Stronger Penalties for Convicted Rapists Coursework

The following paper will discuss the effects of penalties for convicted rapists and how they affect the rate of rape crimes.

Introduction

The lack of severity in the penalties for rape boosts confidence of rapists encouraging them to become repeat offenders and it spawns new breeds of offenders (Juvenile Rapists). Until the penalties are swift and severe, the rate of number of rapes being committed would unlikely reduce.

Rape and its Technicalities

• Rape is difficult to prove, as they perceive consent from their victims and the victims tend not to report the cases.
• Self help and counseling help victims to cope with their regular day-to-day life.
• Even then the visibility of rape and its victims has improved drastically.
• The consistent number of rapes being perpetuated exhibits the inefficiency of the penalties in curbing the offense.
• First offenders are dealt with less severity thus it boosts their confidence to commit such acts again.
• Society and community do not gauge the seriousness of rape as a crime due to the ties between the victims and the offenders.
• The penalty depends also on some factors such as the victims do not report the crime and even if they did they may or may not be prosecuted after being arrested (if they are). Even after prosecution they may or may not be sentenced to any jail time.
• The option of mental institutions enables convicted rapists to skip the jail time and instead take some therapy sessions over hard jail time.
• Statistical findings by Rainn (2005) prove that a rape acts is committed every two and a half minutes somewhere in America. It was also found that only 40% rapes were reported.
• Victims suffer severe emotional and physical trauma and are not in the capacity to go out in public and go through the tribulations of the trial.
• Since community does not hold preconceived notions towards rapes they often tend to advocate the reduction in the sentences.
• These reductions in sentences spawn new criminal offences such as rapes being committed by minors towards children younger than them, peers and also older people.
• The reason for the minimal jail sentences is because the law enforcement agencies are taxed down with restraints on resources (limited jails and existing ones are already overcrowded) and due to restraints in manpower (the number of rape crimes cannot be dealt efficiently with the low number of existing law enforcers who have limited time).
• Death penalty which would prove the severity of the crime and discourage anyone from even thinking about such a crime is deemed too harsh by humanitarian values.
• The U.S. Department of Justice has shown that after serving penalty from the current system convicted rapists have been arrested within 3 years for committing similar acts.

Conclusion

• Rapists are the dregs of society who prey on the weak and defenseless and they have a clear understanding of the law and know that even if they were caught they would likely be prosecuted.
• When first time cases are received the punishment should be swift and severe to create the notion to the society and the aggressors that this is a crime that the state holds just as high as any other crime such as murder and theft.