Larry Nassar was a well-known, and highly respected, 54-year-old physician that treated the US women Olympic gymnast team and worked at Michigan State University. He was found guilty of sexually harassing over 150 women throughout his career and was sentenced to serve 175 years in prison, ensuring that the rest of his life would be spent behind bars, by Judge Rosemarie Aquilina on Monday, February 5th, 2018. A total of 156 victims (Grinberg, 2018) read their impact statements over the course of a week in front of the court; Nassar was made to listen, and realize the destruction he caused in the lives of countless individuals. When we analyze the factors that enabled Nassar’s sexual abuse and general misconduct to continue for nearly two decades, …show more content…
“You can't trust a world-renowned doctor, who in the world who can you trust?” (Moghe, S and Del Valle, L, 2018) remarked Olivia Cowan, in a victim impact statement. This brings to light the factors that played to Nassar’s advantage and aided him in his sexual abuse of women. Two important factors were: role and status. Nassar’s status was that of a renowned, professional, physician which is a respected and high paying job, not to mention he was working for a well-known and highly respected organization2 at the time. A second factor that enabled Nassar was his role as a doctor. Roles are defined as “expectations and actions appropriate for occupants of a particular status” (Brymes et al., 2016) and the expectations of doctors are generally that they can be trusted since they are dealing with personal information of their patients. People willingly put themselves into vulnerable positions for their doctors, because they trust that the doctors have their best interest3 at hand. It is now clear that Nassar’s high status and the role he played enabled him to take advantage of his situation, and environment, to get what he …show more content…
“Michigan State University, the school I loved and trusted, had the audacity to tell me that I did not understand the difference between sexual assault and a medical procedure. That master manipulator took advantage of his title, he abused me, and when I found the strength to talk about what had happened I was ignored, and my voice was silenced.” (Moghe, S and Del Valle, L, 2018) declared Amanda Thomashow, another victim. It is not clear why the leaders of the organizations did not take steps of a necessary procedure in order to prevent Nassar from further sexual misconduct, but it is possible that it had to do with status. If mass media was circulated that the physician they had employed for so many years had sexually abused members of their organization, it would certainly receive harsh criticism from the public and damage the reputation of the groups and consequentially their status. Regardless of the reasons why the organizations failed to protect their girls, the pattern of domination and submission between the women and the organizations in power is shown once again. When women reported Nassar to officials, it was in order to regain their power, the autonomy of their body, and their career. When organizations failed to take action, some gymnasts were forced to quit
This story is a typical case of child sexual abuse with a male offender, Jerry Sandusky, who victims were aged between 7 and 13, and who had a close
Policy Analysis: Megan’s Law Sexual violence, particularly against children, is a significant issue all around the world. In the early 1990’s in the United States, there were multiple well-publicized cases of sexual violence against children. From kidnappings, to rapes, and everything in between, violence was being committed against children and something needed to be done about it. In 1996, Megan’s Law was passed in response to the sexual assault and death of Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old from New Jersey (Corrigan, 2006).
Collectively, they publicly sought to deny the existence of a crisis looming at Penn State concerning various allegations levied against Jerry Sandusky. While their true motives for denying allegations in the decade leading up to the crisis may never be known, it is apparent their strategy and actions played a crucial role in what now is unequivocally regarded as a ‘cover-up’ by Penn State University officials. Employment of this strategy was evident in the manner in which Paterno, Spainer, Curley and Schultz ultimately addressed allegations of Sandusky sexually assaulting a young boy on Penn State property in early 2002 – nearly a decade before the crisis erupted in the national
For some of his career, officials at Penn State knew of his actions and instead of reporting it, chose to cover it up in order to protect the football legacy. University officials did not report the crimes to the police, attempt to prevent further sexual misconduct, or take any action to protect the children who were involved. The four people who knew about his sexual misconduct were President Graham Spanier, Senior Vice President of Finance and Business Gary Schultz, Athletic Director Timothy Curley, and Head Football Coach Joe Paterno
By doing this, she encouraged other women who were navigating through the same troubles to accuse Nassar of his wrongs. As another example to Raisman’s persistence, she never gave up in her career in gymnastics until she retired in 2020. She was “one of the most decorated athletes in the United States- and maybe the world” (Aly Raisman: Mishandling Of Gymnastics Sexual Abuse Adds To The Trauma
Training 30+ hours a week to accomplish their dreams made it evident that they had no knowledge about it and they were not educated on it properly. The treatments Nassar performed on the gymnasts were normal, according to him at least. He said he was healing them. The gymnasts did not ask him questions because he was the adult and they were just children.
