The horrific gang rape of a 23 year old para medical student in the national capital on 16th of December 2012 indeed shook the nation. I always used to wonder why revolutions and renaissance were concept of foreign land and not of our own land. Why movements like Arab Spring and Wall Street Occupy took birth in foreign milieu's conscience and not ours'? Why we Indians are so parochial in our views and appeased with our current state of affairs that we don't even reflect what's wrong with the other side of the society. But last year in the chilly cold weather of December , I was proved wrong. Indians proved that revolutions can again emerge on our land also. The mass protests involving thousands of people from all stratas of society standing for a girl whose life was mashed and crushed by some ill minded people made me think that yes, my India is no less active and revolutionary when compared with other nations. The uprising involving slogans for justice, reformations of rape laws and punishments such as castration and death penalty filled the air. Aggressive and infuriated , I also attended and organized protests and raised slogans for capital punishment ,seeing "it" as the only means for deterring crimes against women.
But after two months still waiting for the announcement of the verdict and hearing government's rejection of death penalty as punishment for the convicts , it made me wonder why government rejected capital punishment when the act was so brutal and harrowing in nature. My mind was constant and stringent on the notion that capital punishment was the only way by which justice to the victim could be meted out and also miscarriage of justice could be avoided . But after reading and hearing so many debates in print and electronic media respectively , I decided to dig deeper into the matter to know why people and many developed nations revoked capital punishment. So let's investigate the matter at a close range.
I don't think there is a need to define capital punishment but for the sake of young readers and a supporter of free knowledge movement and Aaron Swartz , I must define capital punishment. Death penalty is a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for crime. Currently 58 nations actively practice it, 97 countries have abolished it and remainder 10 have not used for 10 years or allow in exceptional circumstances such as wartime. CESARE BECCARIA an Italian author wrote a book on crimes and punishments , published in 1764 and aimed to demonstrate the futility from the point of view of social welfare , of torture and the death penalty. Amnesty International - an international Human Rights Organization considers it to be "the ultimate denial of Human Rights". I remember during our protests , we were infuriated most with the juvenile offender who was the most brutal and ruthless with the victim. He committed a crime which was highly boorish and could be the act of only an adult perpetrator. We wanted him to be hanged first among all other convicts. But sometimes our anger blankets our conscience our reason . The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child forbids capital punishment for juveniles under article 37 (a). There are many arguments around the world which support capital punishment for crimes such as homicide, child murder , torture murder and mass killing such as terrorism , massacre or genocide and also state that absence of capital punishment for the above crimes would be patently unjust. This argument has been further defended by New York law professor Robert Blecker- who says punishment must be painful in proportion to the crime.
But other school of thought states that capital punishment leads to wrongful execution of innocent persons and also this form of punishment is irrevocable in nature because it does not provide the convict a chance to correct himself/herself. The above reason has resulted in many nations revoking capital punishment and moving towards other rigorous forms of punishment. My research also made me aware that there is no direct link between capital punishment and decline in rape rate. China which furiously practices the act of capital punishment hangs around 4000 convicts per year, an unofficial data. The minimum punishment for rape is 10 years and maximum punishment is death penalty for serious circumstances which include raping women or minors, raping women below the age of 14 years or in public, raping in rotation by more than 2 offenders or causing serious injury / death to the victim .But U.S. department of state reported 31,833 rapes in China in 2007 though the Chinese government has not released official statistics for the year the year. In 2005 there were 15000 rapes in China - an official data released by the Chinese government. Point to be noted here is that these are just the reported cases and also keeping in mind the extreme conservative mindset of Chinese and the taboo attached with it the numbers are tend to be higher. So rising rape rate and rising cases of capital punishment are not contradictory but complimentary to each other.
Lets take the case of Saudi Arabia . The punishment for rape is death penalty. No life imprisonment , no fine nothing. This means that people must be having great fear from law of their land. But the case is not so. Rape is reportedly low at 59 reported cases per year. The low number of reported rapes is due to the harsh sentence meted out by the state to RAPE VICTIMS, who are considered by SAUDI ARABIA'S interpretation of Shariah theocratic doctrine, as partially responsible for the conditions leading up to their own rape!! In addition , marital rape - an act largely unclassified as a crime in much of the world's countries - is an issue in Saudi Arabia, with 93% of polled women reporting such problems in a 2007 survey. For these reasons, rape may be reported at levels significantly less than they actually occur in Saudi Arabia. This is the actual truth behind our notion of rape free Saudi Arabia.
