Will the Steubenville rape verdict deter sexual assault?

An Ohio judge sentences two teenage football players to at least a year in lockup for raping an intoxicated girl

Trent Mays, 17, left, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16, sit at the defense table before the start of their trial on March 13.
(Image credit: AP Photo)

On Sunday, two Steubenville, Ohio, teenagers — Trent Mays, 17, and Ma'lik Richmond, 16 — were found "delinquent" (guilty) in juvenile court of raping an unidentified 16-year-old at a series of parties last August. The trial had garnered widespread media attention because of the prominent role social media played in documenting the assault, the involvement of hactivist collective Anonymous in publicizing the case, and allegations that the defendants were initially given special treatment because they were part of the popular Steubenville High School football team.

Richmond and Mays will spend at least a year in juvenile detention — Mays will spend at least two because he was also convicted of taking a photo of the passed-out girl nude — and they both could be locked up until they are 21. Reactions to the verdict were strong, and mixed, locally and nationally. CNN came in for its own share of criticism, largely because correspondent Poppy Harlow's initial reaction was about how it was "incredibly difficult, even for an outsider like me, to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart." (Watch the video below; read a scathing takedown from Gawker's Mallory Ortberg here.)

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.