# Stupid Privileged White Kid Gets 6 Months for Rape, Father describes it as "20 minutes of action" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 7, 2016, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733 "2016-06-07T14:12:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/461 "2016-09-08T00:57:57Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I’m curious how you feel about moral wrongs that aren’t explicitly against the law. If your wife cheats on you, are you allowed to tell people? If a man has a history of jealous, controlling, possessive relationship behavior, is it all right to warn people away from him? If someone is a compulsive liar, can you publicly call them out on their bullshit? Or should people never have any consequence for their actions unless it’s punishable in a court of law? This is a very important question. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/462 "2016-09-08T01:18:23Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Just to make absolutely clear where I am coming from, this is not specifically about rape for me. Here’s a thought experiment to illustrate. > > Let’s say I could be metaphysically sure that of ten men in a holding cell, nine of them were guilty of repeatedly kidnapping, torturing, and killing children (about the worst crime I can think of), but one of them was metaphysically certain to be 100% innocent. But I have no way to know which one that is. > > I have the power to put them all in prison for life, but with no way for the innocent one to clear his name, or I can let them all go free. I choose freedom for all without hesitation. > > I understand this might not be such an easy choice for many other people, but it is a core element of my ethical worldview. The way this maps onto real life is that if I’m on a jury and I think there’s about a 90% chance someone is guilty of a heinous crime, I am going to vote to acquit, and 11 other angry men and women are not going to dissuade me–unless they use logic and evidence to make me think it is at least in the 99+ percent range (and I will still feel uneasy about it unless it is more like 99.99%.) This is an argument to not believe a person–to remain agnostic–when told that someone is a criminal. It’s not an argument to explain why it’s wrong to tell people about your own experiences. And you say that you think every person is entitled to explain himself. So if, as a boss, I have a credible account that an employee has sexually assaulted three women, do I have to let him have his say in a court of law, or is it enough that I ask him to explain? And if he admits to the behavior, but claims he believes it to be acceptable (I was joking/they don’t have a sense of humor/it was just being friendly), can I fire him then? Or does it actually have to go to court? ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/463 "2016-09-08T02:48:11Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > You realize nobody cares when people get raped and molested, right? Nobody cares who did it. Nobody cares if it’s true. Nobody cares. I’m sorry you have had experiences that make this your view, but I just don’t believe this is true. (Which is not, you understand, the same as saying “\*everyone \*cares”.) > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > Forgive me if the notion that a mere accusation can permanently destroy someone is farfetched to me, given how many actually convicted rapists I have seen return to complete normalcy with everyone looking the other way. It destroyed my best friend. His name was Mudd, he immediately dropped out of school, and went back to the decaying Rust Belt inner city he had previously escaped. There, he fell back into the crowd of bad \*friends \*he had previously escaped. One day, after they committed a burglary, they got hopped up on meth and got paranoid that “college boy” was going to rat them out to the cops. So they shot and killed him in cold blood, dumped his corpse under a port-a-potty, and went around snickering to everyone about how \*hilarious \*it was that his last utterance had been “ouch”. > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I’m curious how you feel about moral wrongs that aren’t explicitly against the law. If your wife cheats on you, are you allowed to tell people? If a man has a history of jealous, controlling, possessive relationship behavior, is it all right to warn people away from him? If someone is a compulsive liar, can you publicly call them out on their bullshit? Or should people never have any consequence for their actions unless it’s punishable in a court of law? This is an interesting question. I’ll have to give it some thought. I will say that I think people should refrain from making serious allegations without proof, and people should refrain from \*believing \*serious allegations without proof; but I’m probably trying to empty the ocean with a thimble on that front. > [@Acsenray](#): > > They are not being subject to criminal punishment by the state. You are not putting them in prison. You are not killing them. That’s the difference. > > Criminal law standards are for criminal courts. We have to live 99 percent of our lives outside of the justice system. That’s a dodge, based on a technicality. The legal system is not some mechanism that exists independent of society. It is a formalized version of the kind of thing you are talking about: collectively shunning people or otherwise making their lives more difficult based on a societal perception of wrongdoing. And if we go along with inflicting punishments comparable with, or even worse than, the criminal justice system metes out, without giving someone due process, then we have made “justice” into a sham. At that point, it becomes like we used to see with “issue ads” that were thinly veiled campaign ads. They would insert some kind of verbiage “Call Senator Smith and tell him not to be such a bad person”, but it was an incredibly thin pretext. If we ruin someone’s life without giving them due process, protesting that “this is outside the criminal justice system” rings hollow. At least to me. