Is rape worth death?

Great Debates
21

Do I have the right to an opinion? I’ve not been the victim of any major violent crime. I think I do, but recognise that people will disagree, and that if I were, I might change my mind.

Personally, I don’t go for the death penalty. If I did, I would be willing to apply it to rape, murder, other torture. The really bad stuff. There are some people I’d love to get revenge on, but, seriously, I think legally a allowing torturous sort of revenge is wrong, if only because of the possibility of a mistaken conviction.

Which is worse? I would say rape < murder < torture, based on which I’d prefer to have happen to me. Though I’m not sure. But OTOH, killing is often necessary, in self defense, etc, torture COULD be necessary in extremely hypothetical situations (an evil man has planted a bomb in a school, the only way to get him to tell where it is…), but I can’t think when rape would be. But I don’t think that that is ‘worse’ as such.

22

I am not a proponant of the death penalty, so my answer would be no.

Even if I were, however, I can’t see imposing the death penalty on something that very often comes down to a “he said/she said” case. Even if it’svproven that there was sex between the parties, it is only the victim’s word that it wasn’t consentual sex. I’m not by any means saying that the majority of rape cases are lies against the accused - I’m just saying that it does happen that someone will bring a rape case in an instance where it was either the kind of mistake phouka was talking about, or sometimes out of embarassment or maliciousness. I understand the courts are there to give a verdict as to the truth of the matter, but we all know that juries aren’t infallible. Once the needle has been pushed you can’t say “sorry about that” and let it go.

StG

23

Criminal penalties have always been based, in part, upon an estimate of how likely the perpetrator is to commit other crimes.

24

Currently the state of Louisiana allows the DP for the rape of a child under age 12. Currently they’ve got some SOB on death row for raping an 8 year old.

Coker v. Georgia ruled that the DP for rape of an adult woman is unconstitutional but the Court wisely refused to discuss the rape of a child.

IMHO, rape a kid, yeah, you should die.

An adult? I just don’t know. Rape is rape, of course, but I guess it could be argued that a child victim would be more damaged, psychologically, than an adult victim because the child’s personality, etc. is still forming. Perhaps an adult would have more resources, inwardly, to cope.

Or not. I’ve never been raped and I’m certainly not going to speculate about how easy or difficult it would be to “move on” afterwards, and who should be able to, etc.

But a kid? String 'em up.

25

I’m anti-death penalty, so my automatic answer is no.

However, I also don’t think that every case of rape deserves life in prison. Obviously if the rape also involves kidnapping, or a brutal beating, or was a serious of rapes over a number of days or weeks, life in prision is perfectly reasonable.

But for your more run of the mill attack I think that rehabilitation is a possiblity in many cases, and I think that a rehabilitated person could be of more use to society out in the work force, than a nonrehabilitated person taking up space in a cell.

My 2 cents.

Alice - rape survivor. (BTW - I don’t actually think that I’m totally fuck-up because of the rape either.)

26

Without considering it too hard I would say that the death penalty should apply in three cases:

  1. A member in the armed forces (at any time during their service), or a police officer while in uniform.

  2. The violent rape of a child.

  3. A particularly violent rape. Such as that case many years ago where the man chopped off the womans arms and left her to die (she didn’t).

27

I was raped nearly 20 years ago. While I’m not happy with the sentence the SOB got, I do not think the death penalty is appropriate for rape.

Pretty much, I believe the death penalty is only appropriate for particularly heinous murders. I do not think rape is as bad as murder and it’s a very important point for me.

After my rape, I had a couple well-meaning friends tell me they’d “rather die than have that happen.” I know they didn’t mean to make me feel worse, but I came away thinking I was so damaged that many people would rather be dead than be like me. However, I didn’t feel that way–I felt damn glad to be alive. As warped as it sounds, that made me feel really guilty. What was wrong with me that I was happy to have survived when others would prefer death?

Add that to the incredible feelings of guilt I had about maybe not fighting back hard enough or smart enough, and I was a wreck for a while. I was wallowing in so much guilt for a while that I actually thought maybe I would have fought harder if I had been willing to die rather than be raped.

