Justices to Decide if Rape of a Child Merits Death

[kalaam]

I just read this story in the NYTimes.

Comments

[jocelynxheart]

"Another brief, from social workers and organizations working with sexual assault victims, describes the Louisiana law, with its broad definition of rape and its drastic penalty, as counterproductive and likely to lead to under reporting of offenses, especially within families."

This part (^^) worries me. Regardless of how a person feels about the death penatly, I'm certain that no one would want the penalty for a crime to further oppress the victim.

[paigenotpage]

Good point.

[frolicnaked]

I agree.

I know that when I reported my assault (which happened when I was an adult, so I'm aware it doesn't fit the exact situation mentioned in the article), I had some pretty serious reservations about it because of the possible punishment for my attacker. Prior to the attack, he'd been a longtime friend of mine, and I struggled with the concept of potentially putting him in jail for several years. Had the death penalty been an additional possibility, the struggle would have been even more difficult, and I can't say that I would have reported it.

[rosehiptea]

I dn't believe in the death penalty in general, so, I don't believe in this.

It would of course give me pause if I thought it would protect children but I really don't think it will, because I don't think it has stopped crimes that already carry the death penalty.

[lotus82]

I am extremely biased in my point of view, seeing as I was raped at the age of 5. But I'm all for killing the bloody bastards.

[futurebird]

No, rape isn't murder and I really hate when people equate them or try to put them on the same level-- the subtext is that being raped in some way "kills" a woman and that's just not the case-- it's tied to the old stodgy way we inflate the value of virginity, sexual purity etc.

Rape is rape and that's bad enough. I guess you could say it is "bad in its own way." I could see life in prison for child rape. If only to keep children safe and if the person seemed like the type who'd do it again.

And of course I don't believe in the death penalty! Not in this country where they routinely lock up the wrong person.

[trbulnt_spnstr]

"No, rape isn't murder and I really hate when people equate them or try to put them on the same level"-

Who said, originally, that murder is worse than rape? Who said a woman has to be partially "killed" for the person who did it to be killed? That's a lot of assumptions to make.

[futurebird]

Well, read the next comment. I'm not saying the OP said this, but it is the logic behind death peanlty for rape often enough.

[trbulnt_spnstr]

I wrote the next comment, and I said nothing at all about it being 'like murder'. All I said was that I have seen it as WORSE than murder. That does not mean I think it is like murder at all.

[trbulnt_spnstr]

I have consistently seen rape as a worse crime than murder. Murder is usually frequently done due to drug or gang involvement, (things that people can be rehabilitated from), or in the moment fury types of things, (seeing another person in bed with your partner). I think both of those things can be rehabilitated

[trbulnt_spnstr]

My logic is as follows:

People who commit heinous crimes should not be allowed to continue to commit those heinous crimes.

Murderers are less likely to commit murder again, than rapists are to rape again.

I see rape of a child as an especially heinous crime.

There's something baffling about that logic? You don't have to agree with me, or like how I think, but it seems like it's a pretty simplistic logic that shouldn't baffle people.