The fact is many crimes can cause permanent mental and physical anguish, including vicious assaults that can permanently handicap others, like brutal beatings, combat scenarios, acid attacks, etc. These events can cause PTSD too, and prevent the victim from ever trusting others again as well. There are different levels of sexual assault and rape too, including statutory rape. What should we do to people who do these horrible things to others as well?
When you talk rape and sexual assault, I’m not sure what you’re implying. Do you just mean a man raping and assaulting a woman? Are you including talking about women who molest young boys? Are you including older men who sleep with underage girls? What about older women who sleep with underage boys? Are you also including the countless men and women who are raped in prisons right under the guards noses, and allowed to happen by the same culture that would condemn rape under other circumstances?
Believe it or not there’s probably a whole host of people who should be condemned and ridiculed, including many ‘law abiding’ citizens for generating a culture that tolerates and allows these horrible things to happen. I think we need to look at these issues a little deeper, like the causes of these occurrences. I’m not a bleeding heart, but bloodletting without addressing causes does not solve nothing.
Were the people who do horrible things to others victims themselves as children? Charles Manson was no choir boy, but when I further reviewed his childhood it strikes me as no surprise he ended up the way he did, and ended up having so much resentment for society. Holy fuck the guy never had a chance. I could say the same thing for Aileen Wuornos too. Yes, it’s called the old butterfly effect.