I came across a poll on whether or not rapists should get the death sentence. Seventeen people said that yes, rape should be punishable by death, and only eight disagreed.
My personal opinion is that though it seems very tempting to award capital punishment for rapists, it’s just not practical. Here’s are my reasons:
1. The death sentence is for the rarest of the rare cases
While there’s no doubt that rape is a heinous crime, it is unfortunately quite common. If we award the death sentence for rape, there’s a danger we’ll become comfortable with the idea of killing people through sheer habit. We’ll get used to the idea that the state can legally kill people and in my judgment, that isn’t healthy.
Already people like Baba Ramdev are advocating the death sentence for corruption. How far do we go before we become okay with the state killing people off?
2. More women will be murdered
The death sentence for rape will end up being a death sentence for the rape victims. What’s to stop the rapist from making sure she never talks? As of now, killing someone is a greater crime than raping them. The punishment for most murders isn’t death, and to my mind this will give rapists a license to kill off their victims to make sure they don’t talk.
3. What’s the sentence for even greater crimes?
The idea of differing sentences is to make graver crimes have stiffer punishments. While there’s no doubt that rape is a grave crime, there are other crimes that are even worse. The Nithari killings come to mind where Koli raped and murdered six children. To my mind that is a more serious crime than a single act of rape and the sentence must reflect that. Kohli got the death sentence since it was an unspeakably brutal act and was also extremely rare. If every rape gets a death sentence, what sentence do we give people like Kohli? Torture?
4. Do we want justice or revenge?
In a civilized society, we gradually move from the concept of “punishment” to one of reform. Only when the court senses that a person is too far gone for reform does it even begin to consider a death sentence. This is sure to provoke strong responses, but do we really feel that no rapist can ever change? That they’re a foregone conclusion?
5. No space for mistakes
As it stands, there are many elements that go into proving a rape. With rape cases getting the death sentence, the burden of proof will be raised much higher – once you kill someone you can never bring them back. All the protections that women have begun to obtain from the law such as getting the benefit of the doubt, not having to be questioned too much etc, will be thrown out the window. When a person’s life is at stake, the prosecution will have the right to use the maximum and strongest defense possible. This will surely lead to an even lower conviction of rape cases than we have at present. Moreover, courts themselves will be forced to take longer to decide – taking someone’s life isn’t a thing one does in a few months.
I can imagine why this is an emotional topic for a lot of people and even after reading the above, many might feel that death is an appropriate punishment. What do you think?
[poll id=”22″]
I'm against capital punishment, period…Having said that, proven rapists should get stiffer punishments…
In reply to sraboneyghose
This is what my wife feels as well…
In reply to Bhagwad Jal Park
Well, Strange…I think you are very childish and immature….IMO, I don’t think you have enough life experience to decide on such issues…
How about this senario you could face in this life?…….
You are going some where with your wife and a bunch of muggers start beating you and other bunch of muggers start rapping your wife….and you have 2 things one a Knife( not a gun !! :-), you could attack and ‘try’ to kill them all ) and other a cell phone you could try calling the police.
C’mon baby, what would you do?
Finally , IMO, rapists/molesters(if proved) should be given death penalty( death by stones ).
In reply to Paul
There’s a difference between self defence at the given moment and the justice handed out by the state in a civilized society. Don’t conflate the two.
In reply to sraboneyghose
But how do you prove that rape took place?
Surely the victim’s testimony is not enough! You can’t rely on the testimony of one witness. You need corroboration. And sometimes there’s none.
And even if there’s DNA stuck somewhere in her cunt pardon my French, how do you tell that it wasn’t consensual and she then decided to be a dick and ruin his live? Vaginal scarring does not always accompany rape and sometimes it accompanies consensual sex. We’re up the creek here.
I think it’s highly unlikely that you can prove rape beyond a reasonable doubt. Hence you cannot give a stiff sentence to a rapist, let alone the death sentence.
I feel the current form of punishment is good enough. But if it is found child abuse, there is no mercy – death would be the ultimate penalty.
It must always be life imprisonment . Life is too mportant to be wasted even it is of a convict…
I don't feel that capital punishment for rape will solve anything, which is my general opinion of capital punishment in general. It doesn't really do much to deter crime. I feel rape is one of those issues that have to be solved by other means. Such getting to the root of why rape happens and going from there.
Of course I'm not sure about giving women benefit of the doubt, while a lot of progress has been made, in a lot of cases the woman's sexual history or what she's worn is still sometimes brought up and women are still blamed for being raped. Though I am more for stricter punishments of rape, like longer prison sentences.
In reply to RenKiss
Lots of people still think that killing someone is both a deterrent as well as justice. As far as I know, you're right about capital punishment not deterring crime, so I don't think killing a criminal has any benefit other than catharsis for the victim…
In reply to Bhagwad Jal Park
Look at statistics from the gulf nations….it does make anyone think 100 times before committing crime…humans need a little scare theraphy to stop them from committing crime.
