ginmar (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ginmar) wrote,@ 2007-11-08 11:40:00 |
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8 rapists who tortured and filmed victim, distributed DVD given therapy
Eight teenage rapists who set a girl's hair on fire, urinated on her, and distributed a DVD of the assault were given therapy. Um, you know, all the talk on that site ignores something kind of substantial: what about womens' right to be protected from assholes like this? Where were their parents? Keep in mind, these eight were part of a larger group of eleven, all as far as I know, free. What a great message to send rape victims. Your assailant is ill, honey, he's a victim, and you're jsut a symptom of his disease. Of course, he's the only one who gets treatment.
The idea that you can reform these scumbags is false, too. They have to want to reform. I'm sorry, but kids who are doing this kind of thing at this age don't strike me as reachable or capable of remorse especially seeing as how they're getting off. This is what, the fifth case of filmed rape resulting in either a mistrial or an acquittal recently? This used to be the gold standard of rape cases. Now you wonder if people are jerking off in the courtroom.
I don't believe you can reform rapists. They're committed to blaming the victim and feeling sorry for themselves, plus evading responsibility. That does not spell remorse. If these kids had expressed remorse, I'd feel differently, but they're old enough to not treat a girl like a dog and set her on fire, and also old enough to know--and not care---that filming a rape is a cruel shameful act. They just didn't care. That again speaks against remorse.
Therapy for sex offenders is a delusion the public wants to believe in because it---like blaming the victim---makes certain segments feel safer. In fact, it's the logical companion to blaming the victim. Absent remorse or responsibility, therapy is a useless exercise that just exposes more women to the attacks of the offender. The offender gets turned into a fluffy bunny. He's sick, poor dear. Sorry, don't buy it, and I'm sick of hearing it. In fact, rape is not a sickness. It's the logical extreme of a continuum that ends in rape, battery, and abuse. The rapist is just an extreme characture of what we expect of men. In a rape culture, he's not sick; he's perfectly extremely normal. Making it a sickness just gives these guys another excuse and I, for one, am profoundly sick of it.
If you steal, you're a thief. If you rape, you're a rapist. If you murder, you're a murderer. What matters is what you do. These guys raped, and by letting them off the court sent a message: not really a crime. Not really a victim. Let's slap some wrists.
Most rapists look like the guy next door because they are the guy next door. Most rapists are date rapists, who rape someone known to them. When you bring up this subject, one of the inevitable responses is this one: "But that means that a lot of men are rapists! You can't lock up all those men!" And rather than protect women from rape and rapists, we normalize rape till only the most extreme cases shock the senses. Men are protected, women tossed to the wolves, and people put on blinders.
Eight teenage rapists who set a girl's hair on fire, urinated on her, and distributed a DVD of the assault were given therapy. Um, you know, all the talk on that site ignores something kind of substantial: what about womens' right to be protected from assholes like this? Where were their parents? Keep in mind, these eight were part of a larger group of eleven, all as far as I know, free. What a great message to send rape victims. Your assailant is ill, honey, he's a victim, and you're jsut a symptom of his disease. Of course, he's the only one who gets treatment.
The idea that you can reform these scumbags is false, too. They have to want to reform. I'm sorry, but kids who are doing this kind of thing at this age don't strike me as reachable or capable of remorse especially seeing as how they're getting off. This is what, the fifth case of filmed rape resulting in either a mistrial or an acquittal recently? This used to be the gold standard of rape cases. Now you wonder if people are jerking off in the courtroom.
I don't believe you can reform rapists. They're committed to blaming the victim and feeling sorry for themselves, plus evading responsibility. That does not spell remorse. If these kids had expressed remorse, I'd feel differently, but they're old enough to not treat a girl like a dog and set her on fire, and also old enough to know--and not care---that filming a rape is a cruel shameful act. They just didn't care. That again speaks against remorse.
Therapy for sex offenders is a delusion the public wants to believe in because it---like blaming the victim---makes certain segments feel safer. In fact, it's the logical companion to blaming the victim. Absent remorse or responsibility, therapy is a useless exercise that just exposes more women to the attacks of the offender. The offender gets turned into a fluffy bunny. He's sick, poor dear. Sorry, don't buy it, and I'm sick of hearing it. In fact, rape is not a sickness. It's the logical extreme of a continuum that ends in rape, battery, and abuse. The rapist is just an extreme characture of what we expect of men. In a rape culture, he's not sick; he's perfectly extremely normal. Making it a sickness just gives these guys another excuse and I, for one, am profoundly sick of it.
If you steal, you're a thief. If you rape, you're a rapist. If you murder, you're a murderer. What matters is what you do. These guys raped, and by letting them off the court sent a message: not really a crime. Not really a victim. Let's slap some wrists.
Most rapists look like the guy next door because they are the guy next door. Most rapists are date rapists, who rape someone known to them. When you bring up this subject, one of the inevitable responses is this one: "But that means that a lot of men are rapists! You can't lock up all those men!" And rather than protect women from rape and rapists, we normalize rape till only the most extreme cases shock the senses. Men are protected, women tossed to the wolves, and people put on blinders.