Jerry Sandusky performed very repulsive and vile acts on juveniles over a 15-year period (Bohm & Haley, 2014). Prior to his actions rising to the surface, Sandusky was considered to be a charitable, family, and good man by his community. Sandusky achieved many things throughout his life, such as being the Penn State assistant football coach for 32 years (“Penn State Scandal”, 2018). Furthermore, he founded the Second Mile Charity in 1977. This charity was originally a group foster home for troubled boys, which later became a non-profit organization focusing on the individuality of juveniles and helping juveniles become productive citizens.
As I read the coverage from CNN, I noticed that the paper was bias against Nassar from the very beginning. The started the story with; “Once a world-renowned sports physician treating America's foremost Olympic women gymnasts, Larry Nassar now will spend the rest of his life behind bars”(CNN). The start of this story is telling the reader that this man is no longer world-renowed sport physician. They continue the story with “The disgraced former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor was sentenced” (CNN). This sentence shows bias against Nassar.
Ralph Flynn is a California man who has recently filed a lawsuit against his parents for using him as a sex slave after adopting him at nine years old from a Russian orphanage. Ralph and Carolyn have been arrested for several months and their trial will shed light on the many abuses faced by Ralph during his childhood and teenage years. Adoption is a very selective process but international adoption may be less so. Every parent in the United States seeking to adopt a child must go through many tests and surveys before being approved as financially, mentally, and physically fit to adopt a young child; this process is to ensure that every adopted child has a good home. However, this process and its extreme rigor may change due to the relevance of this crime.
Finally, one of the issues with the cases made against Title IX is that these sentiments are one-sided. A hefty portion of the articles that condemn the impact of Title IX on men 's athletic fields originated from the one, particularly male whose life was directly affected by the removal of his desire sports in the list of college sports. This was illustrated by Michael Lancaster in the article of “Title IX Laws and Intercollegiate Athletics.” In this composition, he writes about the elimination of track and field at Nicholls State University that later caused his scholarship to be cut (Lancaster). The issue with this article is that Lancaster himself was one of the athletes who were being victimized in the name of Title IX.
The biggest question asked about this scandal is why; why would Larry Nassar sexually assault so many young and innocent women? What compelled Nassar to be a secondary deviant? This is where masculinity and gender inequality come into play. In Jessie Klein’s book, The Bully Society, she talks about how masculinity is a key factor in determining whether someone will commit a crime. More specifically, she notes a certain type of masculinity, “marginalized masculinity” which describes men who have a lack of power, and seek other methods in order to achieve their so called “power” sense of “masculinity” (Klein p. 48).
The court found the “Defendant's care of Claimant fell below acceptable standards of practice” (Stashenko, 2015). In 2009 a former inmate of the Hawaii corrections department was awarded close to $1 million in damages for an incident in 2003, in which the physician’s failure to give the correct type and dosage of antibiotic for an infection in his scrotum. This resulted in 6 subsequent surgeries and the removal of his scrotum, rendering him
Lies Cost Lives Over 150 young women involved with USA Gymnastics (USAG) and Michigan State (MSU) recently came out as victims of sexual abuse. The culprit: their well-respected physician, Larry Nassar. The young gymnasts were required to see this physician, and, when a few brave girls tried to report him, they were shut down for being “disrespectful” or “insubordinate.” The organizations who supported Nassar, specifically USAG, MSU, and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), did nothing for these young women because they felt they needed to protect their and Nassar’s reputations as the best of the best.
AS91101 - 2.4 Writing Portfolio Piece Two - Cooper Title: Drugs in sports Drugs have become an integral part of any modern day sporting event. Drugs give an unfair advantage to the user and the competitors that are using enhancements are not using their own full abilities to win the Olympic medal or championship. This makes it unfair to other competitors that are not using a drug or other enhancements to compete. Athletes like Lance Armstrong and Nadzeya Ostapchuk not only give sportsmen and women a bad reputation but influence the way the public think about sports and run the risk of addiction and long-term health issues.
Sexual harassment and sexual assault are very serious issues happening today in the workplace. Women or men have suffered from unsolicited sexual behaviors that are typically provoked by someone “higher” in position. “Sexual harassment especially has been a fixture in the workplace since women began to work outside their homes” (Fitzgerald, 1993). It is solely the responsibility of the employer to ensure that all employees within are aware and are very cautions of laws, misconduct, and liabilities. Employers must enforce the Policy Prohibiting Discrimination and further extend those laws and guidelines to their employees.