Should rape be legal?

I will argue why rape should be legal while my opponent will argue why it should remain illegal.

Male debate only. I wish to have a serious debate.

Rape: the offence of forcing a person, esp a woman, to submit to sexual intercourse against that person's will

Please note: I am not questioning other laws e.g. the age of consent. If you think legalization will affect any statistic then you are free to make that argument

I hope to have a friendly debate. Let it begin

Hello opponent, before I proceed with my argument, I shall convey my thanks to my opponent who has started this debate. I really hope that this debate will turn out to be interesting and fun. Now, let me get on with my argument.

Contention 1: Rape is the offence of forcing a person, especially a woman to submit to sexual intercourse against that person's will. like you said. Now let me emphasize something, if rape is an offence, and it forces a person to do something against his or her will, why should it be allowed? If you have an answer, please kindly explain your point here.

Contention 2: Raping can ruin a person's life. Like you said, raping 'requires' a person to be forced for it to be called rape. Making someone do something sexually even though they are reluctant to do so can cause serious mental trauma. Psychologists have proven that raping will cause severe psychological, emotional and perhaps even physical damage to a person. Some people might say that raping is for pleasure and is sometimes due to intolerable condition like stress, however, if raping was made legal, who would take responsibility for the damage done to the innocent victim? Therefore, rape should not be made legal.

Contention 3: Raping is not a good experience as it often involves physical attacks on a person. Physical attacks will invoke fear in a person. It must be noted that the horrible experience of getting raped will continue to flash in the victim's mind repeatedly. Which brings me to the next point, cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a function of the brain that rejects information through fear. Most people reject the truth due to cognitive dissonance. As mentioned before, raping, is not pleasant, thus, if the memory of getting raped repeatedly gets remembered by a person, that person would feel fear times again and again, rejecting information. This would lead them to lose valuable information and also cause them to have a higher chance of making the wrong choices in life such as self harming and foolish actions such as committing suicide. As it is a known fact that wrong choices are often made due to the lack of accurate information, raping would indirectly cause a person to make insensible choices. Thus, raping should not be made legal.

In conclusion, rape has a lot of negative aspects, and it should be noted that rape should remain legal.

Thank you for accepting this debate, I am very pleased to be having a serious debate with someone as knowledgeable as yourself and would like to give my reasons for each opinion raised. Before I begin I just want to clear things up, I am not a socio-path, I have a very good sense of moral responsibility and like yourself am against rape.

If you say it has been proven that forcing someone to do something against their wishes causes such mental trauma, then surely rape should be made legal. Rapists are sent to prison against their will and must stay imprisoned against their will for a minimum of 5 years [1]. When a child's idol commits rape it will be on the radio, on the T.V. in the papers - all because rape is illegal, this can have a negative impact on children. Many people imprisoned probably consumed alcohol which impairs judgement and they may not remember what they did due to being drunk. Men have also been falsely accused of rape by selfish women trying to rebuild their relationship with their mothers and other similar things. Rape affects everyone seriously, not just women.

Many people will argue that rapists should simply stay in prison for longer, or even be put to death. I believe they disrespect men or have a poor understanding of men due to there being no need for women to understand men in order to achieve their highest goal, and there being social pressure to agree with women. There is a misconception that men just want sex, however there is nothing to gain by raping women, if a man rapes a woman his confidence would fall much further and after learning nothing in prison he may re offend in 5 or more years as a result of his trauma.

I personally believe it is better to solve the problem than to ignore it. One way would be to make prostitution legal like it is in Germany. This has reduced rape cases. In 2009, about 7,314 rape cases were reported in Germany, a rate of 9 per 100,000 people, whereas in the U.K. during 2006 there were 85,000 women raped equating to about 230 cases every day. The 2006"07 British Crime Survey reports that 1 in every 200 women suffered from rape in that period [2].

Making prostitution legal reduces rape for obvious reasons, so what need is there to make rape legal as well? There are people who do things solely because they are illegal. Rape should not be encouraged in any way.

