Anjie
Zhao
Engl
460
Paper
1
Feb
9 2015
Stasis Theory Analysis: Sexual Assault and athlete
criminals
Rape is a serious issue in American society.
It not only reflects gender inequality but also ties with discriminations. It
also relates to the issue of the classism and power dynamics. In my class blog,
I mentioned the issue in which famous football players getting away from
conviction of rape. In this essay, I want to further investigate this type of
case by using Stasis Theory. I will analyze four parts of Stasis Theory (including
facts, definition, quality and policy) in sexual assault involving big athletes
since 20th century. I want to know if cases like getting away from
conviction are common with famous or powerful people in the past. I also want
to unveil the factors that contribute to the eventual escape of the rapist.
Let’s trace back to an actual case happened
in 2000. Kathy Redmond, the founder of National Coalition Against Violent
Athlete (a victim support group), claimed that she was twice raped in 1991 by the
same football player Christian Peter when she and Peter were both students at
University of Nebraska. But Peter’s team denies that Peter has done this; the
team member said Peter used to be an alcohol abuser but he went to
psychological counseling and has been a good player since then. According to Stasis
Theory, the first step to discover the truth behind this case is to identify
the facts. I evaluated some facts and assumptions related to the case. We
obtained our sources from the victim herself as well as Peter’s team members. This
case begins by Kathy Redmond suing the University of Nebraska. We know that
victim Kathy Redmond claimed that she was raped twice and has filed a lawsuit
against her university, but we don’t have any evidence to prove that she is
really raped. If Redmond said is true that she is really raped, it may explain
her action to build a victim support group after her efforts against Peter
failed, she wants to build a victim group that helps victims like her, because
as she said victims “are going against a lot of money and against a lot of
power, this is why a lot of victims don’t report,” (Gibeaut, 2000). But the University compensated
Redmond 50,000 dollars, we should reconsider the reason Redmond sued the
University instead of going directly to the rapist; does she want financial compensation
which she can’t get from the powerful athlete team? Would it be possible that
she lied about her rape just for money? We don’t like victim blame but we can’t
ignore the tiniest details that may help us uncover the truth. We don’t know
the relationship between Kathy Redmond and Christian Peter; if they were a
couple in college, it explains the motive of Peter if he forced himself on her.
There
is another possibility, Peter and Redmond maybe strangers. We know that Peter’s
team claimed that Peter didn’t do it, but Peter has once committed alcohol
abuse; if the team helps undercover Peter’s sex crime, and lied about Peter’s
quiting of alcohol abuse, Peter’s alcohol addiction may have lead to his
abusive behavior on innocent woman. So even if they weren’t a couple, Peter may
have force himself on Redmond because he is drunk and holds the need to express
his masculine power. If we investigate on the place Redmond claimed that she
was raped, we might get further information on the relationship between the
claimed victim and the rapist. If we hear about what the rapist would say and
look at the inconsistency among these confessions, we can also get more
information on who is telling the truth and which part of the story is particularly
true.
Moving on towards definition of this case
(or issue), the main problem about this case lies on power dynamic. Because
some football athletes are powerful and rich, it’s hard for middle class to go
against them and declare them guilty. If you compare this case with many other 20th
century case related to powerful athletes, you would find that the reason these
athletes can escape conviction is because the National Football League (NFL)
Crime Policy shielded them from reputational damage (Gibeaut, 2000). Green Bay Packers’ Mark Chmura
was charged and arrested for sexual assaulting his baby sitter, but he still has
the right to sign with another team after his charge (2000). Likewise, the Diamondback baseball
pitcher Bobby Chouinard was released by Arizona after police reported that he
had held a gun to his wife (2000).
