Steubenville, Two Years Later (trigger warning)

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It’s clear that the town of Steubenville itself is traumatized by the case and the media attention it brought with it. Mays and Richmond have both been released from juvenile detention. Richmond has even returned to the high school football field. An effort to reach out to dozens of Steubenville High School students on Facebook received only one response: “I'm sorry but that's in my past. I don't want to answer any questions, but thank you.” Nathaniel Richmond, Ma’lik’s father, responded to an interview request: “Not interested in media fabrications thanks but no thanks.” So, it’s difficult to get a sense of how this case has affected attitudes toward sexual assault in the Ohio town.

Goddard believes that Steubenville hasn’t learned anything. “They welcomed Ma’lik back with open arms,” she said. “They cheered him on every Friday night. It was odd for everyone else looking in to see that happening, but the locals didn't see it that way. They're still embracing rape culture.” Some see Richmond’s return to normal life in Steubenville in a much more positive light, though: As Amanda Hess wrote on Slate, “A juvenile’s rehabilitation and reentry into society is integral to preventing rape in the future.”

There is at least one clear example of a lesson not learned. In November of last year, Matt Belardine, a former volunteer football coach at Steubenville High School and the host of the party that kicked off that fateful night, was arrested after getting in a fight with protesters at a police brutality rally in Scottsdale, AZ. A female protester, who was among a group wearing the Guy Fawkes masks associated with Anonymous, alleged that Belardine shouted things including, "I'm from Steubenville, fuck Anonymous, you're a bunch of pussies” and “We rape whores like you." She says Belardine and his friend “got back into my face and threatened to rape me at least a dozen times.”

If there is one thing that distinguishes Steubenville from the countless other similar sexual assault cases that come before it, it’s the role that social media played. In a New Yorker article titled “Trial By Twitter,” Ariel Levy wrote, “Fifteen years ago, Richmond and Mays would have escaped suspicion: Before smartphones and Twitter, rumors floated around high schools and then dissipated, often before adults knew what was real and what was adolescent imagination.” Law professor Thaddeus Hoffmeister, author of the book Social Media in the Courtroom, agreed: “Without social media it would have never gone forward,” he said. “They couldn't prosecute these boys because you wouldn't have evidence, the evidence was on social media.” In fact, it was the evidence on social media that helped the victim, who had little memory of the night, piece together what had happened to her.
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http://www.refinery29.com/steubenville-two-years-later