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″]
There are some evil motherfuckers on here.
Ok a rapist whatever the situation, or how his life may have been when he was young. Doesnt deserve death. The person who got raped may be mentally damaged, maybe incurable. But will live, and may yet find happyness in their life. But the rapist who by all means commite a heinius crime, will die for his/or inperfection? That is ugly and wrong. He maybe even deserves torture to an extent. or a long sentence. But to kill him is just murder and in my eyes, just revenge in the highest form by murder.
I believe if someone murders someone it is fair that they get there life taken from them. I would be pleased if they even got tortured abit first, because no one deserves to die by the hand of others. but i guess in certain unpridictable and accidental murders can go with a pardon- like running someone over with a car who wasnt looking, even though the driver was driving perfectly fine.
But for a rape victim who is still alive, them consenting the death of the criminal is no less than them using the law as a tool to commit murderous revenge.
Whoever beileves that death is a sentence that should be given to someone who commits a crime other than muder, i really in my heart hope the make a mistake in their life and be KILLED because of it.
Bastards.
I can imagine the evil women who tries to use capital punishment as a tool to get someone innocent. Rapist will have the hardest of lifes in prison, especially child abusers. let them suffer in prison and atone for their crimes. If they repeat give them harsher penalties. Also casteration is going too far.
Okay! Death penalty may seem to be too much for rape. I had personally recommended YES for the death penalty. But after thinking about the increased possibility of more rape victims being killed due to it, I think it may be inappropriate.
But the present 7-year punishment for rape also seems like a joke to me. 7 years! Isn’t it too less. It should be AT LEAST 14 – 15 years of imprisonment.
I was raped a little over a year ago. The man was a 3x and now 4x affender. Trust me its not easy to prove rape. Even after your drugged with rufies in your system, bruses on your neck and arms, and him lieing about even having sex with you and there be a seaman sample proving positive.
trust me when i say this. If they are found guilty 99% of the time its not wrong and at least 90% of hte time they deserve the death penalty. My rapist walked free of the sex affender tag however has 3 felonies on him and is serving a year in prison for lieing about having ” Consentual ” sex with me.
Go figure… anyways he will be getting out of jail now and has no future in his career of choice i fear for my life and to be honest id rather be dead then keep living in fear of men, hating them, wishing death on people i don’t know because i think their all rapists and they only talk to me for a chance to get in my pants.
I was commited to Peak Hospital for 3 weeks because i tried to kill myself because of all this mess. Trust me its not gone and its never going away. I hate men i dont know and i will never give a male fair ground in dating. I just dont date anymore. Im now a mother of 2 the first one it didnt work out. The second, you know the story
Anyone who thinks rape is a minor crime is a sick fuck.
In reply to Alexandria
I’m sorry for what you went through. But where did you get the impression that anyone was questioning the fact that rape is a serious crime?
In reply to bhagwad
Bhagwad you are a complete a**hole
you won’t feel what rape is until you suffer from it.
what the f**k you know about the rape?
ask people like me who have suffered from getting raped and had injustice
You can’t understand it fella,
I wrote the FIR against the my rapist and they killed my parents
and husband and a two year son
P.S.
80% of woman raped are dead before it even happens anyways. Statisticly 1 in 4 woman are raped in their life time.
This shit needs to stop.
Date rape is in cluded boys
Im a cop and ill tell you right now. If shes had anything to drink, its not fair game. Bringing a drunk girl home to have some fun cuz she says yes.. doesnt fly in court. Dont get urself in trouble.
Dont be that guy.
Tyrell
For you: Also casteration is going too far. ?
Not hardly imo this is the perfect punishment. They take something from me i can never get back. Them im gonna take that from them so they cant ever do it to someone else.
This is a very fair punishment. You dont wanna lose ur dick? then dont fucking rape people. Its not hard tog et laid these days.
And if it is for you… sorry bout ur luck but forcably having sex with someone is discusting. Not only to ppl get pregnant, aids, STDs, Feel dirty, get called whores when ppl dont believe you, the drama of court, the court costs if he isent found guilty, and ontop of all of that the mental damage that never heals.
CUT THE BASTARDS DICK OFF.
In reply to Alexandria
And you believe rape is done only by males?? What about ladies raping young boys? What should be done to such BITCH’s things???
I HATE ALL WOMEN because I was trapped in a false case by a woman.. Perfectly alright as per your theory???
Punishment is given for self-realisation of a crime and most importantly for humans.
Rapists should not be treated as humans but as Dart boards.
No money should be wasted on feeding them in jails.
Death sentence is the only option.
In reply to Deepan
Does that mean extortion is a divine action? or burglary? How about any other crime?
Is copying in an examination a divine action?
