okay so the skinny jeans didn't work out for me so well …

It’s hardly surprising; figure that since we’re still undecided on how to handle abortion cases in this country how can fully expect the children that are here to be adequately protected by law when those that are unborn aren’t.  Rape is a heinous crime in any event, personally I would like to see men who commit the crime against adult women be put to death when there is clear evidence against them.  A big part of the difficulty of determining the extent of the damage rape has caused anyone though is a matter of interpretation.

For children though you would think that wouldn’t be an issue.  Clearly, when children who have yet to experience puberty show that physical trauma in said bodily regions it seems plausible to conclude that rape was used as a show of physical force against the child.  But if you cannot use the death penalty in a rape case, and attempts to either rehabilitate or deprogram the offenders fail to work and they simply commit the crime again then what punishment is truly adequate by law?

I am hard pressed to agree with the usage of the death penalty in any case though because of it’s questionable use as a deterrent to crime.  The only real justification for it seems to revolve around the question of whether or not individuals actually deserve to live in light of having committed a crime, as opposed to whether or not the premise of death is enough to deter them from wanting to commit the crime.  In most logical situations it could be a deterrent however given the immediacy and passion that is typically invoked and the catylist behind why some of these crimes are committed the death penalty is simply the answer the society has as to whether or not someone should be allowed the luxury of life, which isn’t an inalienable right of the community.

Society has always had clear views and opinions on who should or should not live.  As mentioned earlier, it has already been established that an unborn child can and should remain as such by the society given the situations that child would have to be under once they did come into the world.  No one wants a child to be born into circumstances where the neglect or indifference of the parents facilitate death to begin with.  Euthanasia is a clear societal view on the surrender of the rights of the community in light of the rights of the sick to want to die.  If those closest to the individual that knew them best feel that is the best option for the individual, particularly if the financial resources are being drained by the medical establishment and it is likely that taxpayers will ultimately pick up that bill as opposed to the caretaker, it has clearly been established as an option.

The dystopian view is that euthanasia will turn into a tool of convenience for society and that the world view will turn into one where the inconvenience to society will take precedence over any realizations of the quality of life.  In other words if someone is old, regardless of whether they are conscious and physically active or not, euthanasia is preferred because of the technical loss of value that person presents to the society.  The only real obstacles to that from a layman’s point of view is that going forward into the twenty-first century most work to be preformed is of mental exercise, not physical.  These days if somewhere were 120, and still had a bright mind and were still sharp they could continue to work in some capacity and would still be of some value to the society.  The question is whether or not society will continue to see the esoteric view, or whether or not the mainstream will inevitably rise up against the elderly population.

Right now euthanasia for any other reason seems reprehensible.  We all remember the trails of Dr. Jack Kevorkian, whom was portrayed as practicing euthanasia for sport in the media; but in a society that seems increasingly obsessed with it’s youth it such a future doesn’t seem that far fetched.  Now we say that we want to protect our children, but does that sexual component of rape, that seemingly nagging compulsion to act out on forbidden desires listen to anything else of reason?  In other words, given what we have already seen of child molestation in this country is it plausible to think that death would deter anyone as nothing else seems to have that effect?

On the other hand, when rape is used as a tool of violence to demean or humiliate an individual or take their power and autonomy away from them, which is the enlightened view, had these children not be raped it is not that far fetched to wonder what other form of belittling would or already has taken place that no one else knows about.  A mother who is depressed and kills her children has committed the ultimate crime but can no longer perpetrate her crime against her victims, yet a rapist when convicted, may inevitably be released into society just to perpetrate the same crime against another child in the future.

Yet again, this isn’t an act that the penalties of crime is going to deter in the first place.  When a man and a woman get into an argument and things turn violent and the two of them begin to devolve in the cycle of physical violence as being an integral part of the relationship the death penalty is not going to stand in the way of anything happening to anyone.  The same could be said for a desperate drug dealer wanting to maintain a presence because coming across as weak puts you in a situation of being as good as dead; the individual is more afraid of what can happen to him on the streets than he is life in jail; the death penalty is no possible deterrent here.

The death penalty perhaps could work as a deterrent for those of which the decision to commit such an act of hostility or show this use of aggression that are a bit unsure or uncommitted.  People who are not really criminals in the first place.  Again this brings us back to whether or not we truly feel that the death penalty is a deterrent in situations of child rape or the articulate retribution and revenge of society against the perpetrators of such a horrendous crime.  The society feels as though such individuals can and should have such hostility perpetrated to them in jail preferably by the authorities but if it happens amongst the prison population that is the second best thing.  It isn’t okay for someone in jail to commit that crime against someone but with the system we have there is a belief that one would not have to experience any real punishment because they have already been incarcerated for life as sentencing for other crimes that they have committed, essentially they have nothing to loose.

The bottom line is whether those politicians who continue to pursue this avenue of punishment against those who commit what is perhaps the most damaging crime against an individual against children have truly spoken for the people.  We are sick and fed up with hearing about the crimes that are committed against children, which seem to grow increasingly sick and disturbing each time news of them is spread through the media.  Yet at the same time, if it is rape you are talking about we are still on the fence if the death penalty applies to perpetrators of the crime against fully grown women and adolescents, let alone toddlers, tweens and young children.  It will be interesting to see how this develops, just that hopefully, we do not have to hear about another horrendous act in the interim …