Can/should murderers and rapists be reformed?

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Do you think a person who has killed or raped someone can turn around and become a decent human being or even a good person? Do people end up committing these acts because of mental illness, a toxic environment, or not receiving enough love from their family, or simply because they were born evil and made bad choices?

And if they can be reformed, should we take the chance?

BTW the dot choice would be none of them apply for you 'other'

Last edited by donnie_darko on 31 Oct 2012, 6:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Other - I don't think the can be changed, but I'm not about revenge.

Some definitely can, but not all. We should take the chance in all but the most extreme of cases, but IMO it should be a system where after your first chance at redemption, you're done for.

Why do people (on WP too) persist in putting murderers and rapists in the same category?

I definitely think murder is a lot worse but a lot of people disagree with me so I lumped the two together for the purpose of this thread.

Because they are very much related. Rape is murder of the person the woman/girl was before she was raped. She'll never be the same again. It doesn't get very much more traumatic than that.
I'd also group torture and witnessing the torture, rape or murder of loved ones in the same category.

Compare these two:

A person is raped.

A person is hit in the back of the head with a blunt object, and - as a result - is left permanently paralyzed from the neck and down, having to live in a wheelchair for the rest of his/her life eating through a straw.

Psychological trauma, being invisible, is frequently disregarded or trivialized by society. But it can cripple a person just as surely as physical trauma.

I can justify murder, but not rape; e.g. murdering a rapist is perfectly justified to me. However, given the noted inaccuracy of our justice system I have to say that at least the attempt to rehabilitate all convicts must be made, otherwise we're just setting ourselves up for more trouble down the line with millions of broken people in prison and nothing to do with them.

What kind of murder? A crime of passion or willful premeditated murder?

What kind of rape? A girl who doesn't say yes and doesn't say no, and the guy keeps going, or a guy who holds down a girl and forces himself in her?

Hey now! This issue is black and white, not 50 shades of gray!

My problem with the frequent murder/rape analogies is that this could put pressure on the justice system to hand down similar (or less different) sentences for murder and rape.

My guess is that this would:

1. decrease reporting of rape
2. decrease convictions
3. give rapists incentives to kill their victims

Impossible

Take for example the pharmacist who got into a gun fight with a robber, reloaded his gun and shot the robber in the head. He was convicted because he went, reloaded his gun, and came back and shot the robber. He was probably so high on adrenaline from being in a gun fight he lost control.

Someone like that isn't a lost cause (I have issues with him being convicted, I think the perp got what he deserved.)

Compare that to someone who carefully plots to kill someone.

Read Mindhunter and Stanton Samenow's Inside the Criminal Mind and then vote in the poll!

I LOL'd so much, coffee came out my nose!