What should the punishment for rape be?
Hi guys
I’ve been asked to chair a debate about dealing with rape in our society. The discussion will cover how we can change boys’ attitude to girls so that they don’t grow up to be rapists or abusers of women, how we can support the victims or rape, whether we should be teaching all girls of school age effective self defence, and also what the best punishment for rapists should be.
I will be tackling the subject of punishment, and would be grateful if you would all give your opinions on how we should deal with the offenders. For instance, should it be a custodial sentence, should we resort to castration, either chemical or actual, should it include an element of revenge for the benefit of the victim, and what would act as the most effective deterrent?
I have my own opinion, but I will withhold it until you guys have had your say.
PS. Whilst there have been instances of women raping men, these are vanishingly rare so this will not be covered in this debate.
Many thanks for you help with this x
I’ve been asked to chair a debate about dealing with rape in our society. The discussion will cover how we can change boys’ attitude to girls so that they don’t grow up to be rapists or abusers of women, how we can support the victims or rape, whether we should be teaching all girls of school age effective self defence, and also what the best punishment for rapists should be.
I will be tackling the subject of punishment, and would be grateful if you would all give your opinions on how we should deal with the offenders. For instance, should it be a custodial sentence, should we resort to castration, either chemical or actual, should it include an element of revenge for the benefit of the victim, and what would act as the most effective deterrent?
I have my own opinion, but I will withhold it until you guys have had your say.
PS. Whilst there have been instances of women raping men, these are vanishingly rare so this will not be covered in this debate.
Many thanks for you help with this x
(edited 2 years ago)
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I think there needs to be some sort of education system for teenagers (Year 9 or 10 to start with) because this sort of behaviour is learnt. Catcalling, sexual harassment and sexual assault are taught by older men on social media, by friends or by older brothers and relatives. We need to combat it at the source. That being said, I think the sentence should differ between those under 18 and adults. I think for minors, a lengthy custodial sentence should act as a deterrent.
Most rapists are encouraged by the fact that few rape cases are won due to lack of evidence, so a custodial sentence (20 years?) and being on the sex offender register for life in the case of a teenage man should be sufficient. In an adult's case, I think if he raped an adult on 1 occasion, the sentence should be 25 to life and the register, and if there are 2 guilty counts, then it's life and the register. If there are 3 or more, I would say chemical castration, 25 years to life and the register. If he raped a child (1 count), then chemical castration, 25 years and the register. If there are 2 or more counts of a man raping a child, then I would start thinking about something more serious. I'm not a fan of the death penalty, so I would say chemical castration and life.
Most rapists are encouraged by the fact that few rape cases are won due to lack of evidence, so a custodial sentence (20 years?) and being on the sex offender register for life in the case of a teenage man should be sufficient. In an adult's case, I think if he raped an adult on 1 occasion, the sentence should be 25 to life and the register, and if there are 2 guilty counts, then it's life and the register. If there are 3 or more, I would say chemical castration, 25 years to life and the register. If he raped a child (1 count), then chemical castration, 25 years and the register. If there are 2 or more counts of a man raping a child, then I would start thinking about something more serious. I'm not a fan of the death penalty, so I would say chemical castration and life.
where are you chairing this debate; is this a school thing? do you need to worry about providing legally realistic answers or can it be anything? asking because all of your examples for punishment besides the custodial sentence are not legally possible so just want to know what kind of answers you want.
Original post by Genesiss
where are you chairing this debate; is this a school thing? do you need to worry about providing legally realistic answers or can it be anything? asking because all of your examples for punishment besides the custodial sentence are not legally possible so just want to know what kind of answers you want.
Hi Genesiss
I’m a 2nd year sociology student at university in the UK. I realise that users of this site are worldwide, and that attitudes to rape, & it’s punishments, vary greatly according to different cultures & legal systems. For the purposes of this debate I am going to ignore the legalities of any conclusions we reach, concentrating instead on the effect of these punishments on the perpetrators, potential offenders, & of course, the victims.
The offence of rape is a worldwide problem, and hopefully the women’s movements in the various countries will be able to put pressure on their governments to introduce effective measures to address this awful problem, if a more effective response can be found.
Thank you for your interest.