Now taking the case of IRAN. Similar to Saudi Arabia , the rape convicts are given death penalty as a form of punishment. A WHO study in Babol found that within the previous year 15% of wives had been physically abused, 42.4% had been sexually abused. Sexual abuse includes unwanted sexual activity within a marital relationship, including rape ,forced pregnancy , forced abortions etc. Within four walls of their homes, these Iranian women suffer greater forms of sexual harassment and domestic violence. Similar is the situation in Afghanistan but with a slight difference. Along with hanging firing squad is also practiced i.e, firing bullet at the back of the head of the convict. Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission counted 2765 cases including 130 cases of rape against women in 2010. All over the world , the legacy of under reporting of crimes against women is widely practiced due to social stigma and lack of control measures from various administrative bodies of various nations to curb such crimes.
This was the case of nations practicing capital punishment for rape convicts.
European Union member states , article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment. Sweden the third largest country in EU reported just 46 cases of rape per 100000 people. The rule of paradox always works and the above example thus nails the truth that there is no proportional relation between capital punishment and decline in rape rates. Some nation states of USA still practice high rates of capital punishment but when we threw light on United States , we found that it has the world's highest rate of rape of all countries that publish rape statistics. Rapes in USA are 4 times higher than Germany , 13 times higher than England and 20 times higher than Japan. Out of every three women one has been raped or has faced some or the other kind of sexual harassment.
In Pakistan the punishment varies from 10-25 years of imprisonment indeed a harsh punishment. A 2011 report by "WAR AGAINST RAPE" an NGO stated sexual violence against children at 71% of total cases investigated by WAR. The age of youngest rape survivor was 3 years , Awaz Foundation Centre for development reported total of 2713 cases of violence against women in 15 districts of Southern Punjab since january 2012. The case of Pakistan also revealed that corruption , social stigma and other factors such as reputation of the family caused few conviction cases and trials.
All these comparisons reveal that crimes against women do not depend on the "severity" of the punishment but on the " frequency" of the punishment. Cases in Europe are solved much faster resulting in thus fast mitigation of punishments. An empirical research shows , for effective deterrence , the certainty of punishment matters more than its magnitude. To achieve certainty of punishment , it is crucial that most crimes get reported, investigated and adjudicated without delay . Clearly the problem of under reporting by victims is serious problem especially for rape crimes and those involving minors. To make things worse , even for many victim - reported crimes , a police complaint is not registered. On top of it , the judicial process is protracted and the conviction rate is abysmally low at 26%. Moreover , it is imperative to change the victim- blaming attitude of society and its institutions :police, judiciary and the most importantly the institution called family. The taboo the social stigma that has been associated with the crime and leads to further victimization of the women has to be debunked.
As far as the magnitude of punishment is concerned , we should remember that for rape crimes, the victim's statement is crucial for identifying culprits. Death penalty would raise the risk of rapists killing the victims to exterminate the evidences. Besides, wrongful convictions can also occur. Long term imprisonment for rape , as proposed by the committee , is clearly superior to death penalty . The punishment for rape according to the committee should be rigorous imprisonment for 7 years to life. It recommends that punishment for causing death or a " persistent vegetative state" should be for a term not less than 20 years but may be for life also. Gang rape should entail punishment of not less than 20 years , which may also extend to life and gang - rape followed by death , should be punished with life imprisonment.
Unlike death penalty incarceration does offer a chance to the criminal to reform himself and to the system to rectify adjudication errors. Moreover , it can provide effective deterrence against serious crimes, providing its duration increases with the intensity of the crime. The Verma Committee has argued that introducing the death penalty for rape could lower the conviction rate rather than enhancing it or acting as a deterrent. It has recommended instead that the punishment should be from a minimum of 10 years to life, with" life imprisonment" redefined to mean the end of the natural life of the convict. It has also pointed out that across the world , the majority of countries have revoked capital punishment. Thus the change of mindset is the basic requirement to overthrow the root cause of this problem that is the patriarchal mindset.