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/464 "2016-09-08T02:57:07Z")
It’s neither a dodge nor a technicality. Criminal punishment is reserved to the state and meted out by standards that the state is subject to. What tou seem to be suggesting is something along the lines of not being able to choose to disassociate ourselves from people unless the state has chosen to prosecute and has successfully convicted that person of a crime. If you think about it with any sort of seriousness at all, it’s an utterly ridiculous standard. There is no reasonable moral position that requires is to treat everyone around us as if we are completely unaware of their bad behavior. You are positing a situation in which only the criminal justice system can tell us when someone has done something bad enough such that we no longer are forced to associate with him or her. That’s so far beyond the purpose of criminal justice that I can’t imagine you are serious about it. It is not meant to replace all of our decisions about the people around us. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/465 "2016-09-08T03:04:10Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > What tou seem to be suggesting is something along the lines of not being able to choose to disassociate ourselves from people unless the state has chosen to prosecute and has successfully convicted that person of a crime. When it comes to friendship? No. When it comes to hiring or firing someone? Yes. But I would prefer not to expect people making those decisions to disregard things they have heard about (as absurd as expecting a jury to disregard stricken testimony), but instead punish people who spread incendiary allegations about someone without proof. (Even, yes, if they know in their heart the allegation is true.) ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/466 "2016-09-08T03:17:13Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Hey, wait a minute! What’s wrong with the University of Northern Iowa? > > It’s a good school; I went there myself for a while. Well, I’m a University of Iowa girl…so there is that 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/467 "2016-09-08T03:19:36Z")
Realize what standard you are setting here. You are saying that UCB can never exclude Aaron Glaser from its clubs. That every woman who works there has to face the risks of being assaulted by him. That essentially women are required to face this risk of sexual assault in order to pursue their profession and that UCB as an employer has to be okay with sexual assault continuing under its roof repeatedly and without any recourse to stop it. This is essentially institutionalizing rape as a bedrock condition of our workplaces. And this because you require us to live with the fiction that unless a criminal conviction has been secured then we have to live as if nothing is happened. This is not the purpose of criminal justice. I dare you to find any reputable work of jurisprudence that says so. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/468 "2016-09-08T03:20:55Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > When it comes to friendship? No. When it comes to hiring or firing someone? Yes. But I would prefer not to expect people making those decisions to disregard things they have heard about (as absurd as expecting a jury to disregard stricken testimony), but instead punish people who spread incendiary allegations about someone without proof. (Even, yes, if they know in their heart the allegation is true.) So you’d hire an accountant to handle your business who you have heard persistent rumors about him skimming the top of the cash from his previous employers? You’d hire a housekeeper who worked for a friend of yours for a bit, but was let go because things kept disappearing when she had been over? You’d hire a babysitter for your kids who last time you had her the kids had bruises after she was over and when you asked her ‘they fell down?’ ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/469 "2016-09-08T03:29:40Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Realize what standard you are setting here. You are saying that UCB can never exclude Aaron Glaser from its clubs. Yes, it must have been Glaser I was arguing about on Twitter, after I heard about Amy Schumer’s statement (I generally love her, but she’s wrong on this one). I didn’t remember his name, and I’ve never heard his comedy or anything like that, but it has to be the same case. You act shocked–shocked!–with this “realize what standard you are setting here”, when I just earlier today said I’d _set nine serial child torturer-murderers free_ rather than send them to prison along with an innocent man. :dubious: > [@Dangerosa](#): > > So you’d hire an accountant to handle your business who you have heard persistent rumors about him skimming the top of the cash from his previous employers? Only this first of the three thought experiments you listed is really relevant, as it is the only one that involves rumors. I would like to think I would set that stuff aside, but no: I don’t know that I would. That is precisely why I said I thought people should be punished for ruining others’ reputations without proof, because I don’t think people can reasonably be expected to disregard rumors and gossip. ETA: BTW, I’m curious to hear how you guys square the claim “no one cares” about rape etc. with what has happened to Glaser, with the overwhelming majority of reactions in this thread, etc. You act like you’re part of some tiny, ignored minority even as you join the pile-on! ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/470 "2016-09-08T03:33:36Z")
