Please Describe To the Jury What Happened..."Sounds Like..."

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

There are varying degrees of assualt but I was supporting castration for rapists. I agree that rape is about power and control, but with a serial rapist, dont you think that castration would ensure that regardless of their motivation, the rapist simply wouldnt have the necessary equipment to be able to carry out this dispicable crime? Serial rapists, like other serial offenders need to be kept away from society, and if the judicial system doesnt always ensure this, then extreme measures need to be taken to protect the public.

Who would do it?

[Caladan 19]

Like I said, I guarantee you that if you make the penalty castration or assrape by the magical ####### of justice, all you'll do is make a jury less likely to convict and blame the woman. People already are quick to blame the woman for being out in public.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I can understand the anger over the crimes - but when people start demanding barbaric punishments I wonder if they think through that the idea someone's actually got to do it, and presumably that person is (or should be) as angry as them. It's also quite likely that the folks demanding it done would not want to be the ones to roll up their sleeves and pick up the knife.

That has me wondering whether those people would like executions to be impersonal and clinical (as they currently are) or medieval affairs where people jeer and throw stones and rotten fruit. If that's the desired outcome then those folks would be right at home in the middle-east methinks...

Edited July 1, 2007 by erekose

[Caladan 19]

I find it remarkable how often the conversations about sex offenders end up with people advocating sexual torture and rape gleefully while simulataneously wondering how anyone could be so sick.

[Horrible crime.]

"How could the man do such a thing? I'd like to bend him over a chair, shove a stick up his ### and cut his balls off and then hope he's raped in prison."

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

And totally fails to understand impartiality, which is a key part of how justice is supposed to be administered. Whether people like it or not we don't turn people over to a frothing mob, yet those same people are always the first to condemn the barbarity of say, Saudi Arabia when a story turns up on the news where a person is publicly flogged for adultery or has their hand cut off for theft.

[keltic 1]

It's also quite likely that the folks demanding it done would not want to be the ones to roll up their sleeves and pick up the knife.

dont be too sure

[dalegg 143]

Whether people like it or not we don't turn people over to a frothing mob, yet those same people are always the first to condemn the barbarity of say, Saudi Arabia when a story turns up on the news where a person is publicly flogged for adultery or has their hand cut off for theft.

Not me, I like like the Saudi mode of punishment.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I find it remarkable how often the conversations about sex offenders end up with people advocating sexual torture and rape gleefully while simulataneously wondering how anyone could be so sick.

[Horrible crime.]

"How could the man do such a thing? I'd like to bend him over a chair, shove a stick up his ### and cut his balls off and then hope he's raped in prison."

Me neither. At the risk of bringing in religion into this argument - if the majority of Americans who are Christian believe that we are all made in the likeness and image of God, how does that play out in their mind when they wish barbaric torture to another human, regardless of whatever heinous acts they've done? If someone's arguing for torture and they're agnostic or atheist, then I can at least understand their sentiment, but for those who consider themselves Christian, it baffles me.

[britty 1]

Why is it that an evil, heinous act such as rape cannot be punished by a means that ensures the offender can never do it again? We know that friends and relatives of rape victims, and the victims themselves, would love the opportunity to spend "15 minutes" with their loved ones attackers, and Im sure castration would be high on their list of acts of revenge. I worked in social housing in the UK for 9 years. Over that time I worked with many victims of sexual crime including rape victims. Their stories were horrifying. Their attackers were monsters and as such dont deserve any better treatment.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

It's also quite likely that the folks demanding it done would not want to be the ones to roll up their sleeves and pick up the knife.

dont be too sure

Would you personally want to do it?

Why is it that an evil, heinous act such as rape cannot be punished by a means that ensures the offender can never do it again? We know that friends and relatives of rape victims, and the victims themselves, would love the opportunity to spend "15 minutes" with their loved ones attackers, and Im sure castration would be high on their list of acts of revenge. I worked in social housing in the UK for 9 years. Over that time I worked with many victims of sexual crime including rape victims. Their stories were horrifying. Their attackers were monsters and as such dont deserve any better treatment.

The point stands - if you think this is justified then you lose the right to complain about the barbaric practices of other justice systems. The justice systems where homosexuals are stoned, adulterers are publicly flogged, thieves are dismembered, and husbands can legally kill their wives and female relatives. Sorry - I'm not for people taking the law into their own hands, or lowering justice to the level of the most inhumane countries (which is in fact what Bin Laden's lot actually want to see BTW).

[jundp 191]

I find it remarkable how often the conversations about sex offenders end up with people advocating sexual torture and rape gleefully while simulataneously wondering how anyone could be so sick.

[Horrible crime.]

"How could the man do such a thing? I'd like to bend him over a chair, shove a stick up his ### and cut his balls off and then hope he's raped in prison."

Me neither. At the risk of bringing in religion into this argument - if the majority of Americans who are Christian believe that we are all made in the likeness and image of God, how does that play out in their mind when they wish barbaric torture to another human, regardless of whatever heinous acts they've done? If someone's arguing for torture and they're agnostic or atheist, then I can at least understand their sentiment, but for those who consider themselves Christian, it baffles me.

Well, I'll bring religion into it I am Christian and I am against abortion and I'm against capital punishment. I've taken a lot of ####### about this over the years. For both stands. I believe that life is sacred and that we don't have the right to take it FOR ANY REASON. This 'eye for an eye' argument is Old Testament, is it not? I know if I'm wrong someone will correct me. I don't have a problem telling people what my personal beliefs are, because they aren't going to change. I don't advocate torture either. Now, I don't think that someone should go unpunished, but neither do I subscribe to the belief that it should be death or torture.

When we begin to say it's "justice" that torture or death is used, then we become (imo) no better than the perpetrators, or even than the totalitarian regimes that torture and kill and terrorize their own people: Darfur, Nazi Germany, the Taliban, are a few that come to mind.

Why is it that an evil, heinous act such as rape cannot be punished by a means that ensures the offender can never do it again? We know that friends and relatives of rape victims, and the victims themselves, would love the opportunity to spend "15 minutes" with their loved ones attackers, and Im sure castration would be high on their list of acts of revenge. I worked in social housing in the UK for 9 years. Over that time I worked with many victims of sexual crime including rape victims. Their stories were horrifying. Their attackers were monsters and as such dont deserve any better treatment.

I too have known people who were victims of such abuse, Britty, and I agree that it is horrifying. But I also don't think that sexual predators do what they do out of a need for power or control, it has nothing to do with sex. I know that castrating them, or whatever will curb the sexual aspect of it, but it will not remove the need for power or control, it will manifest itself in another violent way. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that a violent offender should be slapped on the wrist and let go, I do favor mandatory minimum sentencing, just not torture or death.

[britty 1]

ok this is my last post on this one. My measures are directed at rapists. For such a sickening crime that only a monster could carry out, 12 months behind bars with a color tv, a library and 3 hot meals a day is an insult to the victim. Other lesser crimes of course should not warrant this punishment.