Long Jail Terms for Sexual Offenders Do Little Good

Eric Risberg, AP Images

On June 2, Judge Aaron Persky of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County sentenced Brock Turner, a former student at Stanford University, to six months in jail for his conviction on three felony counts: intent to commit rape of an intoxicated person, sexual penetration with a foreign object of an intoxicated person, and sexual penetration with a foreign object of an unconscious person. Since then an intense backlash against the sentence has ensued. Michele Dauber, a professor of law at Stanford, has led a campaign to recall the judge, and a petition on change.org calling for his impeachment has been signed by more than one million people.

These critics have cried foul because, in their view, the sentence is too short; the penalty does not fit the crime. If the sole goal of sentencing is retribution, then we agree that the sentence is too short. But our system does — and should — embrace other goals, including deterrence, victim healing, and rehabilitation. The problem with calls for a maximum sentence of 14 years for Mr. Turner and the judge’s removal is that longer sentences do not effectively accomplish any of these goals.

Historically, when a social problem connected to crime captures the public’s attention, the reaction is the same: Get tough, crack down, and issue harsher sentences. In the 1980s it was the “war on drugs; in the 1990s it was “three strikes and you’re out” legislation for repeat offenders. Myriad other zero-tolerance policies have been enacted since. These policies have great appeal to both politicians and the public. Politicians can claim they are cracking down on crime and cleaning up the streets, and an outraged public can rest easy, feeling that the “bad guys” are finally getting what’s coming to them.

The get-tough formula could be defended if it were effective in reducing crime. It is not. For example, the criminologists Caitlin J. Taylor and Kathleen Auerhahn have found that the “get tough on crime” movement has actually been associated with a decline in public safety.

If the tactic of increasing prison time really worked, our crime rate would be much lower than it is. According to the National Academy of Sciences, historical examinations of crime rates and incarceration rates do not reveal a clear relationship between the two. In fact, longer sentences are associated with an increased likelihood of reoffending, because of the criminogenic effects of the incarceration experience.

And research indicates that punishments of longer and longer jail time do not deter others, either. Deterring potential offenders assumes a rational actor who weighs the consequences of his or her behavior, which is generally not how crimes like rape on campus, particularly assaults involving alcohol, take place. Furthermore, longer sentences have created other problems, such as the United States’ becoming a world leader in incarceration. Our country has almost 5 percent of the world’s population but more than 20 percent of the incarcerated population.

In addition to failing to meet the goals of deterrence, longer sentences also do not directly facilitate victim healing, a goal that should be given greater priority, particularly in violent crimes such as rape. Research has found that restorative-justice practices not only reduce recidivism but also provide a forum for survivors to feel heard, validated, and empowered by confronting the offender in an open setting. In the Stanford case, the victim wrote a remarkably compelling letter about the ordeal that she continues to go through, which was read in open court. This letter went viral, with people all over the country supporting her, including Vice President Biden.

We have long stood with anti-rape advocates in the quest to reduce the sexual-assault problem in our country, including on our campuses. People may believe that the most effective solution is harsher penalties, but the evidence does not support that belief. As in most cases of violent crime, it is difficult to satisfy victim supporters, because the penalty for the perpetrator fails to make up for the harm caused to the victim. But we should not make the mistake of conflating lengthier prison terms with the goal of having the crime of sexual assaults on campus taken more seriously.

Critics have also raised the issue of fairness in the sentence in this case, by questioning how it compares with others. Although Mr. Turner’s race and social standing very likely influenced the judge’s decision, perhaps he was not wrong in seeing potential in the defendant for a future beyond the crime he committed. The remedy to the race and class disparities in sentencing is not to incarcerate more upper-class whites. Rather, let’s call for more judges to see the potential for rehabilitation in offenders of all backgrounds.

Regardless of the length of the sentence the judge imposed, the Stanford case represents tremendous progress. Advocates have campaigned for decades to get people to recognize the sexual-assault problem on college campuses, and most of the things we have been fighting for were achieved here: two men who were passing by — both graduate students — intervened to prevent the sexual assault from continuing; the district attorney’s office prosecuted the case as a felony; and a jury convicted the perpetrator. This case is a big win in the battle against sexual assaults on campus. The perpetrator’s getting a short sentence does not alter that fact.

Our goals should be to prevent sexual assaults from happening in the first place through increased education, as well as encouraging bystander intervention, support of victims throughout their recovery, and penalizing the offenders. We can hold sexual offenders, like Mr. Turner, accountable on college campuses and in the criminal-justice system without making the same mistake we have made in the war on drugs. Lengthy prison sentences are not the answer.

Kathleen A. Bogle is an associate professor of sociology and criminal justice, and Caitlin Taylor is an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice, at La Salle University.