All of them involve rumors and not proof. Your friend’s stuff could be disappearing because her teenager took it. Your kids might have indeed fallen. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/471 "2016-09-08T03:36:16Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > All of them involve rumors and not proof. Your friend’s stuff could be disappearing because her teenager took it. Your kids might have indeed fallen. Okay, maybe the second one. But to call the third one a “rumor” is to stretch that term beyond recognition. I’m sure \*\*Acsenray \*\*can vouch for the fact that there is a different evidentiary standard, for a reason, between things you observed yourself and things you heard about third (or fourth, or fifth) hand. ETA: Another key difference here is that if I let the babysitter go because of my suspicions, but don’t share them with anyone else since I don’t have proof, that babysitter has a chance at a clean slate with some other employer. It’s the poisoning of the employment well by widely broadcasting unproven allegations that is much more damaging. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/472 "2016-09-08T03:39:55Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > ETA: BTW, I’m curious to hear how you guys square the claim “no one cares” about rape etc. with what has happened to Glaser, with the overwhelming majority of reactions in this thread, etc. You act like you’re part of some tiny, ignored minority even as you join the pile-on! I square it by virtue of my recognition of the existence of hyperbole, paired with my everyday experience of people dismissing and excusing away credible claims of sexual assault on any number of specious grounds, including dismissing them as “hearsay,” “he-said / she-said,” and “crying rape.” You know, in the real world, where things happen. How do you square the fact that you think we should conflate criminal justice with all other human society with the fact that by your own admission, doing that leaves you utterly bereft of a mechanism for forming an opinion about most real world human behavior? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/473 "2016-09-08T04:12:32Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > It destroyed my best friend. His name was Mudd, he immediately dropped out of school, and went back to the decaying Rust Belt inner city he had previously escaped. There, he fell back into the crowd of bad \*friends \*he had previously escaped. One day, after they committed a burglary, they got hopped up on meth and got paranoid that “college boy” was going to rat them out to the cops. So they shot and killed him in cold blood, dumped his corpse under a port-a-potty, and went around snickering to everyone about how \*hilarious \*it was that his last utterance had been “ouch”. That is fucking horrific. It sounds like you feel this false rape accusation caused your friend to die. It is no surprise you have strong feelings on this matter, but it seems to me like the chain of events was much more complicated than that. It required him to make a series of bad choices in the aftermath of that injustice. That’s not a slam on your friend, as I don’t know the specifics of his situation or what problems he faced that I didn’t. I ask myself every day why some people manage to climb out of their holes and others don’t. It’s a question that torments me because my mother’s upbringing was no less traumatizing than my own, but for some reason she couldn’t get out, and I did. I’m just saying it doesn’t make much sense to me to blame his death on that one terrible thing he experienced. There is a world of context that contributes to every decision, good or bad, that a person chooses to make. I get so frustrated with Brock Turner _et. al_ because his inability to accept what he’s done is the thing that’s going to ruin him. He has this tremendous opportunity for personal growth, he could acknowledge that he raped that woman and become a major force for helping kids his age to understand what consent means. Instead he is all excuses and rationalizations and the people in his life are supporting that narrative. It may be self-protective for him but if he exposed himself to the pain of what he had done it would lead to a better world for all of us. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/474 "2016-09-08T04:45:20Z")
I think it’s awfully hard for poor kids like him, from kinship groups with little social capital and no one going to college, to “get out” at all. To find their way again after a big setback is a lot to expect. I of course wish I had been able to do something to help, but I became a college dropout myself not long after (albeit with far less excuse). It’s very sad. ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/475 "2016-09-08T06:22:13Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Your other posts contradict this. How so? Where have I shown sympathy for the rapist? ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/476 "2016-09-08T06:24:46Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > I, personally, have a hard time seeing myself as a rapist. But if I were one I guess I would want a light sentence to lessen the rape I would likely be on the receiving end of. Ah the old “If you are a rapist, I can’t wait to see you raped in prison” saw. Kinda self-contradictory, ain’t it?:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/477 "2016-09-08T06:29:04Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > It was his own doing. He asked for leniency. And he got it. His father, his high school friend - they all asked the judge for leniency. > > I was surprised by the public protests outside his house. But the minute the sentence went viral, I expected the hate mail, stalking and death threats. After all, in a world where women can get harassed on the internet for creating and writing about video games or reporting on sports, or a black woman is harassed for playing a Ghostbuster, when high schoolers are cyber bullied into suicide, is anyone surprised that the same mob culture might go after a entitled asshole who raped a woman behind a dumpster? > > I still think its wrong, but it happens to be the society we live in. And until we figure out how to control the raging mobs of the internet, it will be an issue. And frankly, rapists are pretty low on my list of victims of this behavior I care about. I appreciate this post, many great points that I think get to my point. Only thing I will add is most criminals will do all they can to ask for leniency, thats how the Justice system works, and if they score it, why the hate? ---
