Steubenville and Stupidity

Three juveniles have been convicted of sexually assaulting a girl while she was unable to give consent due to being under the influence of drugs. They have been sentenced to a minimum of  1 year and 2 years in prison, but may be there until the age of 21. Also, they must register as sex offenders.

Seems pretty just and straightforward, right? These youths committed an act that constitutes rape under the law of their state, Ohio, and are facing the consequences - which are significantly more lenient than what would have occurred had they been over 18 at the time of the crime.

But no, apparently a significant proportion of the people following the Steubenville rape case sympathize heavily with the defendants. Many observers, both near the small town and across the nation, believe that the victim is at fault for complaining, and that she is responsible for destroying the futures of the boys. A CNN correspondent said:
"It was incredibly emotional—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 believe their life fell apart."

Meanwhile, two girls from the area were recently arrested for "aggravated menacing" due to threats they made toward the victim over Twitter.

I find this horrifically perplexing. You could say I'm a bit softhearted when it comes to criminal justice and defendant's rights, but even I believe that there is no excuse for what those boys did, and that they deserve to face the force of the law - if they wanted to save their "bright futures", they shouldn't have assaulted that girl.  And why do people who have barely any connection to the victim or the convicted feel the need to further the girl's suffering? Do some people really think that being a star football player means a right to immunity from prosecution?

By the way, I am still unsure of how the first vowel in "Steubenville" is pronounced, but I'm going to go ahead and assume it's an "oo" sound so the title of this post sounds catchy.