An American judge , Justice Stewart's quote would sum up my research -" The penalty of death differs from all other forms of criminal punishment, not degree , but in kind . It is unique in its total irrevocability. It is unique in its rejection of rehabilitation of the convict as a basic purpose of criminal justice. And it is unique , finally. in its absolute renunciation of all that is embodied in our concept of humanity".
But after two months still waiting for the announcement of the verdict and hearing government's rejection of death penalty as punishment for the convicts , it made me wonder why government rejected capital punishment when the act was so brutal and harrowing in nature. My mind was constant and stringent on the notion that capital punishment was the only way by which justice to the victim could be meted out and also miscarriage of justice could be avoided . But after reading and hearing so many debates in print and electronic media respectively , I decided to dig deeper into the matter to know why people and many developed nations revoked capital punishment. So let's investigate the matter at a close range.
I don't think there is a need to define capital punishment but for the sake of young readers and a supporter of free knowledge movement and Aaron Swartz , I must define capital punishment. Death penalty is a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for crime. Currently 58 nations actively practice it, 97 countries have abolished it and remainder 10 have not used for 10 years or allow in exceptional circumstances such as wartime. CESARE BECCARIA an Italian author wrote a book on crimes and punishments , published in 1764 and aimed to demonstrate the futility from the point of view of social welfare , of torture and the death penalty. Amnesty International - an international Human Rights Organization considers it to be "the ultimate denial of Human Rights". I remember during our protests , we were infuriated most with the juvenile offender who was the most brutal and ruthless with the victim. He committed a crime which was highly boorish and could be the act of only an adult perpetrator. We wanted him to be hanged first among all other convicts. But sometimes our anger blankets our conscience our reason . The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child forbids capital punishment for juveniles under article 37 (a). There are many arguments around the world which support capital punishment for crimes such as homicide, child murder , torture murder and mass killing such as terrorism , massacre or genocide and also state that absence of capital punishment for the above crimes would be patently unjust. This argument has been further defended by New York law professor Robert Blecker- who says punishment must be painful in proportion to the crime.
But other school of thought states that capital punishment leads to wrongful execution of innocent persons and also this form of punishment is irrevocable in nature because it does not provide the convict a chance to correct himself/herself. The above reason has resulted in many nations revoking capital punishment and moving towards other rigorous forms of punishment. My research also made me aware that there is no direct link between capital punishment and decline in rape rate. China which furiously practices the act of capital punishment hangs around 4000 convicts per year, an unofficial data. The minimum punishment for rape is 10 years and maximum punishment is death penalty for serious circumstances which include raping women or minors, raping women below the age of 14 years or in public, raping in rotation by more than 2 offenders or causing serious injury / death to the victim .But U.S. department of state reported 31,833 rapes in China in 2007 though the Chinese government has not released official statistics for the year the year. In 2005 there were 15000 rapes in China - an official data released by the Chinese government. Point to be noted here is that these are just the reported cases and also keeping in mind the extreme conservative mindset of Chinese and the taboo attached with it the numbers are tend to be higher. So rising rape rate and rising cases of capital punishment are not contradictory but complimentary to each other.
Lets take the case of Saudi Arabia . The punishment for rape is death penalty. No life imprisonment , no fine nothing. This means that people must be having great fear from law of their land. But the case is not so. Rape is reportedly low at 59 reported cases per year. The low number of reported rapes is due to the harsh sentence meted out by the state to RAPE VICTIMS, who are considered by SAUDI ARABIA'S interpretation of Shariah theocratic doctrine, as partially responsible for the conditions leading up to their own rape!! In addition , marital rape - an act largely unclassified as a crime in much of the world's countries - is an issue in Saudi Arabia, with 93% of polled women reporting such problems in a 2007 survey. For these reasons, rape may be reported at levels significantly less than they actually occur in Saudi Arabia. This is the actual truth behind our notion of rape free Saudi Arabia.
