Stanford Rapist Brock Turner Blames "Party Culture" for the Rape He Committed

Brock Turner, the 20-year-old former star athlete from Stanford University who was convicted of felony sexual assault after he raped an unconscious woman, blamed "party culture" for the crime he committed.

In a revealing letter Turner wrote to judge Aaron Persky, who sentenced him to a very lenient six months in prison, Turner acknowledged that he was the "sole proprietor of what happened"—that is, the rape—but still found a way to deflect the blame away from himself.

In a copy of Turner's statement obtained by The Guardian, Turner bemoans the apparent distress he feels as a result of his actions. He writes:

Turner then blames his actions on alcohol: "I wish I had the ability to go back in time, and never pick up a drink that night, let alone interact with [redacted]."

He continues to describe his damaged psyche as a result of the rape he committed:

Turner's comments about the "torture" he feels as a result of having raped a woman are anger-inducing and cringeworthy because they're tone-deaf and overshadow the impact on his victim. Yes, Turner has to live with himself and the hideous crime he committed, but so does his victim. What's more, women must continue to live in fear that Turner or men like him will "drink too much" and cause them harm.

While Turner took (or at least feigned) responsibility for his actions at the beginning of the letter, near the end, he suggests he never would've raped his victim had he not been drinking and partying:

Ultimately, Turner violated a woman who couldn't defend herself, and he should feel terrible. But all of that lost sleep and distraction during conversations—the "torture" he's enduring—are meaningless if he and the rest of society don't acknowledge that the real problem has nothing to do with party culture, and everything to do with rape culture.

Read the full transcript of Turner's statement, as published by The Guardian, below: