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Should rape carry a potential life sentence?

Minoosh

Penultimate Amazing
Minoosh
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Jul 15, 2011
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CNN reports:

Man convicted of sexually abusing a woman on a plane could get life in prison

Sentencing is Dec. 18.

Does this seem excessive to anyone else?

The majority of respondents to a Debate.org survey were heavily weighted toward approval.

The crime as charged seems to be "sexual abuse" vs. "sexual assault," and though I agree this man's alleged crime rises to the level of sexual assault, there are jurisdictions where punishment for sexual abuse is less stringent than for sexual assault.
 
What do you mean by “life”? In some jurisdictions this can be around 20 years.

If you mean the term of the prisoner’s life, probably excessive.
 
lionking said:
What do you mean by “life”? In some jurisdictions this can be around 20 years.

If you mean the term of the prisoner’s life, probably excessive.
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The wording was "could spend the rest of his life behind bars" and did not mention parole. It's a federal offense and those come with sentencing guidelines, but the article did not go into a lot of detail.

ETA: This makes me wonder. Not a great reporting job by CNN, IMO.
 
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On it's own I certainly don't think that rape warrants a life sentence, by which I mean imprisonment for most of the persons life. In fact I'd hesitate to subject anyone but the most serious and completely remorseless murderers to that.

If someone is a serial rapist or utilizes extremely gratioutious and excessive violence I'd say a prison sentence of a decade or a decade and a half in prison would be reasonable. This is essentially what life imprisonment is in Sweden: prison sentence of at least 12 years but it's usually longer, perhaps indefinitely.

I remember seeing an image with a female Swedish doctor or nurse holding a piece of paper showing a sliding scale of severity with regards to sex and consent. On one end you have sex that's based upon mutual desire and consent. Going down the middle you have sex with consent but not necessarily mutual desire because one partner might not want to have sex but gives in due to naggin. Later you have sex gained through coercion, blackmail, threats, force, violence and ultimately extreme violence. Of course if they end up murdering their victim or nearly doing so then you aren't just dealing with rape.

I think it's important to have a sliding scale of punishment that mirrors the severity of the crime.
 
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Arcade22 said:
On it's own I certainly don't think that rape warrants a life sentence, by which I mean imprisonment for most of the persons life. In fact I'd hesitate to subject anyone but the most serious and completely remorseless murderers to that.

If someone is a serial rapist or utilizes extremely gratioutious and excessive violence I'd say a prison sentence of a decade or a decade and a half in prison would be reasonable. This is essentially what life imprisonment is in Sweden: prison sentence of at least 12 years but it's usually longer, perhaps indefinitely.

I remember seeing an image with a female Swedish doctor or nurse holding a piece of paper showing a sliding scale of severity with regards to sex and consent. On one end you have sex that's based upon mutual desire and consent. Going down the middle you have sex with consent but not necessarily mutual desire because one partner might not want to have sex but gives in due to naggin. Later you have sex gained through coercion, blackmail, threats, force, violence and ultimately extreme violence. Of course if they end up murdering their victim or nearly doing so then you aren't just dealing with rape.

I think it's important to have a sliding scale of punishment that mirrors the severity of the crime.
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Given that pillars of society become tom cats, how do we ever regulate?
Harvey Weinstein's me too poster girl is now revealed as a rapist.

Obviously Trump did become a snake on a plane, "if only he had stayed up there...."
 
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On a gut level, what the person does is the next worst thing to murder. Life doesn't bother me.

But the purpose of the punishment should be to deter crime. I recently heard a discussion that suggested probability of getting caught matters more than severity. So if severity got in the way of convinctions somehow, it would have to be sacrificed.
 
BobTheCoward said:
On a gut level, what the person does is the next worst thing to murder. Life doesn't bother me.

But the purpose of the punishment should be to deter crime. I recently heard a discussion that suggested probability of getting caught matters more than severity. So if severity got in the way of convinctions somehow, it would have to be sacrificed.
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The world is grappling with your assertion, but it is obvious nonsense.
Free speech is now dead in the world media, but not here.

Rape is described as an act of violence because we have language.

Language explains the crime of rape, but not the twilight of sexual desire, which leads to you and me.

Unfortunately language occludes while allowing for the novelists like Margaret Attwood.
 
Depends on the rape.

There are cases of raped women going into comas from huge physical trauma to their genitals.

Those should get life sentences. Also multiple rapes against multiple women.
 
Venom said:
Depends on the rape.

There are cases of raped women going into comas from huge physical trauma to their genitals.

Those should get life sentences. Also multiple rapes against multiple women.
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A single, regular rape also seems worth life in prison to me.
 
I think no but I think most prison sentences should be shorter. Longer sentences perhaps for crimes against children, like abuse (sexual or not) and kidnapping, murder, etc.

More importantly imo, whatever the crime it should be treated equally between male and female perpetrators and victims. At present, some crimes we consider lesser problems when the perpetrator is female.
 
oh and to add, I think since it's a type of violence that isn't murder or (usually) permanent physical injury that it should fit into a lesser sentence than murder. Certainly more serious than a punch to the face (most of the time - even that can kill someone).

It is also more serious than drug crimes which are the reasons prisons are filled anyway
 
Should rape carry a *potential* life sentence?

Mmmmm... yeah. Yeah I'm fine with that. I'd be more interested in a mandatory minimum, though. The part that bothers me most is people getting off with a slap on the wrist.
 
Rape should fall into the same class as other assaults.

Does it matter what part of the body is penetrated with a knife?

Why should 'grope a crotch' be any different than 'punch a nose'?

Is a kick to the balls rape? Context matters there I guess.
 
Ya, affect on children aside I don't see why rape is seen as comparable to murder to some people. Some people say it's even worse, though I think most would disagree with that.

That said, there are *sometimes* consequences beyond pain and emotional harm. Most people will think of unwanted pregnancy as one result, though unwanted sperm jacking and/or child support is another less common result
 
Perhaps to some women, rape is much more emotionally and psychologically damaging as to be closer to torture in its effect? Getting punched is forgotten, as it is not remotely so violating. You wouldn't necessarily relive getting punched for the rest of your life, as a rape victim might when she has sex.
 
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