Now taking the case of IRAN. Similar to Saudi Arabia , the rape convicts are given death penalty as a form of punishment. A WHO study in Babol found that within the previous year 15% of wives had been physically abused, 42.4% had been sexually abused. Sexual abuse includes unwanted sexual activity within a marital relationship, including rape ,forced pregnancy , forced abortions etc. Within four walls of their homes, these Iranian women suffer greater forms of sexual harassment and domestic violence. Similar is the situation in Afghanistan but with a slight difference. Along with hanging firing squad is also practiced i.e, firing bullet at the back of the head of the convict. Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission counted 2765 cases including 130 cases of rape against women in 2010. All over the world , the legacy of under reporting of crimes against women is widely practiced due to social stigma and lack of control measures from various administrative bodies of various nations to curb such crimes.
This was the case of nations practicing capital punishment for rape convicts.
European Union member states , article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits the use of capital punishment. Sweden the third largest country in EU reported just 46 cases of rape per 100000 people. The rule of paradox always works and the above example thus nails the truth that there is no proportional relation between capital punishment and decline in rape rates. Some nation states of USA still practice high rates of capital punishment but when we threw light on United States , we found that it has the world's highest rate of rape of all countries that publish rape statistics. Rapes in USA are 4 times higher than Germany , 13 times higher than England and 20 times higher than Japan. Out of every three women one has been raped or has faced some or the other kind of sexual harassment.
In Pakistan the punishment varies from 10-25 years of imprisonment indeed a harsh punishment. A 2011 report by "WAR AGAINST RAPE" an NGO stated sexual violence against children at 71% of total cases investigated by WAR. The age of youngest rape survivor was 3 years , Awaz Foundation Centre for development reported total of 2713 cases of violence against women in 15 districts of Southern Punjab since january 2012. The case of Pakistan also revealed that corruption , social stigma and other factors such as reputation of the family caused few conviction cases and trials.
All these comparisons reveal that crimes against women do not depend on the "severity" of the punishment but on the " frequency" of the punishment. Cases in Europe are solved much faster resulting in thus fast mitigation of punishments. An empirical research shows , for effective deterrence , the certainty of punishment matters more than its magnitude. To achieve certainty of punishment , it is crucial that most crimes get reported, investigated and adjudicated without delay . Clearly the problem of under reporting by victims is serious problem especially for rape crimes and those involving minors. To make things worse , even for many victim - reported crimes , a police complaint is not registered. On top of it , the judicial process is protracted and the conviction rate is abysmally low at 26%. Moreover , it is imperative to change the victim- blaming attitude of society and its institutions :police, judiciary and the most importantly the institution called family. The taboo the social stigma that has been associated with the crime and leads to further victimization of the women has to be debunked.
As far as the magnitude of punishment is concerned , we should remember that for rape crimes, the victim's statement is crucial for identifying culprits. Death penalty would raise the risk of rapists killing the victims to exterminate the evidences. Besides, wrongful convictions can also occur. Long term imprisonment for rape , as proposed by the committee , is clearly superior to death penalty . The punishment for rape according to the committee should be rigorous imprisonment for 7 years to life. It recommends that punishment for causing death or a " persistent vegetative state" should be for a term not less than 20 years but may be for life also. Gang rape should entail punishment of not less than 20 years , which may also extend to life and gang - rape followed by death , should be punished with life imprisonment.
Unlike death penalty incarceration does offer a chance to the criminal to reform himself and to the system to rectify adjudication errors. Moreover , it can provide effective deterrence against serious crimes, providing its duration increases with the intensity of the crime. The Verma Committee has argued that introducing the death penalty for rape could lower the conviction rate rather than enhancing it or acting as a deterrent. It has recommended instead that the punishment should be from a minimum of 10 years to life, with" life imprisonment" redefined to mean the end of the natural life of the convict. It has also pointed out that across the world , the majority of countries have revoked capital punishment. Thus the change of mindset is the basic requirement to overthrow the root cause of this problem that is the patriarchal mindset.
An American judge , Justice Stewart's quote would sum up my research -" The penalty of death differs from all other forms of criminal punishment, not degree , but in kind . It is unique in its total irrevocability. It is unique in its rejection of rehabilitation of the convict as a basic purpose of criminal justice. And it is unique , finally. in its absolute renunciation of all that is embodied in our concept of humanity".
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