Comment by hu3
3 years ago
https://smart.ojp.gov/somapi/chapter-5-adult-sex-offender-re...
> Sexual recidivism rates range from 5 percent after three years to 24 percent after 15 years.
Also, I wouldn't put murder and rape in the same sentence. There are some situations where murder reasoning might be debatable even if still wrong (self defense against and archenemy that promised to assassinate your family, for example).
But rape? There's no rationalizing rape other than mental illness.
I don't want to open a can of worms here, but I had to write this.
I don't want to continue the can of terrifying worms :), but:
* I agree that what most of us generally mean in colloquial usage of the term "rape" is never justifiable
* However, in many jurisdictions, the legal definition of "rape" may be different and significantly broader than our colloquial usage. As an immediate example, a completely informed and consensual sexual experience between two teenagers may be considered "statutory rape", with all the prison, registered offender, difficulty getting a job and social stigma that follows a rape conviction. Whereas I personally don't think two teenagers having sex is indicative of mental illness.
It sucks, but the longer I live, the less immediately easily categorizable or black & white things are :<
I agree. It's a delicate topic full of nuances and differences in jurisdictions.
> But rape? There's no rationalizing rape other than mental illness.
20 year old having sex with a 17 year old isn’t mental illness.
Rape is also about consent, not just age.
As an aside, I learned the other day that in Brazil the age of consent is 14:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_South_Ameri...
The stark reality is that there’s a difference between rape (the crime) and rape (the action).
You can be convicted of the crime for a lot of reasons other than lack of consent. A common example of that is a 20 year old with a 17 year old in many states.
14 is pretty average globally speaking. It's 16 in most U.S. states, with exceptions often going down to 14 when there is an age gap of 4 years or less. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_the_United_...
This obviously isn't what he's referring to and isn't illegal in most states.
It might be obvious in context, but not when you just see someone labeled as “convicted rapist” and you intend to make policy based on that label.
Except rape has much lower recidivism than crimes like theft or murder.
So someone who is a murderer is more likely to commit crimes when released than a rapist.