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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!rochester!ritcv!ccieng5!jbf
From: jbf@ccieng5.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Prisons
Message-ID: <238@ccieng5.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Jan-84 10:46:12 EST
Article-I.D.: ccieng5.238
Posted: Fri Jan 20 10:46:12 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Jan-84 07:35:11 EST
Organization: Computer Consoles Inc., Rochester, NY
Lines: 66


    Jbf's statement helps prove my point: that the reaction to rape/sexual
    assault is largely emotional (and lasting).

My statement DOES NOT HELP PROVE the point cited, although I would not argue
against that point.  I was trying to isolate the effects INHERENT in the act
of rape -- consequences that MUST follow, regardless of the emotional
constitution of the victim.  These effects are few.

This does not imply that the average rape is not serious -- it implies that
rapes can cover an enormously wide spectrum that is fruitless to summarize
as a single type of crime.  I would say that the real crimes committed during
a particular instance of rape are usually far more serious than the rape itself,
and not necessarily unique to women (i.e.: assault, battery, humiliation and
coercion).  But while both a woman raped at knife point, and cruelly beaten
and disfigured in the process, and a wife whose husband takes her when she
isn't in the mood (without more than a mild protest on her part -- which might
have been playful) have TECHNICALLY been raped, the offenses are not
commensurable.

    Then again, guilty people should always go to jail, and
    that doesn't always happen either.

I will spare you my opinion on our penal system, but please don't take that as
an agreement that "guilty people should always go to jail".  The difference
between the rapist (who might not be punished) and the society (who may send
innocent scapegoats to jail ) is that the former are CRIMINALS, whose actions
I do not approve, and the latter is you and me.  We can not control the
behavior of every degenerate outside the law (without totally destroying
everyone's privacy), but WE CAN try to insure a just legal system.  I would
rather worry about the criminals that might try to victimize me than the
society that might randomly pick me as a scapegoat.

    The problem is that jbf takes the stand that going to prison 
    mistakenly is a much worse alternative than rape; in fact, jbf is 
    so cynical about rape, his arguments lose credibility.

I don't see my "stand" as a problem:  I would prefer 15 minutes of coercion 
to years of it (in both cases, we have an innocent victim; in both cases,
there may be emotional scars -- but the former allows you to get on with your
life a lot sooner than the latter does).

    I also find it interesting that jbf made no (public) comment about
    the other response (about jbf making sure that the public saw
    that his date was "willing" beforehand, so that he could "avoid"
    any rape charges).

Would it have been worth it?  Actually, there was some private commentary
on that one, but the original was a separate posting, in a less serious vein.
I don't like to confuse a serious discussion with an obliquely related
satire.

    I'd appreciate any other responses (posted or mailed).

Your wish is my command (sometimes, anyway)

Azhrarn
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