In this thread in the Pit, a man serving time for raping a teenage girl is out of prison on pass, sees the mother of the daughter in the street, and taunts her. The mother responds by dousing him in combustibles and setting fire to him, killing the man.
There are some in the thread whose response was, “Good for her!” Poetic justice notwithstanding, the man raped her daughter, but she murdered the man.
I’ve also noticed on these boards that rape is much more vilified than murder. Why? If a woman is raped, she indeed suffers mental and physical trauma, but is able to live on.* If someone is killed, he/she is dead, period.
Thoughts?
*ETA, not an official cite, but I know a few women who have been raped and have managed to live fulfilling lives afterward – mentally, physically, and sexually.
Is there a fate worse than death? I think so, but that’s me personally and it would be impossible to legislate personal opinions of what crime is worse.
I am not sure how anyone can argue against this; even if the rape victim has a long, difficult road to recovery, she (or he, males can be raped) at least isn’t dead. I’ve known two women who were rape victims, neither of which seemed to fear for their lives during their ordeal. They dealt with their experience in different ways, and while they may or may not have issues with sexuality, they’re not dead. So to me, that counts for a lot. Being dead almost always beats out being traumatized, to me, as far as “bad situations” go. I’m sure there are examples of people who would rather have died than lived through their ordeal, though.
The question you’re posing isn’t if rape is worse than murder, - obviously it’s not - but if the rape of an innocent, random person is worse than the murder of a rapist.
In this case - the guy’s a rapist who taunted the mother of his rape victim. He’s clearly unrepentant scum to the gravest extreme. Ignoring the greater vigilantism issues, society benefits from his death. So in this case you’re comparing a random rape - always bad - to the murder of someone who’s better off dead - not even bad. There’s no reason to infer a greater “murder vs rape” implication from it.
I remember one of the posters saying something like, “This guy had 69 years of life, the girl had 13 before her life was ruined.” That attitude disturbs me–obviously, being raped can screw with your head, at any age, but to say that someone’s life is basically ruined or over because they were raped just seems like you’re giving the victim some kind of stigma. I also remember a lot of posters here saying that the most harmful thing wasn’t necessarily being raped for them, but people telling them how ruined or damaged they must feel.
While I agree that SenorBeef has a good point, every time I hear something that smacks of better off dead then raped, I wonder if there is still a sense that a woman’s virginity/chastity is the most important thing about her.
Can we all agree that cutting someone’s arms off is worse than rape?
Is murder is worse than cutting someone’s arms off? Tah Dah!
Murder > Arm Lopping > Rape
Like it was said though, it depends on circumstances. We don’t know anything about what happened in this situation. We don’t even know if the guy was actually guilty.
Did Hitler deserve to be raped? Did Elizabeth Bathory?
No. Rape is sexual gratification through inflicting harm or trauma on someone. There is no justification.
Especially if you argue that the victim is really really horrible. Well then, what does a rape accomplish? If Hitler had been raped, would he have stopped killing people? Not likely. The only one who benefits from a rape is a rapist.
I can imagine knowing that someone had committed a murder and still being willing to be friends with that person. I cannot imagine knowing that someone had committed a rape (by violence, threat of violence, extortion, or drug) and wanting even to be in the same room with the person.
