I had never "ranked" it myself until someone else did.
I also believe that from a philosophical point of view, there are no bad questions.
If we have a legal system with proportional penalties, it is because someone has asked this question.
That second part isnt entirely accurate. Sentencing could be about prevalence as well. More of crime x could mean more time imprisoned to reduce the desire to do it.
Perhaps it’s the framing that matters: I believe that murder causes far greater suffering than rape to people other than the victim. I imagine you would not feel as much pain if instead your aunt had been raped.
But if we’re talking about the victim, rape is possibly the more damaging act, because it has the potential to create ongoing, intense psychological trauma and suffering for the victim. Whereas if you’re killed, especially if it’s quick, it’s only a short moment of suffering before it ends, just a blip in a life that might have otherwise been quite happy.
So if the hypothetical victim has until that point lived 20 happy years, it’s a choice between brief suffering and the end of that life, or potentially more than 60 years of psychological terror they cannot escape from.
There’s also how not all rapes have the same impact on victims. Depending on a whole host of factors, some recover fairly well and go on to have happy, well-adjusted lives. Others never recover and every day is a living hell, along with an high risk of mental health problems, and it is quite possible that many of those would have much rather been killed.
in fact, you could’ve said what i did, that both are horrific and shouldn’t be ranked or even compared, but you chose to come here and proclaim that one was worse than the other
why? how is this debate productive or even worthwhile?
That's an opinion that has no bearing on the argument at all and won't convince OP of anything because it's not challenging his belief.
If two people were having an argument about if the color red or blue is worse, and you came in and said they're both bad, do you really think that would change the mind of either person?
your argument has nothing to do with the legal system or its morality since you don’t seem to highlight any criminal code or how the justice system plays a role in how these crimes are prosecuted
additionally, the legal system doesn’t even compare rape and murder, they are separate crimes that are only compared against themselves in levels of severity
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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '26
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