It’s hard for me to type this. Not so much because the event still traumatizes me, but because my thoughts at the time really make no sense now and they’re difficult to describe. They made no sense then either (as a very patient therapist helped me realize), but feelings don’t always follow logic.

As I mentioned earlier, I don’t believe in the death penalty for anything other than particularly heinous murders. Even then, while I don’t oppose it in theory, the way it works in reality (particularly the likelihood of convicting the wrong person) makes me think we’re not ready for the death penalty. However, even if we were, I don’t think I’d support it in rape cases.

Rape is terrible, but it’s not as bad as dying. Like alice_in_wonderland, I don’t think I’m a total fuck up now because of the rape. I sure was for a while, but I like to think I’m a reasonably healthy gal these days. I could recover from the rape. If I had been murdered, well, I’d still be dead. The penalties for rape should be severe, but they shouldn’t be the same as for murder.

28

If we’re discussing the possibility that the death penalty may encourage rapists to kill their victims, we must also consider the miniscule but non-zero possibility that the death penalty may increase false reporting of rape. How much easier than murder it would be!

29

If someone raped my 13 year old daughter, I would want him to die. Simple as that.

My off-the-wall, completely-impractical, probably-would-change-my-mind-if-I-thought-about-it-very-much idea is that the victim should decide the penalty. Not right away. Maybe after the bastard had spent 10 years or so in prison, go back to the victim and ask, “OK. Now what do you want us to do with him?”

Just a thought.

30

I am in favor for castration and execution for rapists. (First the former, then the latter.)

Heck, why not make it a public castration, to enhance the deterrent value? And no sissy “chemical castrations” or clinical surgical castrations…use an axe.

Two words: Devil’s Island. Especially the “mangeuse d’hommes” section.

31

I hate the death penalty so my answer is no.

I could get behind a 25 year life sentence in some cases. If they prove to be a danger to society (repeat offenders and such) then they would be kept in prison indefinately. I think it would depend on the circumstance. I don’t know a whole lot about criminal justice but I seem to think the sentences we have (Canada) are too light.

32

First, I do not believe human life is particularly sacred.
Second, I believe the death penalty is never justifiable–I’m willing to discuss that somewhere else.

That said, and I don’t mean to be insensitive to those who have suffered rape in some form or another, I think you pro-death people are not looking at this objectively & rationally. This is important because as a society that espouses the rational and good and fair, can we really give eye-for-eye justice and call ourselves different from the criminals? I think not.

I think it’s been fairly well established that rape is based in a quest for power at best and total disregard for fellow human beings at worst. How then is delivering brutal punishment to the brute (imposing one will upon another defenseless individual) any different from the rape? It’s not. Punishment for it’s own sake is the assertion of dominance over the offender for the sole purpose of showing him who’s boss. And that is hypocritical. A rapist deserves death and torture no more than a bear who mauls a human in the woods (on the bear’s turf) or which wanders into town and mauls a human in his own home. The bear is only being a bear and is mauling for any of a plethora of reasons. What we know, however, is that this particular bear, simply by being what it is, is harming humans. Does it deserve death or mutilation? Would doing so “un-maul” the humans? No. Would moving it away from humans prevent maulings? Yes.

My point behind the bear analogy is based on an observation about the rapist. Not all bears maul humans, and not all humans are rapists. The rapist, like it or not, is a unique human being. Else, we wouldn’t involve courts, juries & legal process in his prosecution. As a unique human being he is merely being what he is: a self-interested attacker of humans. This is his purpose, his mind can not put the interests of others before his own. It’s unsatisfying to admit the possibility that the individual may be mentally ill–delusional to the point of believing a rape will ease the pain of physical or mental impotence; schizophrenic to the point of not believing that he is harming another human being; psychopathic to the point of not understanding the mental pain of others. But this potential for dysfunction needs to be addressed.