In reply to Paul
Look at the statistics indeed.
What you are saying is one thing and what we have on parliament's table is totally different thing. Whats in Sexual Assault Bill is to consider even what we used to call molestation, eve teasing, sexual harassment etc also as RAPE. That means eve teasers are going to get 7 years punishment!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As per recent pune police report 70% of RAPE cases are consensual sex!!!
follow me at http://twitter.com/prassoon for such news that you usually tend to miss
In reply to prassoon
I don't know about the stats Prasson, but there are indeed many things that are clubbed under the molestation umbrella – including statutory rape which treats consensual sex between teenagers on the same footing as real rape crimes.
In reply to Bhagwad Jal Park
And who said molestation is 'not a big crime'??? 7 years for eve-teasing – serves the basta*d well and right. Put one basta*d into prison and watch how the roads can get cleaned of such jerks. Do you even know what molestation means? Have you ever been groped in your private parts on a public bus?
And who the hell has checked those 70% of the 'police report' cases to identify if it was 'consensual sex'? Obviously, people will try to convert every rape case into either prostitution or consensual sex.
Molestation/eve-teasing/rape… these are disgusting and disgraceful acts. Men who do this should either be jailed or castrated.
In reply to Pal
Sorry my mistake… Actually it is 74%
74% rape cases lodged were consensual sex says Pune Police –
=================================================== http://tinyurl.com/2e6enw5
You should be interested in my blog then.. spend some time and educate yourself. And, yes, androphohia is curable!
It’s high time for Sexual Intimidation Law
================================= http://prassoon.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/it%E2%80…
Female Feticide – A Mysterious Propaganda
================================== http://prassoon.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/female-f…
In reply to Pal
A desperate attempt to find the long lost credibility of vicious Indian women. Women are not infants to jump on to the bed the moment someone utters the word marriage! This law, "rape=sex under the false promise of marriage", should be scrapped so as to stop legal terrorism and extortion.
In reply to prassoon
Some recent HC and SC cases already indicate that the false promise of marriage law doesn't stand up to proper scrutiny…
In reply to Bhagwad Jal Park
Dude, those are absurd irrational thoughts by those SC jokers. Here is what it says
"While we reiterate that a promise to marry without anything more will not give rise to ‘misconception of fact’ within the meaning of Section 90, it needs to be clarified that a representation deliberately made by the accused with a view to elicit the assent of the victim without having the intention or inclination to marry her, will vitiate the consent. If on the facts it is established that at the very inception of the making of promise, the accused did not really entertain the intention of marrying her and the promise to marry held out by him was a mere hoax, the consent ostensibly given by the victim will be of no avail to the accused to exculpate him from the ambit of Section 375 clause second. This is what in fact was stressed by the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court in the case of Jayanti Rani Panda’s case (supra) which was approvingly referred to in Udayis case (supra). The Calcutta High Court rightly qualified the proposition which it stated earlier by adding the qualification at the end – “unless the court can be assured that from the very inception the accused never really intended to marry her”."
One one hand govt is trying to promote live-in relationships by giving legal protection and all the rights of married women and on other hand they are trying to appraise 16th century laws.
We have seen the air line molestation case, several sports coaches cases in sexual harassment, the latest and the most hyped Shiney Rape case which are all proven false and malicious. What we need is sexual intimidation law not castration laws.
In reply to prassoon
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Raped-senior-citizen-admits-to-consensual-sex/articleshow/17684005.cms
In reply to Pal
And you want death penalty for eve teasing?? That means, any one can easily use eve-teasing complaint to settle scores with his/her adversaries!!!
Very good topic!
Even your analyses of ‘calibrating’ punishment according to seriousness of crime & how bar for conviction would be raised higher are very good.
I went through the comments on the ‘debate’ page. The amount of rhetoricing & posturing nauseates.
Unfortunate fact is, people think of jail term & death sentence too offhand.
I do not understand how do people feel comfortable to sit in judgment to be able to confidently decide “‘this’ punishment is appropriate for ‘that’ crime”.
Majority of Indians have never been to jail. Of course, nor have I. Let’s for the time-being consider what it means to be jailed for even 1 week’s (yes, 1 week’s) rigorous imprisonment. Right from the time accusation to the accused landing up in jail, he’s eyed with suspicion, nobody trusts him. He’s treated with derision. In the jail he feels total loss of control over his life. He is alone in the jail with no emotional support. Perhaps. Would be bullied by fellow convicts, & from the impression I have gathered (not from any reliable sources), he too might be raped. He suffers this ordeal for 1 whole week. After that he’s released. The stigma of being a convict always stays. He’d be disallowed from most government jobs, perhaps, even admission to educational institutes would be denied. It is somewhat possible that the family members would disown him. Very few would be willing to marry him.