You assume that women are innocent victims, and rapists are not when 90% of women raped know the man who raped them [3]. Though 10% of rapists are strangers, women should still take responsibility e.g. by staying together especially if they wear provocative clothing, and having enough money to get home safely etc. Obvious stuff really. They should stop looking for someone to blame as disrespecting men will lead to increased cases of rape. If rape is legal, more women will bother to protect their selves against rape and there will be less cases of rape.

When people are told what is right i.e. love, they don't need to be told what is wrong, someone isn't going to stop and think 'I won't follow my feelings today because if I do I "might" be punished', they will just follow their feelings and worry about the consequences later. Rapists may kill their victim with an intention to cover up what they did in an attempt to avoid jail/punishment. Making theft illegal makes sense, but it doesn't make sense for rape to be illegal.

In conclusion, if rape is legalized then far less people would be affected by rape, which is a good thing.

sources:

[1] http://www.cps.gov.uk...
[2] wikipedia
[3] http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk...

Good afternoon once again, this debate is getting interesting. Keep up the good work opponent. Now let me begin with my argument.

Rebuttal 1: Your argument that rapist should not go to the prison due to mental truama is utterly ridiculous. If your statement was implemented, all criminals would not need to be jailed for their crimes. Thus, your comparison is not realistic. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction - all actions will bring either a reward or penalty. If you have done a bad deed, you should be punished, if you have done a good deed, you should be rewarded. Now, it must be noted that the case here is raping, which is a bad deed, thus, rapist who rapes should be punished for their misbehavior. When a child's idol commit a crime and is imprisoned, it would not be negative to a child, they would most probably learn from the bad example. Even if they would be sad, it would only last a few days at most.

Rebuttal 2: Your argument that people drink alcohol has a major flaw. If alcohol is known to impair the thinking of men, then why do men drink alcohol? Now, you might say that alcohol reduces stress. However, should men be punished due to them being drunk? Of course. We, men, have the choice of drinking alcohol or not, and that is why we are at fault if we commit misdeeds due to alcohol consumption. Besides, it is a known fact that alcohol is not good for the physical and mental state of mind.

Rebuttal 3: You are correct to say that man have been accused by selfish women for rape. However, there is only a small portion of women in the world that are like that. Besides, if a women purposely allow herself to get raped to accuse or frame a men for whatever reasons, she might as well be a prositute, thus, there are very few selfish women in the world.

Rebuttal 4: Rapist should stay in prison longer and sometimes sentenced to a death sentence. As mentioned before, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If rape can ruin a person's life, why shouldn't the punishment for rape be severe? Now think of it, if you have just ruined a person's life, do you think you deserve just five years of imprisonment?

Rebuttal 5: Your argument have an unexplained point, if rape has no benefit for men at all, why do men rape? You might say that it is due to their sexual desires, however, fulfilling one's sexual desire is a benefit for that person, thus, you argument is negated.

Rebuttal 6: Yes, legalizing prostitution might reduce rape, however, legalizing rape? Now that is a great misconception. Yes, it is true that some people do crimes solely because they are illegal, however, only a few people do so. Now, let us look at the negative effect of legalizing rape. If we legalize rape, people would satisfy their sexual freely as they could take advantage of the legalization. Now honestly, the world we live in now, a lot of people would rape if it was not illegal.

Rebuttal 7: Let me clarify a fact here. From what I state in the previous round, I did not state that all women are innocent. If you have read my argument carefully, you would have noticed, this proves that I did not assume that all women are innocent, in fact, you are the one who assumed that I assumed.

Rebuttal 8: I have a question for your argument. Does knowing the men who rape you make you not innocent? Besides, we cannot fully understand a person or their motives, thus, what you said is nonsensical.

Rebuttal 9: Yes, women might be at a bit of fault, however, men have a greater fault as he was the one who raped the women due to his sexual desires which is selfish.

Rebuttal 10: Look here, we are living in the Information Age now, why can't we just think of the consequences of our actions? Besides, it is our fault if we act without thinking, you can't say that a rapist is innocent because he didn't think of the consequences of his actions as the harm is already done. Besides, men are wise and smart enough to know that not everything in life can they acquire, for example, if you want to have good grades for a test, are you going to follow the evil side of your mind and cheat? Or are you just going to try your best?