**Author:** ![WilyQuixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f9ae1b/32.png) [@WilyQuixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WilyQuixote)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/478 "2016-09-08T06:43:09Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > How about the same thing I would wish for any non-murderer single offender felon: the chance to become a productive, anonymous member of society? I don’t see how that precludes a suitable punishment. ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Render](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/479 "2016-09-08T08:35:09Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > And acting may be punishing an innocent person, without giving them the chance to plead their case, which I believe is far worse. I’m shocked and dismayed that you as an attorney would support that. So if your child told you he or she was being molested, you would do nothing? Because you did not have evidence that would stand up in court? If your employee came to you and told you she was being severely sexually harassed at work, you would take no action, because it was just unfounded allegations? If one of your students came to you and told you she was raped by another student of yours, you would do nothing? There are terms to describe this: “Utterly unfit for responsibility”. Also: “complicit” Ironically, there are circumstances where you could go to prison, after a fair trial with all the safeguards, if you were found to have refused to take action in such cases. That’s what the word “responsible” means. > [@SlackerInc](#): > > I’m sorry, but I believe too strongly in the right of everyone, guilty and innocent alike, to be able to have a presumption of innocence and to be able to cross-examine the witnesses against them, to be represented by counsel, and to present evidence in front of a judge and a jury of their peers. To make someone unemployable and a social outcast is as serious a penalty as to give them years in prison. And I don’t believe it’s right to do that to someone without due process. Please don’t take this personally! There is no such right, except in very special circumstances. Namely, if you are being prosecuted by the government for a crime. It is not a general right applying to all circumstances of your life. Do you know how much it costs to run a trial, with prosecutors, defenders, a judge, a jury, police and digging for evidence etc. ? Can you imagine if every allegation in life needed this amount of resources? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733/480 "2016-09-08T12:45:12Z")
And for those lecturing rape victims about how they should behave or what they should do after an attack: ProPublica reported on this case of an 18-year-old woman who was raped, reported it, and then was charged with filing a false claim, because law enforcement _and her own friends_ thought she wasn’t behaving like a rape victim should behave — [An Unbelievable Story of Rape — ProPublica](https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story) > [@](#): > > “She called and said, ‘I’ve been raped,’” Shannon says. “There was just no emotion. It was like she was telling me that she’d made a sandwich.” That Marie wasn’t hysterical, or even upset, made Shannon wonder if Marie was telling the truth. And if you read the Cracked article, I linked to before — [8 Ways the Legal System Screws Rape Victims (Like Me) | Cracked.com](http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1504-8-ways-legal-system-screws-rape-victims-like-me.html) — There are similar explanations > [@](#): > > Rape Kits Feel Like the Worst Thing After a Rape … > > You May Be Biologically Incapable of Acting “Like a Victim” … > > There’s a scientific reason most people don’t believe rape victims. Certain traumas can be so severe that they actually change the way that your brain processes and stores information. The chunks of your brain responsible for decision-making and memory shut themselves down, for the same reason your computer shuts itself down when the hard drive gets too hot – you don’t want to do any permanent damage. Unfortunately, this means the victim sometimes behaves like they’re lying: Police say that rape victims often exhibit the classic behavioral cues of a liar, which makes them instinctively doubt their story, no matter what the evidence says. > > … > > You Might Have to Hang Out With Your Rapist and His Family for Months … > > Your Case Must Be Bulletproof to Even Get a Shot … > > The Defense Is Going to Try to Prove You’re a Slut … > > Pretty Much Anything Proves That You’re a Slut … > > A Rape Case Complicates Your Social Life Forever … > > People Don’t Want You to Heal With the way our justice system currently works, demanding that a rape victim immediately report it to the police is essentially forcing her to make her own life into a kind of living hell. Scolding someone for wanting to avoid that is at the least short-sighted, and won’t result in any improvement of the situation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-privileged-white-kid-gets-6-months-for-rape-father-describes-it-as-20-minutes-of-action/756733.md?page=25)