Rape victims are not only being exploited by their attackers but also by the insensitive justice system. Every day, hundreds of women across the nation are being raped, often by men who have supposedly been “rehabilitated” and released from prison for committing the same crime before.
The laws for punishing convicted rapists must be tougher. After speaking with various law enforcement officers from different agencies, the consensus was that laws against rape are too lenient. At this point, curb-side justice citizens taking the law into their own hands—may be the only solution unless stricter laws are imposed.
At times, rape victims arc made to feel like suspects by the very people that are supposed to be protecting them. I met a girl who was date raped
by three different boyfriends. When she reported one assault to the police, she said her mind wasn’t all there. As a result, she felt she was grilled by policemen who weren’t sensitive to what had happened to her.
I met another woman who reported being raped by a man who was waiting for her to get out of her car. She said the officer who investigated her report called her up and simply asked if I wanted an abortion. “I just flipped out,” she said.
Various non-governmental organizations involved in rehabilitation of rape victims say that 1 out of 10 women in the nation who are raped report it to the police. Only one out of ten men who stand trial for rape are convicted. The other nine are set free usually because of a lack of evidence.
What form of punishment should be implemented that would be tough enough to deter men from raping? Prison sentences for life, without parole? Castration, possibly?
A friend told me of a man convicted of murder and rape was sentenced to death in Guatemala.
The judge ordered that the man be sodomized with a piece of splintered wood before he was executed. Was this brutal punishment or a justified form of punishment for a brutal crime he committed?
In this country, curb-side justice may be the quick answer to this horrendous crime but our justice system should be given the final say. Unfortunately, after lengthy hearings, most convicted rapists will never serve their full sentences.
The only way we’re going to make this crime tougher to commit is to write to lawmakers and demand stricter laws.
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