AceOfSpades wrote:
It's just semantics, but it shows the severity of the crime and emphasizes that it isn't just an act of violence but a persistent act of restricting freedom in every aspect of the victim's life. Anyways now that I think of it, it's a stupid idea since rape doesn't even get you 25 to life. I would like to see increased sentencing for domestic violence but it makes light of rape with that sort of sentence.
I disagree with you about nomenclature--I don't think changing the name emphasized the severity, I think it simply dilutes the word. In a world in which, "wage slave," is an acceptable description of employment standards, we can already see the word becoming normalized. The severity is emphasized through the penalties, and through the social stigma that follows. It doesn't matter whether we call it, "slavery," "domestic violence," or, "wife beating," the point is that we should not tolerate the behaviour in our communities and young men should be made to see the consequences of such action.
On the issue of sentencing, I am torn. While I believe that crimes like sexual assault--even sexual assault that falls short of rape--and domestic violence should be dealt with severely, I do not think that the length of sentence is a particularly effective method. Criminal law has more purposes than simply punishment and deterrence, and while long sentences give us a sense of wish fulfillment, I am not persuaded that they are are effective at protecting the community and in particularly in preventing future crime.
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--James
13 Aug 2012, 4:29 pm