It needs to be addressed, not to ensure the fair treatment of the brute, but to enable us to identify the brute we all, as human beings, have the potential to become. Being able to understand *that * might help us learn how to identify and address those among us who are close to harming others. Ounce of prevention and all that. Will doing this (or anything else) unrape anyone? No. Will killing or maiming a known rapist unrape or even deter someone else from raping? We know the answer is “No” because the rapist can’t get outside of his own head long enough to fear the possible punishment for satisfying his compulsion. Will learning how to identify and address potential brutes prevent many of these crimes? How could it NOT?

Of course, kill 'em if you want. But if you claim to be better than the rapist, consider why he does what he does without copping out with, “Because he’s an animal.” You are a human just like him, with only a small mental process seperating your behavior from his. Because you want to hurt him instead of help him get back on board with the rest of humanity.

33

Some people don’t want to “get back on board” with humanity, and sex offenders are at the top of that list. Mississippi also has the death penalty for rape of a child under twelve.

34

I believe in the death penalty for serial killers and serial rapists. Of course, every case should be decided individually.

Here’sa case of a rapist who never killed anyone (though his mother tried to hire a hit man for the prosecutor and judge), but should be killed.

Some people are just beyond rehabilitation, and even prison-for-life doesn’t exclude the possibility of their escape–ask the families of Ted Bundy’s last victims.

35

I wholeheartedly agree with you. (I would have agreed with Lynn Bodini but I’d be accused of sucking up. S) I’ve had one female relative raped and another that just barely escaped it. Both back in the States.
As you might know, I live in Saudi where rape is a very unusual crime. While I have many problems and issues with Islamic justice systems, I do like that fact that rape gets the DP; no ifs. ands or buts. What really strikes me as reasonable is that the victim gets to decide the punishment. After the guy is found guilty, the woman can decide to accept blood-money from him (about US $52K IIRC) or she can decide to let justice take its course. She gets a ring-side seat for the beheading if she wants. In either case, the woman gains closure.
The result of this law and some cultural aspects is that rape is very rare here.

Regards

Testy

36

The womans (sic) arms? She was 15 years old! And he threw her naked bleeding body into a ditch and left her to die. The CHILD plugged up her elbow stumps with mud, somehow climbed out of the ditch with what was left and walked two miles to the nearest house before passing out.

The rapist served 8 years and 4 months and was released–disgustingly, on the woman’s wedding day. When she found that out, nobody having the idea to let her know, she and her marriage fell apart. Then this animal killed another woman, and died of cancer on Death Row.

37

I have a problem with this analogy for a couple of reasons, the first being that a bear doesn’t have the mental faculties to know that it’s mauling human is unacceptable to our society while a rapist most certainly does. Secondly, even a bear is only given two chances, and a mauling doesn’t have to occur in either instance, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time is enough.

Somebody this dysfunctional, who believes that he is not hurting others, is a danger to society, which he’s already shown by comitting the crime in the first place, and should be rendered unable to have the opportunity to ever hurt another person.

I don’t think it’s so much a wanting to hurt him, as it is a desire to ensure that he’s unable to ever hurt anyone again.

I don’t think all instances of rape deserve a harsh punishment, the example of the friend and his girlfriend previously posted being one wherein a harsh punishment would not fit the crime at all. In brutal crimes, however, involving force, torture, multiple assailants, weapons, a child then a harsh punishment is merited. I don’t really care if this means the death penalty or life incarceration, but perpetrators of these types of crimes do not belong in society.

38

Here’s another story on this so-called “person,” who should have been put to death after Mary Vincent’s rape and amputations. Of course “he was framed.”

39

I don’t support the death penalty.

I can understand people who support the general principle of the death penalty for certain crimes, even if i don’t agree with them

What i cannot understand is people who support the death penalty as it is currently administered in the United States. It seems to me that to do so takes a sheer effort of wilful ignorance, an almost pathological urge to ignore the mountains of evidence that show that innocent people end up in prison, and even on death row, for things they never did.

Elfbabe’s example is, unfortunately, only one of many. From a 2002 article:

40

AMEN, AMEN!!!

Although I don’t believe in the death penalty, I think life without parole (if it WERE enforced) is what I’d like to see happen. Along with the psychological “training” I’ve seen done on some of these perpetrators involving “piping in” interviews with victims of rape talking “to” rapists about how they ruined their lives and so on.