Discussion: Should Rape be a Capital Crime?

[IdaBriggs]

45. Statistically, most appear to not be reported,

And folks aren't going to jail. The current system doesn't seem to be working, and social media is now allowing lifelong humiliation and bullying of victims which has led several to suicide.

It is interesting to me that most people on this thread are anti death penalty, yet comfortable with long prison sentences, which in our current system do not rehabilitate and create repeat offenders while torturing those non-wealthy few who seem to be convictable.

There is also an interesting sense of ambivalence about how serious a sexual assault should be taken - "still alive" and "can recover from it" are both true, but if this is the take, I suggest we remove "rape culture" from the lexicon and just go with "violent culture" if we believe that a victim's personal sense of self is not impacted anymore than if a drunken brawler had bashed them across the back of a head with a beer bottle during a bar fight.

Acknowledging issues of under reporting as cultural, wikipedia has some interesting data here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_statistics. I found the idea that the "United Arab Emerite" which is not known for its liberal stance on women's rights, reports less than 100 rapes per year (less than 2% per 100,000 people) while the United States which also has an UNDER REPORTING issue is currently in the 26% category - which makes me go --