(edited 2 years ago)
The chair.
Sentence that is less than life- rape is always less serious than murder, so maximum sentence should be like 20 years max
Prison, we have them already.
When you let armchair judges start talking about castration, hanging, rape as a punishment etc, it generally turns into a total cesspit and makes it clear that a lot of these people just want to see others hurt, they don't much care who or why.
When you let armchair judges start talking about castration, hanging, rape as a punishment etc, it generally turns into a total cesspit and makes it clear that a lot of these people just want to see others hurt, they don't much care who or why.
Original post by jonnielovely
Sentence that is less than life- rape is always less serious than murder, so maximum sentence should be like 20 years max
Can’t tell if you’re trolling.
Original post by UKchick
Hi guys
I’ve been asked to chair a debate about dealing with rape in our society. The discussion will cover how we can change boys’ attitude to girls so that they don’t grow up to be rapists or abusers of women, how we can support the victims or rape, whether we should be teaching all girls of school age effective self defence, and also what the best punishment for rapists should be.
I will be tackling the subject of punishment, and would be grateful if you would all give your opinions on how we should deal with the offenders. For instance, should it be a custodial sentence, should we resort to castration, either chemical or actual, should it include an element of revenge for the benefit of the victim, and what would act as the most effective deterrent?
I have my own opinion, but I will withhold it until you guys have had your say.
PS. Whilst there have been instances of women raping men, these are vanishingly rare so this will not be covered in this debate.
Many thanks for your help with this x
I’ve been asked to chair a debate about dealing with rape in our society. The discussion will cover how we can change boys’ attitude to girls so that they don’t grow up to be rapists or abusers of women, how we can support the victims or rape, whether we should be teaching all girls of school age effective self defence, and also what the best punishment for rapists should be.
I will be tackling the subject of punishment, and would be grateful if you would all give your opinions on how we should deal with the offenders. For instance, should it be a custodial sentence, should we resort to castration, either chemical or actual, should it include an element of revenge for the benefit of the victim, and what would act as the most effective deterrent?
I have my own opinion, but I will withhold it until you guys have had your say.
PS. Whilst there have been instances of women raping men, these are vanishingly rare so this will not be covered in this debate.
Many thanks for your help with this x
Hi guys.
Gotta tell you, I’m very disappointed in the lack of response to this question. I realise that, as a survivor of an attempted rape myself, I have a greater reason to be interested in this topic. But come on, you all know how big this problem is. It’s worldwide, and increasing all the time; society has to come up with an answer to it.
We had a massive discussion about this already in the SU bar, and here’s some of the opinions expressed over the evening:
It has been said that rape is not a sexual offence, but the symbolic dominance of a male over a female; a crime of violence, not sexually motivated. Any girls that had been through this, and there were a surprising number in the room, strongly opposed this view. You have to have experienced it first hand to see the pure lust in your attacker’s face, and the obvious sexual pleasure that he experiences during the act. It’s definitely a sex crime.
Most popular opinion: castrate the rapists! There are two reasons that this may be ineffective. Firstly, testosterone is widely available online, enabling them to easily replace the missing hormones. Actually, there is the probability that they may take more than the normal dose making them even more likely to offend! The other point is that the testicles are an important vulnerability for a female victim to take advantage of when attacked. A rapist fired up on excess testosterone without the massive disadvantage of delicate testicles would be a very dangerous animal indeed!
Next most popular: chemical castration. Much the same situation here. He could still override the hormone suppressants with large doses of testosterone, but even if not, viagra would still be effective.
Penectomy next. Effective for sure, but even most girls find it to be an inhumane solution.
There is no easy answer to this problem, but one suggestion that seemed to meet with (almost) everybody’s approval was this: the nerves supplying the penis can be accessed at a point close the prostate gland during a minor surgical procedure. These would be severed, rendering the penis absolutely numb and permanently limp. A variation on this would be to cut the nerves to the sphincter muscles on the penile veins which stop blood leaving the penis, which causes the penis to become erect.
Please give me your thoughts on all of this, plus any other ideas you may have
Thank everyone x
Surely it depends on the type of rape and the circumstances surrounding it.