Why not treat all such ‘criminals’ as dartboards and kill them??
afterall we don’t want any money to be “wasted” on feeding them in jails, right?
you dont even know what you are writing here. Rape is a very serious crime(not because it is done against women but it is done against innocene) A judge put it correctly once “murder kills the body but rape kills the soul”. The problem with the society and judicial system is that they think that rape does not equal murder…it is more than murder because it is some kind of a heinous torture. Murder results in a loss of life but the person does not feel anything once he is dead. But consider a rape victim…He/she(because even men get raped) suffers throughout their life. I am discussing here in the context of India. How many rape cases get reported ? How many get convicted and serve the entire length of the sentence ?…Very few..women do not report a rape because they dont wish any more humiliation from society..but there is also another hidden reason….they know that the judicial system is weak and in the favour of men and also in many instances as seen in earlier cases, they have escaped scott free due to lack of evidence or improper investigation… because of which potential rapists assume that nothing big will happen and feel no fear in commiting such a heinous crime. They know that they will somehow escape..But about the woman?….she cannot escape what has happened to her. The rape sentence in India is 7-14 years which is very shameful and shows the negligence of society towards women. In most cases the convicts only serve upto 7 years and even get released on bail and never return or complete their sentences in short periods….You are talking about death penalty and its too far when even a simple sentence of 7 years is not served properly…Why do we give a punishment to a person….to give justice to the victim and to create a fear in society so that a crime does not get repeated…Can a sentence of 14 years give justice to a victim who will suffer her entire life..there are cases where the victim has gone into coma and never came out of it…what should be the punishment in this case ?….then there are rapes (even gang rapes) of very small babies or infant girls of 8-10 years..How will you justify the violence and torture involved in such cases ?….there are cases where a pregnant woman has been raped leading into miscarriage/abortion….how will you justify it?….by a mere 14 year sentence in jail where they eat and live merrily talking with other jail fellows…And how will you create fear in the minds of the potential criminals without a stricter punishment…A man can create terror in the mind of a woman then why cannot the Judicial system create terror in the mind of a man ?? First of all in the Indian system, life imprisonment only amounts to 14 years …is that a life sentence in any way …Life sentence should mean a minimum of 50 years ..and in rape cases life imprisonment is not given always only sometimes…Today in India, rape cases are rising at a very high rate if you would bother to read the statistics.Do you ask why …because of the light-handedness of so many rape cases by the Indian Law.. .and another stigma is the modernization of women because of which it has become even more difficult since the courts label the woman to be of “loose character” or label the incident as consensual sex or even state that the woman was responsible for the rape because of the dress she was wearing or because she was too free or casual with the man who raped her….how can being casual be a signal to rape I dont understand…being casual means she is free and trusts the other man ..there are many issues that are very subtle and come underway in the conviction in rape cases….and about death penalty …Dont think that rapists will kill women if they know that they will get death sentence..because what they do by leaving the person alive is even worse than murder…they dont kill simply because they are scared that murder will lead to even harsher punishment …Death Penalty will not change anything..there should be a rigorous form of imprisonment like a sentence for 50-60 years, repeated lashes and cruelty ..because if a death sentence is given for murder then a sentence of cruelty should be given in case of rape…in grave cases where the woman was violently raped leading to loss of memory,consciousness or mental trauma the man should be executed by electrocution ….
In reply to peti
1. I fully support differing sentences for various degrees of rape crimes. This is already in place.
2. We’re a civilized society. The state cannot indulge in barbaric punishments like lashes etc. We’re not in the middle east.
3. Believe it or not, most women who are raped would rather not have been murdered as well. I can quite understand if a particular woman feels that she would rather die, but to my knowledge the majority of women don’t feel that way. So equating rape with murder is not quite the same thing.
4. Finally, a prime focus of any justice system is reform of the criminal. Not revenge.
1. Differing sentences for various degrees of rape crimes are too lenient all over the world in any case; particularly the most savage ones.
2. Barbaric punishments are all in the context; a society can conduct punishments such as tortures, beheading, castration against those who commit most savages crimes and still be the most civilized society in the world by all standards of measurement. Perhaps if there were barbaric punishments (as you called it) exist against barbaric crimes, then the incidences of such crimes would be halved drastically.
3. While murder and rape is not the same; rape is still worse than murder, especially in more severe situations; child rape, gang rape, and sex trafficking.
4. You kept talking about reforming people as a focus of justice system. This I can agree with but not for those who commit savages crimes such as gang rape, child-rape, and sex trafficking. Solely for the reasons that it takes a particular character and mindset to commit these crimes and the everlasting damage of the mind, heart and soul to the victims, and that all of these victims are also our daughters, mothers, wives, lovers, and family.
In reply to Nikolay
Barbaric punishments were the norm before we introduced the system of jails. And over all, we live in the most peaceful time in the history of mankind today.
To the first sentence…..oh gosh, you don’t say?!
To the latter sentence;it is completely meaningless. Misery, corruption, depravity, lack of basic decency and human compassion still exist all over the world. We merely have replaced one bad for another kind of bad.
In reply to Nikolay
All forms of depravity are preferable to physical violence. Give me corruption over assault and murder any day.
Ughhhh….what? Depravity constitute rapes, sexual violence, assault, sex trafficking, and so on. What constitute physical violence?
Something most people don’t understand:
Corruption begets crimes, misery and depravity. If you don’t understand why, then we have nothing to talk about.
In reply to Nikolay
This is way off topic. Bottom line – there is far less violent crime in the modern world than there has ever been in the history of mankind. Beyond a certain points, harsher punishments become meaningless.