Now, my points.

Contention 1: Raping might pass undesirable diseases to the victim. It is a fact that the Ebola virus is very deadly, as a matter of fact, they are transmitted from one person to another by body fluids, for example semen. Now, think about this, would a rapist wear a condom or care about the victim's well being by taking precautionary measures? That would be ridiculous. This is why deadly diseases might be passed on by raping. Other diseases include AIDS and HIV, both of which is extremely dangerous and fatal. This also support my statement that raping can ruin a person's life.

In conclusion, with deeper understanding, I am sure that one wold definitely agree with me that rape should not be allowed as rape has a whole lot of negative effects that can ruin not just the victim, but also her closed one's lives.

Hello again, you have raised some very interesting points. I now wish I gave us both more time to debate this more thoroughly.

1. I do believe many criminals need to be jailed for their crimes, but rapists should not be punished by law because they have nothing to learn in prison, take up space, and can only come out worse. Setting a punishment no matter how severe for rapists will have no effect in preventing rape. If the law was made responsibly and then rape was made legal, men would not be encouraged to rape women. Raping harms the confidence of both men and women. There is no benefit.

'Every action has an equal and opposite reaction' = Physics. But you are right in saying all actions bring a reward or penalty. Setting a punishment like a fine etc is a poor way to prevent re-offending, e.g. if someone makes a prank 999 call and someone dies as a result of a fire engine not arriving in time, and they are given a "50 fine, they will not think about the consequences of their actions. If you have done a bad deed or selfish act then you will be punished anyway. Rape is a bad deed, and rapists are punished by losing confidence, they do not need to commit this to know that. Adding a punishment to a bad deed is not always a good thing. It can cause people to change their behaviour to get away with what they are doing.

When a childs idol commits a crime it can have a long lasting negative impact, they will have to get rid of their football shirt with a name printed on, consider supporting another team because of being picked on etc. Children should be the priority when making laws, and I will come back to this later.

2. Alcohol is a social drug, it helps people to relax. Most men will pay for a taxi home but if they don't have money they may walking home drunk however this raises a man's chance of being robbed, so it is not beneficial for a man to be drunk.

3. The largest and most rigorous study to date commissioned by the British Home Office on UK rape crime, from the initial reporting of a rape through to legal prosecutions. The study was based on 2,643 sexual assault cases (Kelly, Lovett, and Regan, 2005). Of these, police departments classified 8% as false reports. The United States Department of Justice in 1997 stated 8% of rape accusations in the United States were regarded as unfounded or false. Studies in other countries report the figure to be anywhere from 1.5% (Denmark) to 10%(Canada). [1] And because Britain has a high number of rapes that amounts to a high number of false accusations in my opinion. Of course every woman will have their own reason for making such false accusations, and they don't need to allow their self to be raped to make accusations. The fact is there is not just a handful of men who suffer as a result of false accusations.

4. Various accidents can ruin someone's life, and the person who suffers will always want that person to suffer as much as possible and even die, but if the sufferer gets what he wants it would not be fair on the criminal or his family, and the sufferer would not gain much either.

5. Men who rape are insecure, and thus do not make the correct decisions. It is therefore important for women to respect men. Women who want rape illegal say this to express disapproval, but if rape was reduced significantly and made legal to further reduce rape women would feel a lot better and things can only improve.

6. I disagree with that.

7. I made this assumption because you have only said how bad it is for women.

8. If a woman gives their name to a man it means they trust him to some extent, men can't just take women's word, they have to read their feelings.

