Do Rapists deserve the death penalty?

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I know it may seem extreme to most softies but in my opinion once a rapist always a rapist and if a law were to implement a death penalty for rape was put in place it might give potential rapists a second thought not to do it. If they still go through it then that's their loss and they are executed after found guilty and shown as an example not to rape people! What are your thoughts on this? I might come off as an inhumane monster coming up with this proposition but man I dont find rapists as human at all. If a law like that were to be put in place everyone can walk the streets on their own and feel safe and rape would be reduced 99% that remaining 1% would be killed.

I don't support the death penalty for murderers, let alone crimes that the victim survives, so no.

You ask a lot of questions in your subject lines, AspieOtaku. Would you describe yourself as a truth-seeker?

Depends on the rapist, but 'deserve' is a very slippery word that I don't particularly care for, and I don't support the state applied death penalty in any case.

^
You're good with stats GGPV, you wouldn't happen to have anything on the actual recidivism rates for rapists handy, would you? I've been trying to hunt down some reliable ones, but keep getting bogged down in old academic papers with conflicting conclusions and small sample sizes, or oddly phrased abstracts.

IIRC, it's less than is commonly thought, but I like to have facts in hand before making that kind of claim.

Sterilization and doing a bit of "snipping", yes, but who knows if that would deter it from happening again.

Maybe it would have a preventive effect, but it could also lead to more rape victims being murdered, especially in cases where the victim knows the rapist.

Technically rape isn't a capitol crime. The death penalty is not taken lightly and is reserved for first degree murder cases. I disagree with the death penalty anyway because murder is murder regardless of who kills or why. I believe in defending myself but not in killing for any other reason but that.
Rape should carry long sentences but not the death penalty.
One thing I do believe in, if someone beats another person up, they should get punched a few times so if someone is gonna go and do something like rape, they need the crap beat out of them. I honestly don't understand why part of the penalty for someone found guilty of assault isn't being assaulted themselves so they can experience the hell, traumatic stress and possibly having to have reconstructive surgery to repair the damages. It only seems fair they should go through that if they do it to someone else, just like someone who murders in cold blood gets murdered by the state. It might sound morbid but jail time for people who beat others up or rape them seems a bit too easy compared to what the person they beat up or rape goes through.

Here is a research paper from Emory University which concludes that the death penalty for murder does have a deterrent effect. They conclude that each execution prevents 18 potential murders. My math skills are insufficient to figure out how they came to that figure or what percentage drop that figure represents. Here's the study if anyone is interested enough to analyze its conclusions.

http://www.cjlf.org/deathpenalty/DezRub ... rFinal.pdf

They do put in the caveat at the end that there are costs too. There is the risk of executing an innocent person. That's a very real and sobering cost given how many prisoners have been exonerated and freed based on evidence that surfaced after their imprisonment.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/

Also, that the death penalty may be unfairly applied. Not every murderer in a death penalty state gets the death penalty. Who gets it and who does not is a source of unfairness.

Of course all that is about murder and the OP was writing about rape. Proposing it for rape comes up routinely in public discussions when the victim is a child. It's my reflex reaction too. Kill KILL KILL!! ! But the entire concept of law was created millenia ago to prevent reflex reactions from being the response. Because it's never the right response even if it feels right. Humanaut brings up an excellent argument: the death penalty for non-murder crimes creates an incentive for murder.