Setting penalties: What does rape deserve? [Book Review]

Law and Philosophy 3 (1):61 - 110 (1984)
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Abstract

The paper is an application of the principle of just deserts (that is, retribution) to the setting of statutory penalties. The conclusion is that there should be no separate penalty for rape but that rape should be punished under the ordinary battery statutes. The argument has four parts. First, there is a description of the place of rape in a typical statutory scheme. Second, there is a consideration of possible justifications for giving rape the status it has in such a typical scheme. All justifications appear to fail for one reason or another. Third, rape is analyzed as battery and the analysis is justified. This analysis includes an explanation of why it would be unjust to punish rape more severely than ordinary batteries. Last, there is a catalogue of some practical advantages to treating rape as battery (for example, simplifying proof of the crime). The paper takes the principle of just deserts (in the form I have elsewhere defended it) for granted, but does add substantially to the understanding of how to apply it.

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Michael Davis
Illinois Institute of Technology

Citations of this work

The wrong of rape.David Archard - 2007 - Philosophical Quarterly 57 (228):374–393.
Rape and Persuasive Definition.Keith Burgess-Jackson - 1995 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 25 (3):415 - 454.
Rethinking the presumption of atheism.Keith Burgess-Jackson - 2018 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 84 (1):93-111.
Can a Woman Rape a Man and Why Does It Matter?Natasha McKeever - 2019 - Criminal Law and Philosophy 13 (4):599-619.

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