Poll: Which is worse: Rape or Murder?

[Christopher Callahan]

Damn, I'm surprised so many people picked murder.

Murder can be justified, rape cannot.

Anything can be justified, so this argument doesn't hold air, much less water...

 

[Kashrlyyk]

...

I mean how can you accidentally rape someone or rape in self defense?

You could rape to continue your species ( Species, not tribe or society! That is probably the only justifiable reason for rape.

 

[Dogstile]

Rape is worse.

I mean, if I murdered someone for killing my children by burning them in front of me, would that be worse than rape?

 

[Nixzilla]

well rape for a women is on par with being killed

 

[Christopher Callahan]

.. You attack me with a knife in my home, I am justified in putting two shotgun shells in your brain. But if I decide to kill you in any other circumstnace, it is not justified.

In Germany you go to jail if you do that.

I choose both are equally bad, but hard to compare because you have to look from two different angles.

Viewpoint of the Law: Murder is worse. Victim can not recover and there no way you can undo the crime.

Viewpoint of the victim: Rape is worse. For a murder victim the hard part of the crime is over. For a rape victim the hard part has just started. Picking up your life after such a crime is a very hard thing to do. The human brain just loves torturing oneself with questions like "Why me? What could I have done to prevent it? Is it partially my fault? Should I have fought harder?" and so on.

The view point of the murder victim: Oh wait they don't get one! How is this not worse? The victim can't think these thoughts, their dead! and nothing will get that person back. Nothing. You can recover form rape, no matter how bad, but they still get to live. That other guy doesn't.

 

[Lullabye]

...... underestimate the effects rape has on a person.

please tell me an effect worse than death. I am truly intrigued to know your answer.

 

[Scabadus]

Rape is worse; if somebody's killed then they're gone and unable to feel pain, if somebody is raped they have to live with that for the rest of their life. For the friends and family of the victim; with murder they have to deal with never seeing their loved one again, with rape they have to know that their loved one is suffering both physically and emotionally.

Note that this only applies to a 'quick' (relativly) knife-between-the-ribs kind of murder, sadistically torturing somebody to death is on par with rape in my books.

 

[The .50 Caliber Cow]

...

I mean how can you accidentally rape someone or rape in self defense?

You could rape to continue your species ( Species, not tribe or society! That is probably the only justifiable reason for rape.

I think that excuse is very, very, very, very, very outdated for our species.

 

[teebeeohh]

...... underestimate the effects rape has on a person.

please tell me an effect worse than death. I am truly intrigued to know your answer.

unless you are being killed with a rusty fork your death sucks way more for people you know than for yourself. You wont spend years of your life dealing with the effects because you will be dead. Death is really not that bad for yourself, being murdered is just a shortcut to where you will eventually end up anyway.

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

Murder for the reason's already presented. You can't recover from murder, it makes it impossible to go on leading any quality of life. People who have been raped tend to recover well with support and counselling, they're not a lost cause; a corpse is.

People arguing rape can never be justified while murder can, while true, doesn't negate the fact you kill the person (who is innocent in this example) you've done something worse to them than rape.

Some people might say they'd rather die than live after being raped and I imagine this proportion of people, while less than the majority, isn't terribly small. I think this however is a problem inherent with society and psychological development of these individuals. For whatever reason they value their life less than something intangible, which should be acknowledged before or in spite of this malicious act taking place. Sanctity of life should be the priority of all rational sane humans.

They're pretty damn close though; murder has it on a objective innocent case by identical objective innocent case basis. (The more I sit here without posting, the more innumerable scenarios pop into my head, but I'm sticking with murder)

 

[Shapsters]

Rape. They both have horrible effects and are both awful things but there is never any justified reason for rape. There are a few reasons for killing someone but really what reason is there for rape?

I came up with an answer, but I don't really want to say it because I would feel like a dick if I justified rape.

They are both very made, and it usually takes a unique form of human in this modern age to murder or rape an innocent person. But I am slanting more to the murder side being worse, with rape it is a terrible thing but it can be recovered from through years of therapy and professional help. Rape in most cases is over very quickly and rarely lasts longer then a few minutes, due to the rapist's own fear of being caught in the act. Murder however, can be over in a split second, but in quite a number of cases it can be over in hours days or even months. Torture and maximum pain are often used before the final murder so I would say murder is worse, due to it causes the most physical pain, and you end up dead.

No need to feel like a dick, its not as though you are actually justifying rape. And I see what you're saying you make some good points. Murder is also absolute, you are taking someone's life and that's the end of it, as you said at least with rape you can possibly move along (with a lot of help) and at least live a life.

 

[lulztaco]

I think murder is worse, more of a mess to clean up when you're done. Plus you gotta destroy evidence. I mean with rape, just keep them pinned and make sure they cant trace a semen sample. Most rape victims are too emotionally scarred and afraid to report it anyway.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Rape is worse.

To explain why, I shall quote myself:

Rape is a form of torture - it is designed to break a person, to haunt them. Rape isn't actually about sex for most rapists (according to psych studies done on rapists) - it's about hurting someone for revenge or because "they deserve it" or because the rapist can't hurt the person he (or she) really wants to hurt.

The main exception being date-rape, which is usually about sex (or sometimes humiliation - not that the difference often matters to the victim) but violent rape is almost always about torture. (Of course, the torture can be about getting sexual satisfaction, in a sort of round-about way, but then so can murder... gods, people can be fucked up).

This is why I would consider rape worse than murder - the same way that I would consider burning someone alive worse than shooting them in the head.

 

[alandavidson]

From a psychological and societal standpoint, rape does much more damage than murder. Rape and molestation effect mental development and start a chain reaction of intimacy and relationship problems that can span many generations. Women who are raped and don't seek treatment remain victims, and are much more likely to be raped, with their instinct to freeze up when someone is touching them inappropriately. These women will most likely pick abusive men to be in relationships with, and these abusive men will abuse their children who will then be more likely to choose abusive partners, and so on...

So while murder is tragic, it ends with the one life lost. Rape is one of many forms of abuse a young girl can be damaged by in here development which can send her on a devastating spiral.
Plus the chances of pregnancy, STDs, and so on.

To all of you saying that rape is not permanent, read the above post.

 

[Iron Lightning]

Murder, and I speak as a victim of rape. Oh, it was fucking hell remembering and recovering from rape, but at least I'm fucking alive. If anyone tries to say that I would be better off dead then, I'm sorry, but fuck you, you thoughtless scoundrel.

I'm sorry that this post is a bit emotional, but this is an emotional topic.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Rape is cruel and evil, but murder is the taking away of the most important thing on earth: a human life. While rape can leave serious psychological trauma, it can hopefully be put behind you with a good psychiatrist. You don't recover from murder. Period.

 

[Furbyz]

I've actually thought about this a fair bit, and I have to say that rape is the more morally reprehensible crime, in my opinion. However, my perspective is skewed, at best, because I've been expecting to die very young for the majority of my life. It's only recently occurred to me that I'm actually going to live by some miracle, in fact.

At its best, life is short, transient and fleeting like vapor. It's pure and wonderful, horrible and painful. But to defile a person's existence, taint every breathing moment afterwards, is the worst thing I can possibly fathom. We will all die one day. That's going to happen so very, very soon. Cutting it shorter doesn't seem quite as terrible as ruining what's left.