"Rape" is defined very broadly. Stalking and attacking someone in a dark alleyway and forcing yourself upon them is rape. Having sex with someone who apparently consents but lacks the capacity for that consent to be considered valid (e.g. because they're drunk) can also count as rape. I don't think the two are equivalent.
More broadly, I think we should place less reliance upon the law as a safeguard against rape. By its very nature, rape is a crime usually committed in private, making it difficult to prove. The rapist can always claim that you verbally consented at the time even if you didn't, and it just becomes your word against his. And that's before we get into the nitty-gritty of what actually counts as consent, whether the accused could have reasonably believed that you were consenting etc. It's very unlikely that evidence will be available to that level of accuracy to ascertain whether a rape was committed or not.
"Rape" is defined very broadly. Stalking and attacking someone in a dark alleyway and forcing yourself upon them is rape. Having sex with someone who apparently consents but lacks the capacity for that consent to be considered valid (e.g. because they're drunk) can also count as rape. I don't think the two are equivalent.
More broadly, I think we should place less reliance upon the law as a safeguard against rape. By its very nature, rape is a crime usually committed in private, making it difficult to prove. The rapist can always claim that you verbally consented at the time even if you didn't, and it just becomes your word against his. And that's before we get into the nitty-gritty of what actually counts as consent, whether the accused could have reasonably believed that you were consenting etc. It's very unlikely that evidence will be available to that level of accuracy to ascertain whether a rape was committed or not.
Original post by Napp
an eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth...
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Death if there is extremely strong evidence (like footage). Otherwise imprisonment.
(edited 1 year ago)
All those of you calling for death or castration - consider that these things cannot be remedied in the case of a mistake. If you lock someone up for a few years and then realise it was a mistake- you can let them out. You can't raise the dead.
This all also relies very heavily on the idea of the violent stranger rape, or the violent date rape. This takes no account of a large number of such offences which involve no violence and hinge on perception of consent.
This all also relies very heavily on the idea of the violent stranger rape, or the violent date rape. This takes no account of a large number of such offences which involve no violence and hinge on perception of consent.
Original post by Trinculo
All those of you calling for death or castration - consider that these things cannot be remedied in the case of a mistake. If you lock someone up for a few years and then realise it was a mistake- you can let them out. You can't raise the dead.
This all also relies very heavily on the idea of the violent stranger rape, or the violent date rape. This takes no account of a large number of such offences which involve no violence and hinge on perception of consent.
This all also relies very heavily on the idea of the violent stranger rape, or the violent date rape. This takes no account of a large number of such offences which involve no violence and hinge on perception of consent.
Everyone calling for death says that there needs to be footage, so there is no need to remedy a mistake that never occurs. Also people who are on death row stay there for some time. If there was ever going to be new evidence against the rape it would be very probable that it would have emerged before the execution date.
I agree on the second point.
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by sufys
Everyone calling for death says that there needs to be footage, so there is no need to remedy a mistake that never occurs. Also people who are on death row stay there for some time. If there was ever going to be new evidence against the rape it would be very probable that it would have emerged before the execution date.
I agree on the second point.
I agree on the second point.
This then implies two standards of guilt and suggests that two people can be found guilty of the same offence, but receive different punishments depending not on the facts of the offence, but on the quality of the evidence. I would also add that this also makes the absurd suggestion that CCTV evidence is going to be available. Can anyone think of a single occasion when this has been the case?
Original post by Trinculo
This then implies two standards of guilt and suggests that two people can be found guilty of the same offence, but receive different punishments depending not on the facts of the offence, but on the quality of the evidence. I would also add that this also makes the absurd suggestion that CCTV evidence is going to be available. Can anyone think of a single occasion when this has been the case?
Yes, but that's a price I'd be willing to pay to have the death penalty for rape...
There have been many occasions where CCTV was available. No point in naming.
Original post by sufys
Everyone calling for death says that there needs to be footage, so there is no need to remedy a mistake that never occurs.
What about the fact that footage can be faked? (Not easily, but it can still be done).
Original post by tazarooni89
What about the fact that footage can be faked? (Not easily, but it can still be done).
At the moment it's still easy to detect these kinds of things.
Besides I'm using the presumption that the source is CCTV.
(edited 1 year ago)
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