Poll: How would you punish a rapist?

[conmag9]

I would like to point out the inclusion of the "3 meals, free healthcare" thing into the imprisonment/rehabilitation section looks an awful lot like an attempt to "poison the well", I think the phrase is. It's best to leave stuff like that out where possible.

Anyway, my gut turns instantly to thoughts of horrible, horrible revenge, but that doesn't really make anything better. The potential for false positives makes the justice system into a horrible mockery of itself (ignoring its current flaws, for the moment). That's also one of the reasons I don't agree with the idea of the death penalty. So I'll go with imprisonment/rehabilitation. If it's possible to rehabilitate...well, that'll be extremely difficult and require taking the high road to a huge degree, but I still can't avoid thinking it's somehow the right thing to do. And if it's patently obvious the guilty party can't be rehabilitated, life imprisonment. I'm against castration in most cases, mostly because of potential false positives.

Torture is right out. Monstrous behavior cannot be followed by monstrous behavior and called justice. It does more damage to the people cheering it on, no matter how good it might feel at the time.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

I voted for torture/humiliation because it's a stupid answer and therefore seems fitting for the OP.

 

[locok1]

'Eye for an eye' is nothing more than a buzzword used by people to justify and legitimise taking the most expedient option while still seeming like a better person.

Contrary to popular belief, lex talionis (ie. "Eye for an eye") is a call for restraint of excessive punishment.

Back when the punishment for stealing was to lob off a hand, invoking "Eye for an eye" would be saying, "Did he cut off your hand? No? Well, you can't cut off his hand. He merely stole monetary sum, so you'll be compensated a monetary sum."

Similarly, when applied to this situation, "Did the rapist mutilate their victim? No? Well, you can't mutilate the rapist."

Is etymology ever not interesting?

 

[lucky_sharm]

I voted for torture/humiliation because it's a stupid answer and therefore seems fitting for the OP.

Golly gee, you know me so well that you'll readily make baseless assumptions on my character? How charming. You must make allies everywhere you go, no doubt.

 

[cakedcrusader]

The people who perpetrate that crime are the worst people in existence. I think solitary confinement in a dark, dank, small cell with maybe three hours outside it a day would be an apt punishment.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Well, it depends what kind of "rapist" you mean.

If you're talking about some douchebag fratboy who has drunken sex with a passed-out drunk girl at some teen party, which is technically rape even if she might have consented if conscious, then I'd vote for imprisonment and rehabilitation to teach him that that kind of shit is not on.

If, however, you're talking about some lowlife piece of scum who tracks down isolated women, brutalises them and violates them as a display of mysognyistic power, then I'd say kill him and be done with it. Someone who can so consciously and callously do something so dehumanising (unlike murder where there are things like self-defence pleas, there is NO possible defence that can used for rape) is a monster and I've always had the same opinion on how to treat monsters- strip them of their human rights and put them down the same way you would a rabid animal.

more along the lines of this.

you are a full grown adult, you KNOW what you are doing, when you pass that point, you should lose your rights to be a human citizen, as you obviously don't respect other humans and their rights.

granted it takes a long time to put someone to death, so financially it isn't as good as it should be, i'd prefer it the old fashioned way taking them out back and poppin one off right there.

 

[sarkeizen]

I think I'm something of a utilitarian. In other words, in order to answer I would need to know what do any of these things accomplish and what outcomes are the most valuable.

That said I'm not convinced that treating people badly (i.e. torture or execution) does anything except satisfy urges which are best left unsatisfied. Perhaps the punishment for acting subhuman should be to become human.