ipl-logo

The Mike Tyson Case: Blaming The Victim

488 Words2 Pages

The Mike Tyson Case – Blaming the Victim
The Mike Tyson Case is one of the most controversial and public criminal cases. Under the influence of media, society divided into two groups: the group of those, who assigned blame to Tyson as a clear perpetrator, and the group of those, who assigned some degree of blame to Desiree Washington due to her actions during the crime. However, I agree more with the prosecuting attorney’s arguments, mostly because any woman has a legal right to enter a men’s room, and wear what she wants without risk of being raped. Any behavior or event cannot justify sexual aggression against a person.
Generally, defense line in Mike Tyson’s case was built around the “facts” aimed to prove that the victim had sex with the boxer voluntary. To support this position, Garrison, the defense attorney, proved that Washington went to …show more content…

In this case, the defense attorney used the victim’s dress and behavior as the main arguments, aimed to change the public’s opinion in favor of Tyson and to make society blame the victim for what has happened to her. However, the prosecutors provided the factual evidence of violence: the physician who examined the victim confirmed the presence of abrasions. Furthermore, prosecutors emphasized that Washington was a naive 18-year old woman, who could not expect the rape entering Tyson’s hotel room. But even these facts, taken into consideration by those, who blamed Washington, did not change their opinion. That, in turn, proves the strength of the rape myth, because the part of the society still considers that if the 18-year old woman enters male’s room at night, she is definitely going to have sex with

Show More
Related
291 Words | 2 Pages

Case Analysis. Prosecutor’s Case Against James Earl Ray: The prosecutors have enough efficient evidence in establishing guilt against James Earl Ray concerning the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. First, James Earl Ray was in close enough vicinity of the Lorraine Hotel to successfully fire a clear shot to kill Dr. King from only a block away. The location of Bessie Brewer’s boarding house was in the perfect position of being only a block away, in making the kill shot that killed Dr. King. Second, The high-power rifle with a scope mounted on it was in a bundle with a couple beer cans, the receipt, as well as the binoculars, all had fingerprints that belonged to Ray on them.

Read More
757 Words | 4 Pages

A few short months following the rape, Brzonkala filed a complaint against the respondents under Virginia Tech’s Sexual Assault Policy. During the conducted hearing at Virginia Tech, Morrison confessed to having sexual contact with Christy, even though she had told him “no.” twice. With much consideration, Virginia Tech’s

Read More
240 Words | 1 Pages

In “Crime and Punishment: The saga of Richie Parker” published in Sports Illustrated, Gary Smith helps to explain just how many people are affected by a single sexual assault case. He does this in a very unique style by giving 12 sections explaining the incident from different points of view and the effects of a single crime. One person affected was Jill Agostino, the sports copy editor for Newsday. Her unnamed colleague had given her a copy of an article he was writing on Richie Parker and called asking if she liked it. Little did he know, stories like his were keeping her up at night, reminding her of the time she was raped nine years earlier.

Read More
1772 Words | 8 Pages

The case against Max Mason mostly hinged on the eyewitness testimony of Sandra Teal and Robert Walsh and the fact that both Sandra and Max had an advanced case of gonorrhea. “The doctor told the jury that in his examination of all prisoners, only Mason had gonorrhea” later one of the jurors said “it was the gonorrhea that cinched it”. (pg.160) Cases like this still happen from time to time where there is a case that has a fair amount of circumstantial evidence and then one testimony or one new piece of evidence is presented that convinces the jury of the guilt of the defendant. This case is also similar to today in the quality of defense that Max Mason and the other black men received. Public defenders are not bad lawyers, but they are very overworked and as a result their quality of service suffers.

Read More
378 Words | 2 Pages

I think it would be difficult for the prosecution to form an argument off of my points. The prosecution admitted that they don’t argue that Ms. Stephens is a victim of abuse, but rather is not suffering from battered woman syndrome. Once I use all of my witnesses and explain how Ms. Stephens is a clear case of battered woman syndrome, I think they will have a difficult time arguing that considering she clearly has every sign and symptom. The only argument I think they can use would be that because Mr. Stephens went to take a nap, Ms. Stephens could have just called the police and not shot him herself. I think members of the jury may also agree with this purely on the basis that those who aren’t victims of abuse can easily have the mindset that

Read More
1110 Words | 5 Pages

Yet a sober analysis of the matter reveals that the victim is important and the fact that Brock Turner sexually assaulted her should not be disregarded just because he was a great student and athlete. Dan Turner blames the partying culture of college for his son’s behavior but in reality, there is no excuse for sexual

Read More
1036 Words | 5 Pages

As a journalist, Peterson’s job is to report the facts, not give his unsolicited opinion on the situation. This is also dangerous because, not only is he shaming the victim’s personal choice to remain silent but he is also forcing his own beliefs on readers who are simply trying to become more familiar with the scandal. By reading about his personal opinions within the article, Peterson demonstrates a lack of empathy for anyone who has dealt with sexual abuse and as a result, readers may find that his argument is unable to sound

Read More
660 Words | 3 Pages

Krakauer supports his argument of unfair rape trials by revealing bias towards the perpetrator in the court case. He does so by providing testimony that demonstrate how the overall image of the perpetrator leads jurors to disregard opposing evidence. In turn, this makes it harder for the perpetrator to receive deserved punishment for his actions and preventing further events. Krakauer quotes psychologist David Lisak, “Predators...get away with it over and over... because most of us are in denial. We’re disinclined to believe that someone who’s an attentive student or a congenial athlete could also be a rapist” (121).