Colorado Rockies’s ace Pedro Astacio pleaded guilty and deported after he was
charged domestic violence for beating his pregnant wife, but the Rockies insist
him to be on their opener and his deportation was withdrew (2000). These cases of
football or baseball team protecting the criminal athletes can show how
powerful the NFL’s violent crimes policy; NFL grants commissioners power to
cover up the minor illegal conducts of sports players. The basketball
management union shows the same authority over disciplines. According to
general counsel of NBA Rick Buchanan, none of the serious criminal cases
involving NBA players ended with conviction or league sanction (2000). Misdemeanors are
even less likely to end with punishment. “Absent some clear demonstration that
what the player has done is a blight on the league, there probably won’t be any
action taken,” said Billy Hunter, the executive director of NBA Player’s
Association (2000). Sports
players getting away from sexual violence is a political trend rather than an
accidental phenomenon. In my view, this political trend is built upon the
capitalist system. Capitalism is a system that capitalist or upper class holds
all the power and determines the rules while the lower class suffers and listens
to the rules. If victims of sexual assault are from middle class, and the
accused was from a class higher; it is hard for the victim to overcome the
rules that are determined by a criminal from upper class because in this case the
one who commits crimes creates the rules. The rich athletes and his teams hold
the power to change how we define sexual assault. This is because they are rich
enough to access the media and public domains, while the victims are from
middle class, they don’t hold the power over media, the laws, or protection. I
think another big factor that driven famous athletes to commit more crime is
the public and increased commercialization. People need to see these athletes
playing and they are spending more money just to watch them play. The sports
team might think their audience would not be pleased if their admired sports
player got caught in a lawsuit and never able to play again. In other words,
public support granted privilege to famous athletes and to keep them on the
stage and never fall down, while devaluing the victim’s personal interests to
seek justice.
The seriousness of Redmond’s case should not
be evaluated separately. It reflects a social phenomenon that happens
everywhere from the past to the present. According to USA TODAY research in
2003, of 168 sexual assault, 164 athletes are involved but only 22 cases went
to trial, and among the 22 which under trial, only six causes end up in
conviction (Weir, 2003).
Another 46 cases presents a 23% conviction rate for athletes; due to plea
agreement and plead guilty, more than two thirds of the cases were never charged
(2003). These statistics
shows so few athletes went to trial or being convicted for crime of sexual
violence. According to research, 20% of the solved athlete-related charges were
dropped; and 36% law enforcement authorities never filed an official charge. These
cases put such a disadvantage for female victims. Linda Fairstein, former head
of the sex crimes unit in the Manhattan district attorney's office in New York,
said there are huge pressure on the victim and force them not to press charge,
such as public would blame the victims for ruining the athlete’s career. Fairstein
also suggests that victims don’t want to go through trial because they don’t
want to be documented as the “accuser.” In my opinion, this issue that athletes
were never charged is very serious but only in particular states; it does not
cover the entire country in 2003. This is because in 2003 only 16% of sexual
assault were reported; this statistic only covers a small number of the victimization
(2003). Moreover, states
laws and legislative system are different in each state; this may results in
each states having different level of rape incident happening. For example, Nancy
O'Malley, from the sexual assault committee of the California District
Attorneys Association, suggests that some areas have conviction rate of 80% to
85%; and areas like Oakland and Berkeley has about 90% conviction rate for
those who underwent trial (2003).
If the conviction rates for some area are so high, these results are
inconsistent with USA TODAY’s 168 sex cases research (in which only 6 cases
gets convicted). This inconsistency among conviction rates can show that still
many areas’ condition of sex crimes are unknown; it is possible the areas which
has high conviction rate have underreported sex cases. But areas with high
conviction rates and less victimization may have better legislative regulation
than areas with lower conviction rate and higher victimizations.
In my view, big athlete getting away from
sex cases is generally a bad thing because this issue is pervasive in the
sports and the commercial world; the more pervasive this issue in the market,
the more likely sports people think it’s ok for athletes to get away with
sexual assault, just because they are big and famous. It provides less
constrain on athlete’s criminality, and makes the society more favorable
towards the powerful people, and man who holds authority. It gives women fewer
power to defend themselves and enables man to do what they want; this effect
ensures that the male-dominated society remain the same and maintains social
inequality. This issue is going to get worse if people don’t do anything; if
victims don’t report the cases, more victims will suffer.
