Stanford University is caught in an uproar following what some students and faculty consider a too-lenient sentence for Brock Turner, a former student who was convicted of sexual assault. WSJ's Melissa Korn discusses with Tanya Rivero. Photo: AP

WHEN rapist Brock Turner stood before a judge at Santa Clara County Superior Court, he was up against it.

Witnesses had testified stumbling upon the Stanford swimming star raping an unconscious woman.

The victim had made an emotional statement, the contents of which have since gone viral.

Turner himself showed no remorse, a position supported by his father who said his son only got “20 minutes of action”.

The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts. All that was left was for judge Aaron Persky to hand down a sentence that reflected the true horror of the crime. That didn’t happen.

Turner received six months jail time and three years probation in a sentence described by one US Senator as “outrageous”.

The public has shared that sentiment — an online petition demanding Judge Persky be stood down has been signed almost 800,000 times.

Turner’s sentence is lenient, but shockingly he’ll serve more jail time than 97 per cent of rapists. Here’s why.

Most rapists get away with it because their victim never reports the crime. Of the cases where rape is reported, about one in four cases leads to an arrest. Of those arrests, a further one in four leads to a conviction.

An analysis from the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) shows 97 per cent of every 100 rapists serve no time in jail at all.

The analysis of Justice Department data showed out of every 100 rapes, 46 get reported to police, 12 lead to an arrest, nine get prosecuted, five lead to a conviction and only three lead to a rapist spending even a single day in prison.

Those statistics are from the US, but Donna Chung, a professor of social work at Curtin University, said the statistics are much the same in Australia.

“One of the ways we compare the two countries is with population surveys asking the same questions,” Prof Chung told news.com.au.

“When we do that, we see that rates are pretty similar around rape and sex assault.”

She said the same thing occurs in Australia and America. Women don’t report rape and conviction rates are at similar levels.

“What you’ve generally got nationally, when we ask about sex assault, is that quite a large number of people report being a victim,” she said.

“That tapers down for those who report a crime. That tapers down again at public prosecutions who decide whether a case will go to court. That’s about resources and probability of conviction. Then at court there’s a low conviction rate.”

She said a number of factors are at play.

“One of the things is often that with sexual assault, there might not be any physical or medical evidence. Witness accounts are not always useful and evidentiary requirements that are used for the basis of conviction favour the attacker.”

She said she is not surprised to hear 97 per cent of rapists escape convictions.

“It’s shocking but it’s not unusual.”

She said there is an important distinction to be made between “innocent” and “not guilty”. When a person is found not guilty, it often means they committed the crime but it could not be proven.

Prof Chung said as a result the victim is often accused of making the whole thing up.

“They may not be innocent, but they may be found not guilty. It fuels myths that women make it up. It builds this false logic.”

She said a number of women choose not to report the rape because in doing so they open themselves up to public scrutiny.

Brock Turner raped a 22-year-old woman behind a large bin after a frat party in January last year.

The attack was stopped by two students who saw Turner on top of the motionless victim. They tackled him and eventually pinned him down until police arrived and took him away.

On Monday, the victim’s powerful 7000-word impact statement was made public. Today, Turner’s version of events has been published. Read the full statement here.

Somehow, Turner painted himself as a victim. He expressed no remorse for his crime and wrote how it had ruined his life.

“I’ve lost two jobs solely based on the reporting of my case,” Turner wrote.

“I wish I never was good at swimming or had the opportunity to attend Stanford, so maybe the newspapers wouldn’t want to write stories about me.

“All I can do from these events moving forward is by proving to everyone who I really am as a person.”

He said the rape was a “poor decision”.

“I want to show that people’s lives can be destroyed by drinking and making poor decisions while doing so. One needs to recognise the influence that peer pressure and the attitude of having to fit in can have on someone.

“One decision has the potential to change your entire life. I know I can impact and change people’s attitudes towards the culture surrounded by binge drinking and sexual promiscuity that protrudes through what people think is at the core of being a college student.

“I’ve been shattered by the party culture and risk taking behaviour that I briefly experienced in my four months at school. I’ve lost my chance to swim in the Olympics.

“I’ve lost my ability to obtain a Stanford degree. I’ve lost employment opportunity, my reputation and most of all, my life. These things force me to never want to put myself in a position where I have to sacrifice everything.”

Prof Chung said the most important statement comes from the victim.

“That is key, reading the victim’s experience and what the effect has been on them. Talking about what you live with afterwards in terms of people’s attitudes makes people realise something has to change.”