# Death penalty for child rapists
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [September 17, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104 "2013-09-17T23:16:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@TashaKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TashaKitty)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/1 "2013-09-17T23:16:30Z")
I just read this article [http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/\_news/2013/09/17/20541518-father-of-gang-raped-5-year-old-demands-justice-as-case-sparks-protests-across-pakistan](http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/17/20541518-father-of-gang-raped-5-year-old-demands-justice-as-case-sparks-protests-across-pakistan) and am absolutely FURIOUS.
I think that raping a child is the most heinous crime imaginable and needs to be prosecuted as such. As much as I would like to see rapists suffer and get a taste of their own medicine in jail, I believe that the planet would be better off if they were rotting in the ground.
I believe that if there is UNDENIABLE evidence that a certain person has raped a child, that person needs to be executed immediately.
Who’s with me?
---
### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/2 "2013-09-17T23:25:27Z")
Not the most heinous crime imaginable, certainly.
Executions should be quick, sure. But while some who live deserve death, many who die deserve live.
Can you give it to them? Don’t be quick to take what you can not give.
---
### Author:  [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/3 "2013-09-17T23:27:56Z")
> [@TashaKitty](#):
>
> I think that raping a child is the most heinous crime imaginable
Worse than killing that child?
> [@](#):
>
> and needs to be prosecuted as such. As much as I would like to see rapists suffer and get a taste of their own medicine in jail,
If you mean you want them to be raped too, that’s barbaric and sick.
> [@](#):
>
> Who’s with me?
Not me, I don’t believe in the death penalty. Life in prison though, probably.
---
### Author:  [@TashaKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TashaKitty)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/4 "2013-09-17T23:27:58Z")
> [@aNewLeaf](#):
>
> But while some who live deserve death, many who die deserve live.
> Can you give it to them?
Okay, Gandalf…
---
### Author:  [@TashaKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TashaKitty)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/5 "2013-09-17T23:30:30Z")
> [@Blackberry](#):
>
> If you mean you want them to be raped too, that’s barbaric and sick.
Of course I want rapists to be raped in prison! How can you believe that wanting a rapist to get a taste of his own medicine is barbaric and sick?
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/6 "2013-09-17T23:36:51Z")
> [@TashaKitty](#):
>
> Of course I want rapists to be raped in prison! How can you believe that wanting a rapist to get a taste of his own medicine is barbaric and sick?
When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
---
### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/7 "2013-09-17T23:37:26Z")
> [@TashaKitty](#):
>
> Of course I want rapists to be raped in prison! How can you believe that wanting a rapist to get a taste of his own medicine is barbaric and sick?
So you are for rewarding strong rapists by giving them more victims?
---
### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/8 "2013-09-17T23:39:35Z")
> [@TashaKitty](#):
>
> Of course I want rapists to be raped in prison! How can you believe that wanting a rapist to get a taste of his own medicine is barbaric and sick?
I don’t think you understand the meaning of “of course.”
---
### Author:  [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/9 "2013-09-17T23:39:44Z")
> [@TashaKitty](#):
>
> Of course I want rapists to be raped in prison! How can you believe that wanting a rapist to get a taste of his own medicine is barbaric and sick?
Not because I care about the rapist, but because I believe that a humane and nonviolent justice system is best for society. We’re supposed to be better than the people we’re condemning. A barbaric, violent justice system just promotes more violence.
---
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/10 "2013-09-17T23:40:25Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> So you are for rewarding strong rapists by giving them more victims?
Or if we were concerned that that wasn’t equitable, we could hire government rapists to officially carry the sentence.
---
### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/11 "2013-09-17T23:43:35Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> Or if we were concerned that that wasn’t equitable, we could hire government rapists to officially carry the sentence.
“Hi honey, how was work today.”
“Damn it was tough. I had three rapes before lunch and it went downhill from there.”
---
### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/12 "2013-09-17T23:57:01Z")
> [@TashaKitty](#):
>
> Of course I want rapists to be raped in prison! How can you believe that wanting a rapist to get a taste of his own medicine is barbaric and sick?
Would you cut off the hand of a thief?
---
### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/13 "2013-09-18T00:05:52Z")
Just to mention the most common argument: if there’s a death penalty for raping a child, then the rapist has no strong reason not to kill his victim afterward. It removes the possible witness, and, what’s the difference? The penalty can’t be any harsher.
If I had a kid, I’d rather the kid be raped, and let live, than raped and killed.
Also, agreement with **Blackberry**. And Gandalf.
---
### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/14 "2013-09-18T00:33:38Z")
Persons convicted of heinous crimes should face life without parole, so that they can sit in their miserable little cell and regret what they have done for the rest of their lives. Death is the easy way out.
---
### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/15 "2013-09-18T00:43:45Z")
During the child molestation panic of the 1980’s it was much bandied about that many child rapist had themselves been raped as children. If that’s true (and I’m not sure it is), then the OP’s desire for retribution comes front-loaded.
---
### Author:  [@TashaKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TashaKitty)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/16 "2013-09-18T01:08:24Z")
Sorry. I wrote my original post in anger but I doubt my opinion on this issue will change.
---
### Author:  [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/17 "2013-09-18T01:11:04Z")
No, just use them as forced labour. I’m opposed to the death penalty for child rapists not out of any sympathy for them but because: 1)since the punishment will be no different whether they kill the child or not, it will give them reason to dispose of a potential witness, 2) the potential to execute an innocent man exists, and 3) the current death penalty system with all its appeals costs more than a life sentence.
---
### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/18 "2013-09-18T03:37:51Z")
When the US Supreme Court originally ruled the death penalty impermissible for any crime but murder, the one possible exception that it left open was for the rape of a child. It was a few decades later that they returned to the issue and outlawed the death penalty for child rape as well.
---
### Author:  [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/19 "2013-09-18T06:17:51Z")
> [@TashaKitty](#):
>
> Sorry. I wrote my original post in anger but I doubt my opinion on this issue will change.
I would be interested in hearing your answer to **Loach** ’s question:
> [@Loach](#):
>
> So you are for rewarding strong rapists by giving them more victims?
---
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104/20 "2013-09-18T06:36:26Z")
> [@TashaKitty](#):
>
> I believe that if there is UNDENIABLE evidence that a certain person has raped a child, that person needs to be executed immediately.
And what would you consider “UNDENIABLE” evidence? From the child himself? Others have pointed out where that can lead.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-for-child-rapists/669104.md?page=2)