In an ideal world, someone would be responsible for Parsons' death.(Cathredfern, Creative Commons)

Fifteen year-old Canadian teen Rehtaeh Parsons was raped by four boys, one of whom took a photo of the rape and disseminated it within Parsons' high school and community. The photo went viral. She was shunned by her peers and had to check into a hospital to resolve her anger, depression and suicidal tendencies.

On April 4, after being bullied via social media and text message for 17 months, Parsons hanged herself in her bathroom. She was laid to rest by her family on April 13.

No one was prosecuted for her sexual assault because the police found no grounds to charge anyone with the crime, even after a yearlong investigation. After Parsons’ death, however, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced that they would reopen the investigation, after locating a cooperative source.

Their response could be due to hacker group Anonymous’ threat to release the names of the boy in the photo, along with those of the three other accused, if the RCMP makes no arrests. Parsons’ mother has been vocal about her dissatisfaction with both her daughter's high school and the authorities in their handling of the case, citing both apathy and negligence.

This case no doubt calls attention to issues that are, unfortunately, all too familiar to us: impunity, rape culture, male privilege and the dangers of social media. Parsons was unable to fully recover from the rape because the public constantly shamed her for being a victim: calling her a slut and a whore, soliciting her for sexual favors, shunning her. Our collective consciousness, or rather ignorance, of the realities of sexual assault fueled the forces that drove Rehtaeh from the one environment that could have aided her recovery: her home community.

The reason why only three percent of rapists ever serve a day in jail is not insufficient evidence or that victims are too fearful. It’s not even that society tends to put the victim on trial instead of her assailants, questioning whether she was “crying rape” or making false accusations. Society’s obliviousness to the consequences of rape to an individual, and to a community, causes the authorities to not treat rape cases as seriously as other violent crimes and causes witnessess to hide away instead of coming forward with information that could potentially lead to a conviction.

In an ideal world, someone would be held responsible for Rehtaeh Parsons’ death. She surely would not have committed suicide if her rape had not transformed her from a happy, carefree teenager to a victimized social pariah. But she took her own life and for that the law cannot hold anyone responsible.

The most justice that we can expect is that the four rapists will be charged and found guilty and that the one who took the photo will be additionally convicted of disseminating child pornography. We may not find this satisfactory, but judging by the current statistics, that is more justice than most rape victims, dead or alive, can ever hope to receive.

Reach Contributor Ashley Yang here.