9. Men who rape make the choice on their feelings.

10. How are men to think of the consequences?

We should be making laws to prevent bad things from happening, not bringing low goals like comfort to people because this sustains the very things that hurt people. Not many people know how much harsher the sentence is for raping children. If it is illegal to rape women, more rapists will rape children as they are seen as easier to get away with and probably easier targets. If children have sexual diseases this will spread diseases much faster. Prison staff like many people, believe that prison should be hell because like you think bad deeds deserve extra punishment, and they allow sex rape) to occur in prison when it is not allowed, and the sex is often unprotected and regular - according to Tuesdays daily mail. If rapists were not imprisoned then there would be less sexually transmitted diseases.

sources

[1] wikipedia

It was nice debating with you pro. This debate is very interesting and I look forward to having another debate with you. But for now, let me continue with the current debate.

Rebuttal 1: Your statement here is disagreeable. First of all, ' A burnt child steer from the fire' . A punishment can serve as a reminder to remind rapist that the consequences of raping is severe and should they rape again, they would suffer a severe punishment. Secondly, if rape was made legal, do you think most people would stop raping? This is a misconception. In fact, this would cause people to rape without the fear of getting prosecuted. Like you said, rapist make their choices on their feelings, if rape was made legal, wouldn't they have no fear when they rape?

Rebuttal 2: Once again, your example is poorly used. If that prank 999 call kills people. The perpetrator would be prosecuted for manslaughter and thus, would not be given just a 50 dollar fine. Likewise, a rapist would not be fined but jailed. Now, you are correct that adding a punishment to a bad deed is not always a good thing, however, most of the time it is. Psychologist have proven that it is the basic behavior for human to not do something if they got punishment because of that.

Rebuttal 3: You have made assumptions again. The degree of negative impact on a child varies according to how much he or she idolise their idol. Now, supposing that their idol is someone bad, would they like the idol? As a matter of fact, who likes a evil man. Thus, what I am trying to convey here is that, the person a child idolise is mostly good and not corrupted.

Rebuttal 4: Incorrect, alcohol only help a person to relax for a short while. Alcohol addiction is almost the same as nicotine addiction.Although alcohol and nicotine helps a person to relax, it is only for a short period, and after that period is gone, the addicted would need more alcohol or nicotine to be relaxed, and when they can't get alcohol or nicotine, they will be more stressed. Yes, you are correct that it is not beneficial for a man to be drunk, thus, it can be seen that you agree with me on the fact that men is at fault for raping even though they are drunk as they made the choice to drink.

Rebuttal 5: I have read your source, however, is it necessary to make rape legal so that 10% of the innocent get their name cleared while 90% of the true rapist get away scot free? Therefore, this rebuttal of yours is invalid and does not prove your point that rape should be legal to be correct.

Rebuttal 6: Of course unreasonable punishments are not tolerated, however, if rape causes a person to suicide, it can be related to manslaughter, which has a very severe punishment. The point here is that 5 years of jail is just to less for rapists who ruins or indirectly kill people.

Rebuttal 7: I find your point there rather naive. Respect is only gained when one acts sensibly and maturely. How could you expect a women to respect a man who is not confident of himself and acts like a pervert? As stated before, men would only take advantage of the legalization and rape would be more common.

Rebuttal 8: Your disagreement of my point without evidence only shows that you cannot prove my point wrong, thus, all my points about the issue that man will take advantage of the legalization is true.

Rebuttal 9: However, the problem here is that only a few women are not innocent.

Rebuttal 10: Giving your name surely indicates some trust, however, that trust is only minimal as you can give your name to almost everyone. For example, when you work you can give your name card to anyone that look like 'potential business'. Besides, does giving your name to a stranger and trusting him a bit make you not innocent when you get raped?

Rebuttal 11: It is foolish for a man to not know the consequences of his actions. It is not true to say that rapist would rape children as they would not be interested in children whose sexual organs are not fully developed.

Rebuttal 12: This is the prison's fault. Not all prison allow sex rape, as a matter of fact, only a few prisons are corrupted, thus, rape should not be legalized for just a few people while a lot of rapists 'gets away with murder'!

In conclusion, rape should be strictly prohibited. I am confident that with a deeper analysis, the voters would surely agree with me that rape must not be legalized as the benefits of the illegalization of rape outweighs the harmful effects of the legalization of rape. I also hope that the voters would kindly give me advice so that I can improve on my debating skills, and once again I would like to thank my opponent for starting this debate.