On Monsters
People, journalists especially, but everyone, needs to stop calling rapists, paedophiles, etc "monsters."
They do it to make people feel better. It's Them, not Us. We would never do that. It's not in our nature. But these monsters are capable of inhuman acts.
And to make retribution easier. Prison is a fucking miserable existence, but it's okay, because we're not doing it to people, we're doing it to monsters*
There are a few reasons why this is a mistake. I believe it increases the instances of rape.
1) Labelling some people as less-than-human is why rape happens so frequently in the first place. It's not a mode of thinking that should be encouraged
2) It makes rape seem rare. Rape is not rare. This needs to be faced. Until we as a society face the fact that rape is an extremely common crime, we aren't doing much to fix it.
4) The idea of a "monster" implies that there was something different about them to begin with. Something unavoidable. If we accept that people who rape are inherently monstrous, then there is no reason to educate boys differently or to look at parts of our culture that encourage a rape mentality (eg. porn).
5) It makes it very hard for victims to be believed. Right now, the general understanding is - rapists are monsters. That nice Mr. Smith is not a monster. He's always so polite! It can't be true
6) In the case of people who, due to some mess-up in their development, are genuinely attracted to children, it is important to recognise that they are human. Because if they are attracted to children but believe they can be good people, they have a chance at never acting on that attraction. If they believe they are monsters, not human, they may write themselves off. I'm a monster, I can never be anything else. If they think there's no hope for redemption/rehabilitation, if they think they are evil, then maybe they won't bother to fight the impulse.
but the first reason is probably the most fundamental to me
*I'm not saying we shouldn't imprison sex offenders. Just that we need to accept exactly what we are doing.