The rape victim not killing their rapist

Alright, thanks demarquis, Logo P, and nekomoon 14! It brought up many good points to me and helped me understand different responses to a traumatic event that I couldn't comprehend with my limited experience.

Another question related, how often do rape victims get prosecuted and jailed for killing their rapist? and, are rape victims the only ones allowed to write about rape in published works?

The answer is a massive "it depends".

Self-defense law is complicated, and according to my research one misstep can lead to disaster. Plenty of victims of violent crime are in jail right now because they went over the line in trying to defend themselves, I suspect rape victims are no different. Despite what movies, television and the gun-owning Right would have us all believe the State takes a dim view of citizens harming each other no matter what the provocation. So in the end I'd say the answer is "commonly, though we wish it wasn't so."

If someone is killed, the police will investigate.

If they determine that Person A did the killing, they will arrest Person A.

Whether Person A gets jailed for it will depend on whether or not it's established that (s)he had reasonable grounds for doing so.

Whether or not the victim raped Person A.

It will depend on all of the circumstances surrounding the ultimate act of violence - the killing.

If Person A is raped by Person B then Person B legs it and is subsequently stalked and hunted down by Person A who then runs Person B over repeatedly with a car or blows Person B's head off with both barrels of a shotgun, then Person A had best hope like Hell the cops never work out who did it as that's Premeditated Murder, pure and simple.

Forget "Self Defense" (and entering such a plea would be taken as an admission of guilt in the crime) as Person A was not in danger at the time the killing was performed and actively hunted down Person B with the intent to kill.

If Person A is minding their own business and is suddenly attacked by Person B who proceeds to rape Person A and Person A has good reason to believe that this is going to wind up Rape-and-Murder and does something with the intention of stopping the attack and preventing their own demise that results in Person B's death, then a "Self Defense" plea may work, depending on whether or not the jury decides that there were reasonable grounds to suppose that Person B was going to kill Person A.

If Person B attacks Person A and proceeds to rape him/her and Person A decides to whip out a gun and kill Person B to avoid being raped, there's a strong chance that a jury would decide that there was no reason for Person A to believe that their life was at risk and therefore Lethal Force was not warranted - you're supposed to use "Reasonable Force" to protect yourself and killing someone to prevent a beating or a rape or any other non-lethal outcome is not "reasonable" in the eyes of the law.

In some cases, where lethal force is warranted, the intent must be to stop, not kill - an intent to kill would still be murder.

In some cases, it may be established that the attack could have been reasonably stopped by means that would not result in death and choosing a means that did result in death may be deemed "unreasonable".

Remember this always, as it's true even in the USA where they have more relaxed rules about personal defense: "Self Defense" is "I admit to doing something that would normally be a crime (whether murder or assault) but I am claiming that there were mitigating circumstances."

If such circumstances cannot be proven, then you're stuck with "I admit to doing something that is a crime."

edited 31st Dec '14 10:36:37 PM by Wolf1066

Are rape victims the only ones allowed to write about rape in published works?

Not by a long shot. It's actually veering on a cheap plot device in the wrong hands because Rape Is The New Dead Parents is a trope for a reason.

You don't have to be raped to get a sense of the de-powering/pain/humiliation that a lot of rape victims undergo.

And that's why I made it a personal rule to never include rape in my stories.

You can also take the outside shot at jury nullification at trial, but this is a ploy that's unlikely to work; first, because if the judge suspects jury nullification has occurred then the verdict can be set aside (almost unknown, but does happen) and second because jury nullification is itself relatively rare in high-profile cases by their nature.

A prosecutor may plead a nasty-looking case down to something lesser and spare the fight, but they're unlikely to simply look at something and declare it "too hard to win".

edited 1st Jan '15 10:07:31 AM by Night

Or the prosecutor could go all out to establish that Person A escalated the situation in some way and had they not done that, would not have wound up in situation where extreme measures were necessary.

Many people have said "It ain't fair, I was defending myself but I got prosecuted" but the reality of the situation is that the jury considered the evidence of the case and determined they weren't "defending themselves", they were actively fighting - they could have got out of the situation ages before in relative safety but instead they stuck around while the situation escalated into a fight or they successfully stopped the attack earlier and could have left it at that but elected to stick around and lay the boot in.

A friend of mine did time for hunting down and beating up someone who had sexually interfered with a child; the police and pretty much everyone else could see why he did it and could relate to the sentiment - but that didn't prevent him being convicted of, and sentenced for, common assault.

edited 1st Jan '15 1:32:35 PM by Wolf1066

@Aespai: Don Lemon got into trouble recently for asking a rape victim why, if she was really being forced to give head against her will, she didn't just bite her assailant's junk off.

edited 1st Jan '15 9:39:00 PM by Wheezy

Also keep in mind most times rapists are someone the victim already knows.

Getting revenge wouldn't be just "haha killing the random monster who attacked me in a dark alley way!"

It would be more like "this is my cousin's best friend I can't do that...my family would hate me and disown me...I'd come across as an evil psychobitch..."

Rapists have this annoying tendency of not emanating an evil aura 24/7, thus it would be harder for a person to justify to themselves that killing them is the right action.

There IS a reason most people don't go on random vigilante sprees to solve injustice.