Read More
1972 Words | 8 Pages

Grand jurors deliberated for ten hours before indicting Tyson in a 5-1 vote of guilty as charged, sentencing him to six years at the Plainfield Correctional Center in addition to four years of probation (Kerr, 1994). At the trial’s conclusion, Judge Gifford encapsulated the court’s sentiments, stating “the law of Indiana is pretty clear, and it never mentions whether a defendant or a victim are acquainted” (Cancian, 2021). The jury’s decision was guided by the accumulation of evidence throughout the trial; one member stated that “we looked not only at the moment in the bedroom, but at a chain of events that occurred over time during that evening” (Muscatine, 1992). The composed college freshman withstood six hours of interrogation on the stand, and maintained that Tyson deceived her by veiling their journey to the room as a quick trip to retrieve an item (Muscatine, 1992). In contrast, Tyson appeared less credible, at one point contradicting himself and reporting he directly asked to have sex with Washington, and failed to provide a credible witness to support his claims (Muscatine,

Read More
537 Words | 3 Pages

One out of every six women has been sexually assaulted either completed (14.8%) or attempted (2.8%) in her entire lifetime. Imagine of the those women was a 15 year old girl attending high school, who had a lot to offer, but was periodically silenced, while battling a mental illness in a fictional novel called Speak. The novel speak and the articles we read outside of class have a lot in common including sexual assault stereotypes, sexual violence statistics, and mental illness. Next, I will compare the character Melinda with the four articles. During the book speak, the main character Melinda can be described as a “perfect victim”.

Read More
1698 Words | 7 Pages

In the book, Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in College Town, by Jon Krakauer, the reader delves into how rape and sexual assault are treated in the town of Missoula, and the University of Montana. As the reader, we are informed on how the university, the police department, the district attorney’s office, and the community reacted to these rape and sexual assault allegations. We see how the criminal justice system has failed the victims, and are forced to live with what happened to them, while their assailants are free of any burden. The law is set in place to protect people from victimization, but when the men, in this book, are not legally held accountable, then any woman, or man, is more susceptible to victimization. It is interesting

Read More
1971 Words | 8 Pages

This shows that the institution of sexual assault and trials as a lot of white women privilege. The stereotype of sexual assault victim is a white woman which is in reality not realistic. The gymnastic case shows that all types of people were sexually assaulted, it also showed that not everyone testified in the trail. The lack of testimonies from black women and men continue the stereotype which continues a vicious cycle of the institution of assault and criminal justice system. White privilege continues to influence how sexual assault is experience and resolved with which puts women in a negative

Read More
917 Words | 4 Pages

The court case I chose to outline is Payne v. Tennessee. This particular case deals with the use of victim impact statements in Capital court cases. The facts of this case began on June 27, 1987 when Pervis Tyrone Payne decided to visit his girlfriend, Bobbie Thomas, at her apartment, in Millington, Tennessee. Throughout the day Payne visited Thomas apartment in hopes of making contact with her, but each time no one was at the residence. On one particular visit, Payne decided to leave an overnight bag, containing his clothes, malt liquor and other personal items, in the hallway outside of Thomas’ apartment.

Read More
985 Words | 4 Pages

The state of California vs Brian Banks In early 2002 a 16 year old football prodigy, Brian Banks was excused from class with a hall pass to use the restroom, where he met up with 15 year old female, Wannetta Gibson. The two went into the elevator with intent to go to the infamous “ make out “ spot, when Wannetta was allegedly raped by her fellow classmate. When Wannetta went back to class she wrote a note to her stating that, “ she use to be a virgin but she ain’t one anymore because Brian had raped her.” After school that evening she informed her sister that she had been assaulted, and then her sister urged her to report it to the school administration.

Read More
1123 Words | 5 Pages

Colleges are protecting their public record and do not wish to affect their brand be publicly admitting the high rates of sexual assaults. The documentary focused on a student attending Harvard Law School and the administrators insisted that the female victim should remain silent and avoid spreading the incident around. They asked questions such as, "Did you give him the wrong message, why did you choose not to fight back". Victim blaming is presented when the administrators are more interested in what the victim did wrong rather than what the offender's actions

Read More

More about The Mike Tyson Case: Blaming The Victim

Related Topics

Open Document