In my opinion, Redmond’s case is less
damaging than sex cases that don’t have conviction or compensation. Redmond was
at least compensated by her university. I believe in some cases, such as big
athlete beating his pregnant wife, the situation is worse and more wrong
because it threatens the life of both the mother and the child. This is violent
assault, and is different from Redmond’s case because Redmond’s case is sexual
natured. Although we consider sexual assault as a form of sexual violence, it results
in less critical injury than using violence. Redmond’s trauma is both
psychological and physical but they are not immediate life threatening. However,
Redmond’s case could be potentially life threatening because it is possible her
mental trauma will bring out more suffering than an immediate injury, and this
may lead to unexpected consequences such as suicide.
About how we decide which action should be
taken, court and lawyers must be involved in order to help giving the right
judgment. In the 2003 research conducted by USA TODAY, those who involved in
the research are newspapers, wire service databases, district attorneys,
defense lawyers, and court clerks (Weir, 2003). This research investigates professional and
college athletes from NCAA Division I football and men’s basketball. Just USA
TODAY research, the athlete being accused, prosecutors, defendant, lawyers are important
to Redmond’s case because if the case gone to trial, these people will provide
sources and evidence that changes the determination of the judge and the jury. For
example, in the USA TODAY research, an NBA athlete named Bryant was accused sexually
assaulting a 19-year-old woman; his lawyer seeks evidence that the woman was taking
anti-psychotic meds and had suicidal attempt; in other words his lawyer is
trying to prove the accuser mentally insane. In addition, Bryant’s lawyer
challenged the nomocracy of Colorado’s rape shield law, and limits defense lawyers
resources about the defendant’s sexual history. Because of the pressure and distractive
evidences brought by athlete’s attorney, it’s difficult for the defendant to
win the case. According to USA TODAY’s research, if an athlete is well
respected or loved by local citizens, his supporters are willing to be on the
jury because they don’t want him to be in prison (2003). Big athletes also have better financial
supports and have the potential to higher better attorneys than most of the
defendants (2003). Another
advantage big athlete have is his popularity; his famous background ties to
million dollar business and commercials (2003). In comparison with the famous athlete, the ordinary defendants
are unknown to public, not to mention they don’t want to be in front of public
eyes, thus they acquires less public supports than the athletes do. If we apply
these problems and disadvantage brought by celebrity to Redmond’s case, if
Redmond also lacks the power to hire a more experienced attorney or the power to
control the media, she is less likely to win than the athlete she fights
against.
In conclusion, in this essay I talked about
an old 20th century case of sexual assault and used multiple
examples from other sex cases to help me investigate its nature and difficulties
to solve this case. Redmond’s case uncovers a big issue related to athlete in
general; it also shows a solid male-dominated political system in 2000. The fact
that this case never been convicted is related to multiple social factors
including the lack of competitiveness in the court room, lack of support by the
public and legal team. In order to resolve this issue and many other sexual
assaults related to big athletes, some actions must be taken. Sharing rights
with victims of lower rank is a long process because it takes time for people
to grow richer and become equally powerful as the higher rank. Legal system
should enhance its laws and make it cover up high class. A solid sport league
policy may restrain athlete’s behavior. The court room should keep revising its
rules too in order to ensure justice in cases of sexual assault.
Citation
Gibeaut, J.
(2000). When Pros Turn Cons. (cover story). ABA
Journal, 86 (7), 38. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7f40bc4b-1566-45a3-b1fe-2cb4b829c53c%40sessionmgr4002&vid=4&hid=4204
Weir, T., & Brady,
E. (2003). In sexual assault cases, athletes usually walk. USA Today. Retrieved from http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/2003-12-21-athletes-sexual-assault_x.htm
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