xenologer | Rape and Capital Punishment

I was linked this article today.

The gist of this recent Supreme Court decision is that the death penalty in America shouldn't be resorted to unless the crime involves espionage or treason, or the crime results in the death of the victim. The context is whether or not people who sexually abuse children should be faced with capital punishment as an option.

Now, on the one hand... if someone raped anybody that I know, I don't know that I'll be responsible for my actions in the matter. That counts both for a child and a grown adult. In that sense, I can understand why many people have a problem with this ruling. After all, it's natural to want to hurt and even eliminate someone who hurts us badly enough, and the rape of a child is not just an offense to the whole community, but downright damaging to the whole community.

But the rape of an adult woman is, too. The UN Security Council just equated it to a war crime. It happens in war because, as the article states, "rape is a deliberate war tactic meant to intimidate and destroy communities." This is coloring my reception of this ruling. As the article I first linked states, "The Supreme Court banned executions for rape in 1977 in a case in which the victim was an adult woman."

If we executed people who rape children but not people who rape adult women... I feel that would create a harmful double standard. To say that raping kids is morally more reprehensible than raping adult women kind of smacks of the old view that raping virgins was a grievous evil, but raping adult women (who might have had sex before) was merely rude.

Now, granted, I think raping children is weirder than raping an adult woman, but that doesn't make it worse. Just weirder. To say that an adult woman is morally more rapeable than a child really is a throwback to days that I don't think anyone wants to see us repeat. Sexual violence should be treated the same way across the board, no matter what stage of life the victim is in.

Personally I have my reservations about capital punishment in practice, but that's a topic for another day. Right now I'm concentrating on the fact that rape of adults and children is being treated the same way by our legal system, and I think that's a good thing.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You may know more about this than me of course, but I was under the impression that rape and sexual abuse are not only extremely traumatic for children, but also affect their development into adulthood.

This is not only because the children are exposed to sexual stimuli inappropriate for their age, but also because children are most likely to be raped by members of their own household, which increases the trauma.

Children who are sexually assaulted are also more likely to enter abusive relationships as adults, and to be diagnosed with an assortment of mental health problems ranging from depression to post traumatic stress disorder to anxiety disorder. None of those things is exactly commensurate with a child's age appropriate development, need for love, or need for play.

Finally, there is definitely some evidence that children affected by war (for example, as child soldiers) are irrevocably changed after the experience and don't behave as, say, children not affected by war do.

I'm interested in knowing about your research that says rape and war don't affect childhood.

Rape *affecting* childhood is not the same thing as rape *ending* childhood. Two different things. (I mean, and I ask this in all seriousness, would you give a child who had been raped the right to vote? To own land?)

Indeed. The distinction becomes very clear when you speak to someone who has been abused as a child. It's hard to convey in spoken word, let alone written, but the experience is not to be missed should you be placed in a situation to allow for such talk.

If you like, I would appreciate you trying to explain it to me.

Most of what I know comes from research which isn't always accurate. If your reality is different, I'm interested in hearing about it.

I don't understand where you're trying to go with this.

Children already can't vote, survivors of rape or not, because they're children and the right to vote excludes children.

I'm pretty sure children can own lands and property, but in most cases they can't access said land or property until they reach the age of majority, regardless of previous victimization or not.

So, once again, not sure where you're going here.

There's also likely a bit of confusion over how we're defining childhood. Obviously, sexual assault doesn't catapult a child into the age of majority, but it does change the natural development of the child into an adult in ways that are not reversible (and are, therefore, irrevocable).

People who research childhood agree that there are certain things children should be doing at certain ages. Being raped or sexually assaulted severely disrupts that progression, and has long-ranging consequences on into adulthood. That's what I'm saying. Not that a child is assaulted and all of sudden becomes an adult.

Yes. In other words, we all accept that rape *changes* childhood. It does not *end* childhood.

Unless you literally mean it turns a child into an adult, the claim that it "ends" childhood is meaningless and rhetorically misleading and should not be used. A child who has been raped will be different from a child who has not been raped, but is *still a child*.

Specifically, you said:

There's also this idea that childhood is a time of innocence, play, and exploration, and early confrontation with adults in decidedly adult situations (rape is one, war is another) irrevocably ends childhood.

Which I think is nonsense.

Then I should have used better words. Okay.

Rape and Capital Punishment

Re: just thinking out loud...

Re: just thinking out loud...

Re: just thinking out loud...

Re: just thinking out loud...

Re: just thinking out loud...

Re: just thinking out loud...

Re: just thinking out loud...