely use is self-report. In this case, the victim would have to publicly report how greatly the assault impacted his or her life. This is difficult not only because it’s a very subjective measure but also because many victims might not be willing to publicly speak about their assault. Some victims might have had their lives ruined by assault, but might not feel comfortable enough to actually go into court and speak about it. In the case of the Brock Turner trial, the victim was very open about the aftermath of her assault and was very willing to share her moving and emotional experiences. However, there are likely many other victims who have

Again, for the Brock Turner case, the victim, luckily, was able have her loved-ones, such as her sister and her parents, speak about how the assault impacted her life. However, many other victims might not be so lucky to have people come in and testify on their behalf. For example, if a homeless woman with no known friends or relatives were to be assaulted, she wouldn’t be able to have someone report about how the assault impacted her. Another scenario could be if a victim is assaulted but the victim’s loved-ones aren’t attentive to the them, and don’t notice the severe impact the assault has had on his or her life. Similarly, maybe the victim is not very expressive. Maybe the victim doesn’t outwardly showing any signs of trauma for their friends and family to see, but internally they are experiencing extreme