Poll: Which is worse: Rape or Murder?

[Womplord]

Murder is worse. When someone gets raped, they get hurt and humiliated, thats about it. I don't understand how someone can think this is worse than getting killed.

I'm pretty sure if you asked a rape victim if they would rather have died, they would say no.

Some commit suicide because of it.

What you should ask them is that if given the chance would they go back in time and kill themselves before they were raped.

Okay. But most don't commit suicide and would rather be alive. I looked up some statistics:

"About 33% of rape victims have suicidal thought. About 13% of rape victims will attempt suicide. "

In none of the sites I found could I find successful suicide rates. I'm guessing this rate was pretty low. Here's some statistics I found for major depressive disorder:

"Among adults aged 18 or older who experienced a past year major depressive episode (MDE), 56.3 percent thought, during their worst or most recent episode, that it would be better if they were dead, 40.3 percent thought about committing suicide, 14.5 percent made a suicide plan, and 10.4 percent made a suicide attempt"

So apparently, getting raped causes about as much psychological damage as a major depressive episode. I don't see how this is as bad as murder.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'd rather be raped than killed. At least I get a chance to recover. So I'm going with murder as the worst act. (Since there are so many different possible scenarios, I'm assuming that both the rape and the murder are for fun.)

 

[shroomie]

Rape does way more damage to a person than murder does, once someone has been murdered they are dead forever and nothing matters anymore. But victims of rape often find themselves vicitms of wider society too, there have been cases of rape victims just abandoned by their families and shunned from society plus the psychological damage lasts forever. Murder, though bad, can be justified in some cases but rape can never be justified.

 

[MrFluffy-X]

I say Murder because people can and have recovered from rape. They go on to have a happy life. Cant imagine how hard it must be to recover from rape.

 

[MasterOfWorlds]

This is a serious and no doubt contentious topic, but I think the answer is interesting enough to talk about. Though please, keep it clean.

Ultimately, both acts are against one's will. Murder you could argue is worse because ultimately you are dead afterwards. But Rape is also generally tortuous and prolonged, and while you live, it is often a very painful existence. Also, I would imagine the emotional damage would be not insignificant.

So what do you think? Please backup your reasons, I'm sure it'll be interesting.

If you look at it from a societal standpoint, murder would probably be wrose because then you're completely removing someone from society, and they won't be able to work, love the people that they loved, and so forth and so on since they're gone.

On the other hand, a lot of rape victims never get over their attack. Sometimes they get therapy and it helps them get over it, but I don't think any victim of rape ever really gets over it, they just learn to cope with it. But rape victims, for the most part, can still be productive members of society, but teir qualit of life might vary. You'd have some that would never leave their homes, but on the other hand, you might have some that go into the legal system to help put people like the ones that raped them behind bars.

People eventually get over the death of a person though. Life would move on for those that knew the murdered person.

It's a tough call if you look at it strictly through a societal view. If you look at it more personally though, I'd say that rape is, for the most part, worse than murder. This is simply because of the theoretical continued suffering of both the victim, and the continued involvement of those around the victim.

 

[OldRat]

I'm going to look at it like this: do I want to be raped or murdered?

Yeah, I think I'm going to choose the rape and actually live.

 

[Haydyn]

I feel rape is indeed worse than murder. Maybe that's my stance on population swaying my opinion, seeing as how rape can cause life and murder ends life.

My reasons are pretty much the same as other peoples: can't be justified, long term emotional damage, worse for the victim. People can feel terrible afterwards about things they did willingly. To involuntarily participate in sexual acts is torture. The complete loss of power, feeling guilty, and from what I've heard feeling horrible for enjoying part of it. Not in a fantasy way, but the general pleasure by stimulation. It all just sounds like the ultimate evil.

Yesterday I found out that two sisters I know were sexually abused by their older brother. It killed me inside. One will over react to the slightest hint of affection. The other has a very high tolerance towards affection, to the point I don't think she enjoys fooling around or has any guilt for it.

I just can't bring myself to view murder as anywhere near the level of evil rape is at.

 

[Dirkie]

In my reasoning, murder is less severe than rape, because you can murder a victim only once, and rape is possible more than once.
Both crimes should be punished anyway.

 

[michiehoward]

Rape victims are never the same person they were even an hour or a moment before the rape, that person who existed might as well be dead. Rapists are guilty of both crimes IMO.

I suppose people who are murdered if they could would say they would have been raped if they choice was given.

We just need to be grateful that our own personal worlds haven't been decimated by such a horrible experience.

And to the people who say that you can only get raped once and its over, is complete BS, and simplistic reasoning. Rape victims can/do/will relive the crime repeatedly over the course of their lifetime, when they close their eyes to go to bed, in every intimate situation, every time they pass the location of the crime, they might see a person who even slightly resembles the perpetrator, a certain smell might trigger a vivid flashback. Words, memories. If they have to go through it over and over while going through the justice system. Its never over, the sense of personal security is forever crushed. Forever thinking about the regret, "Why didn't I fight harder or scream louder, take a different route home, why did I go out that night". But again that is not to say that rape cannot be coped with, that victims can cease being victims.

 

[HotFezz8]

people recover from rape

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I'd rather die on my feet than live on my back

 

[Communist partisan]

They are the same and deserve capital punishment.

 

[michiehoward]

I'd rather die on my feet than get violated on my back

fixed for you

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I'd rather die on my feet than get violated on my back

fixed for you

I thought the 'on my back' part was pretty clear /pat

 

[Soxafloppin]

Both horrible acts, but I'd rather be murdered than raped.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Depends. Some people can get over being raped. For them rape is just something bad that happened to them like getting stolen from. Others wish they were dead. Living after being raped is like a living hell for them. So while you never "get over" being killed, rape forces you to live with the pain. Murder just leaves you dead; you're dead, what do you care about this world now?

 

[Dark2003]

Murder. Rape is a very evil act, and the trauma can stick with a man/woman for the rest of they're lives, but they may still have lives after what has happened to them. Murder is for keeps, the person is gone for good, and their is no punishment harsh enough to match it.

This world is bat shit insane, there is no needed justification for any action an individual takes. Rape, Murder are actions, to need a reason as to why they were committed in the first place is completely ridiculous

 

[LaughingAtlas]

The way I see it is that with rape, someone is probably scarred for life for nothing more than the perpetrator's own satisfaction, with murder, the victim's life and any pain they ever would have experienced is forever lost. Murder might be doing someone a favor (not that often, I'm aware) a bit better than rape, I think, but seeing as most people are so attatched to their lives, I guess it varies from person to person.

 

[hypermage]

Murder carries the certainty of death. Rape carries the uncertainty of life. Stark way of looking at it, I know.

Dead is dead, whether it's from a violent act or mere old age. The aftereffects of murder are felt by the perpetrator and the victim's circle of family, friends and associates but not the victim themselves.

Not so with rape; there are all the aforementioned aftereffects as with murder and also the effects on the victim. Regardless of whether or not they can recover (to say nothing of what a full recovery even means), the victim has to live with the experience. I'm not sure I could live with the weight of the latter.

 

[LiftYourSkinnyFists]

Murder. Cause you can always recover from rape, long as you survive.
Not saying its easy or anything, but you just plain cant recover from being dead in the non DnD world.

Edit: Thats not to say EVERY murder is worse than EVERY rape, but if we talk worse case scenario...

Rape is a hell of a lot more traumatic than that, seriously? No victim ever really "recovers" it's still a completely involuntary mental overhaul to the victim completely life changing.