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posted by janrinok on Sunday April 22 2018, @05:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the make-the-punishment-fit-the-crime dept.

After a number of high-profile crimes that sparked outrage and protests, India will allow the death penalty for those convicted of raping girls under the age of 12:

The executive order was cleared at a special cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It allows capital punishment for anyone convicted of raping children under the age of 12. Minimum prison sentences for rape against girls under the age of 16 and women have also been raised.

According to Reuters, which has seen a copy of the order, there was no mention of boys or men.

Two recent rape cases have shocked the nation. Protests erupted earlier this month after police released horrific details of the rape of an eight-year-old Muslim girl by Hindu men in Kathua, in Indian-administered Kashmir in January. Anger has also been mounting after a member of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was accused last week over the rape of a 16-year-old girl in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

India's poor record of dealing with sexual violence came to the fore after the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus. This led to huge protests and changes to the country's rape laws. But sexual attacks against women and children have since continued to be reported across the country.

Some activists have criticized the application of the death penalty, saying it will deter reporting, especially given that almost all perpetrators are family members or acquaintances.

Also at Reuters and Bloomberg. Editorial at The Indian Express.

Related: Indian Government Attempts to Suppress Rape Documentary


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Sunday April 22 2018, @02:35PM (1 child)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Sunday April 22 2018, @02:35PM (#670354) Journal

    Don't be thinking Christians or any other group were always better on that one. In medieval Christian Europe, young women could not go about alone, always had to have a protective father or brother to escort them. Any young woman who did wander about alone was asking to be raped, unless she was of very high rank. Any man in the nobility might grab her, drag her behind the nearest handy curtain, and have his way with her, and no one would lift a finger or say a word against him. If anything, it would be her fault. If of the lesser nobility herself, her family would be angered and might try to get revenge, challenge the perp to a duel, but as for dragging him before the King or the courts and getting justice, forget it.

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  • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Monday April 23 2018, @12:41PM

    by deimtee (3272) on Monday April 23 2018, @12:41PM (#670707) Journal

    I wasn't wandering around raping unattended females 1000 years ago and neither were you. In fact I sincerely doubt that any medieval rapists at all are still alive, so let's just move on shall we.
    What people did that long ago is not justification for similar behaviour now.

    --
    If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.