How to treat rapists
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-01-21Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 11 →
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WHILE I agree with a lot of the article by Jill Smith from Women Against Violence Against Women on the judgment of rapist John Allen, I would like to oppose her call for mandatory prison sentences for rapists.
As a socialist, I see crime not in isolation from the rest of society. Rape surely is a very clear expression of this.
It is not in isolation to the general sexism of society, the viewing of women primarily as objects.
But the question raised by the idea of mandatory prison sentences is for what point. Most criminals do not expect to get caught, and this is probably even more the case with rapists, so the idea of deterrence is not true.
I think there is a point for arguing that prison would make men more aware that rape is a major crime. But it is scapegoating for a general oppression of women Surely instead of mandatory prison sentences, we should be calling • for centres for the re-socialisation of rapists to tackle the attitudes and feeling that lead them to rape. I understand that in the USA there was such a centre (now closed by Reagan) which had a very high success rate (99%) in preventing repeat cases of rape.
: The centre aimed to educate the rapists in the ideas of feminism and tackle the whole problem of sexism. Surely this is the way forward.
CHARLIE SARELL, Leicester.
SCIENCE WELL OF COURSE, THAT WAS ALL PRE-BoI SCIENCE YOUK