Steubenville Rape Case

This is not going to be a nice food post or anything like that. I don't know if you have heard of this case yet, because the crime has taken place back in August of 2012 and I just found out about the verdict on Twitter. What happened is that at a high school party the kids got drunk and one girl even passed out. Two football players then raped her, humiliated her in other ways I really don't even want to write about and took pictures of it. Their friends, having seen all that without trying to make them stop the least bit, decided to post those pictures, write tweets about it and record and post a video of them joking about the incident. I was really surprised to actually find this video online by just typing "Steubenville rape" into the search bar on YouTube and also some other websites, because I thought it had been taken down right after the authorities learned of its existence. In case anyone would like to watch it, I'll link it way down below. It's a 12:30 minutes long video of these drunk teenage boys joking about how the girls was raped. It is SO hard to watch it, because it seems so unbelievable to me that people can be like that.

Well, it's obvious that the influence of alcohol played a major role in them recording the video and probably also committing the crime in the first place. Many teens in America are like any other teens in other countries. They try to "be grownups" and in our western cultures being a grown up equals being able to get drunk. So, naturally that is what many teens want to do. Here in Europe most countries have laws that allow teens around the ages of 16-18 to buy and consume alcohol at home or in bars/clubs. Teens here are generally raised more aware of the misuse of alcohol for one because many parents teach them about it from a younger age and also they learn about it in school. This all takes place in a much more relaxed way than in the US. It doesn't present alcohol as this demon-like thing, but more like a part of life that is natural. Now, I'm NOT AT ALL saying that drinking is good or anything like that. In fact, I choose to (/try to) not drink alcohol (not saying I ALWAYS succeed), and I also think that it should not be legal to consume alcohol. Yes, I know it's not possible to illegalize it, but that doesn't mean I can't think it would be the right thing. Anyways, in America (or at least from what I've seen and experienced) it's more like they (parents, teachers, ...) try to scare their teens with punishments and all that. I'm sure everyone knows that the consumption of alcohol is illegal until one is 21 in the USA. So, what happens there is that the teens go off to house parties at someone's house where the parents aren't home and some older person buys the alcohol. There they are not supervised whatsoever and since they never got any useful information about alcohol other than it being really bad and not something a teenager is supposed to do, they get bat shit drunk and out of control. In Europe, I feel like it's somewhat more controlled, because the teens don't have to hide that they are going out to party and they can have their parents pick them up. It's not a big deal here at all.

Alcohol of course can't be the only trigger for tragedies like this. The question that needs to be asked is "What is it that makes people choose to rape someone?". I have no idea how to answer the question at all. Which is very scary to me. All that can be done is that parents raise their boys and girls the right way. They have to teach them to respect other people. They have to teach them about sex. No matter how uncomfortable it is, it can go long ways. They have to teach them about how to detect someone else's boundaries and how and why not to ignore those boundaries. What else can be done?

Just like in other rape cases, of course there are some people who are actually blaming the victim. Of course she was irresponsible by drinking so much to the point where she passed out, but she is ONLY 16 years old. She is a child still. She didn't grasp yet how cruel the people even in your nearest surroundings can be. It probably didn't occur to her ONCE that these boys she went to school with on a daily basis could do something like this to her. How can anyone blame her for thinking she was in a "safe" environment? I know I would not have wasted a single thought about my classmates doing that to me or anyone else if I had ever passed out because I drank too much. You just don't think about that kind of stuff in the context with people that you know. The problem is, however, that the people you know you might not actually know as well as you think and they can also be a lot different when they are drunk, especially if they don't know how to drink without losing control.

This guy pretty much sums up EVERYTHING else I'm thinking. And he has some more videos on the topic actually, so if you're interested look them up!

I know for sure that I will do everything in my power to ensure that I instill certain values in my future children that will lead to them not being the perpetrator, neither the person standing by watching. Please do the same.
This is all I've got left to say about this right now. Thanks for stopping by!

VIDEO OF THE STEUBENVILLE BOYS JOKING ABOUT THE RAPE: http://jezebel.com/5972553/anonymous-leaks-horrifying-video-of-steubenville-high-schoolers-joking-about-raping-a-teenager-deader-than-trayvon-martin

Katie Lynn :)