Yes, I might be pointed out that “the rascal was a rapist! He ‘deserves’ such punishment”. But point I want to make it is, most experiences are equally painful/pleasurable irrespective of whether they happen to one labeled as ‘criminal’ or not. If you slap a convict or a non-convict, it pains *equally*. So, the idea that for criminal any pain inflicted is too small is a very dangerous one. We have to have a sense of proportion in what sentence we award.
Someone in the linked article had very rightly pointed out that rape ends up being a much worse crime than it would otherwised be, because of familial & societal attitude towards the victim (unfortunately, we can’t assert here, “society is a big lie”!). So, if we keep these things in mind, then, even 1 weeks’ rigorous punishment is not “too less” for the crime of rape. But what’s important is that each case must get convicted….
In reply to Ketan
You're right that rape is made a much worse crime because of what people say about the victim. In fact, I would view a rape victim as someone bitten by a mad dog – it sure sucks, but it's not her fault. And in this case, the rapist is behaving pretty much like an animal…
In reply to Bhagwad Jal Park
“In fact, I would view a rape victim as someone bitten by a mad dog..”
In that case, your argument against death-penalty for the rapist is even more puzzling and bizzare, and makes no sense. We all know that mad dogs that bite people are either shot or put to death.
In reply to Amit
Unfortunately, mad dogs can’t be cured. There’s no evidence to show that a human being can’t reform himself/herself.
In reply to bhagwad
So you admit that the analogy you used – of being bitten by a mad dog – was wrong?
BTW, the burden of proof that a criminal has reformed is on the criminal himself. Once a person commits a crime – and one as heinous as rape – the trust that’s given to him is gone, and now he will have to earn it, instead of being handed to him. Other members of the society don’t have to give evidence that a criminal can or cannot reform himself. Besides, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence – that’s a logical fallacy.
What I don’t understand is why are you so sympathetic to the criminal, whereas from reading your post and comments, it seems like your heart doesn’t bleed for the victim. And justice is not the same as revenge. Just because people want justice and are emotional about an issue does not equate to revenge.
In reply to Amit
All analogies are imperfect. Taken to this extreme, of course, the mad dog analogy is subject to this imperfection.
But what about the points I’ve made in my post. Do you deny that awarding the death sentence for rape will lead to more murders, or that cases will take longer to prosecute?
Do you deny that there are even more serious crimes than rape? What punishment will you give such people?
What would you do? And how will you address the five negative consequences I’ve talked about in my post? Otherwise your argument is just emotional “Aisa nahi hona chahiye!”
In reply to Amit
Answer this: How will you restore the pride of the accused(actually victim?) in this case??
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Raped-senior-citizen-admits-to-consensual-sex/articleshow/17684005.cms
Is there some mechanism by which commenting quick succession is not possible. Is that to prevent spamming? If so, then it is very inconvenient to to try to correct one's typos!!
In reply to Ketan
I just corrected your mistake Ketan, don't worry.
I don't know about the quick succession part – did you try and post in succession without success?
…Then, another dangerous idea that is floating around is that “as it is most rapists go scot-free, let’s compensate that by giving harshest punishment possible to those who we *manage to catch*. Of course, nobody words it like this, but that’s underlying sentiment, in other words a convicted rapist must also suffer on behalf of those who the society, prosecution & judiciary combined couldn’t convict! Amazing!
I think those who truly feel for the victim would try to explain that the victim needs to be supported, society must stop taking sexuality so seriously. Moreover, it needs to be understood that what happened to the victim was beyond her control! Important thing is to *allow* the victim to feel normal, for simple reason that she *indeed* is a normal human being, except that had to undergo something terrible (i.e., rape).
But the moment people prescribe punishments that demonstrably much severe than the crime committed, I see little difference in such exhortations than the ‘religious leaders’ exhorting killings of thousands to avenge the death of one.
In reply to Ketan
It's as if there's a fixed amount of punishment that has to be distributed amongst those who are caught!
Osho propagates the idea of counseling & corrective measures for criminals rather than prison. At first it seems a silly idea, but when one thinks of it, there is a point in it.
Excellent topic, Bhagwad! And great analysis too.
The point is, we make 'mistakes' fully aware of the consequence. When a rapist is conscious that HE CAN GET AWAY with Rape, he does it. If he were afraid about being hanged till death, he probably will not do it! Fear of capital punishment itself could help reduce the number of rapes that occur!
The problem here is, people could misuse such a law, to punish 'innocent' folks. Or like you have rightly said, the number of murders could shoot up.
Despite that, I actually think capital punishment is a good idea. If nothing, it will atleast install fear, and we can hope or pray for a better tomorrow.