Re: . Those who have decided that prostitution is a fine career that should be legalized, and who have decided that meaningless sex is possible, cannot at the same time consider rape to be all that bad
Huh?
Rape is an extreme act of violence, not of sex.
There is heck of alot of ignorance on this thread.
This is what the feminists have said since the 1960s or so, and it still doesn't make sense. Feminists say it because they don't want to face all the implications of sex. They're in denial about the existence of a male nature that is capable of sex and violence in the same package, and about the fact that women nevertheless like men. In fact, women are attracted to men who are powerful enough to commit violence if necessary—and to men who would desire them uncontrollably if not for a more powerful urge toward honor and kindness.
Rape is by definition sex. It's also an act of theft, of desecration. And in the most flagrant cases, it deserves hanging, in my opinion. Cross-culturally, death is a very common penalty for it.
But it's still sex. According to criminologists, rapists are the most psychologically normal members of any prison population. They're morally deficient, obviously, but typically, they're not especially angry at women, or even their victims. They typically commit rape as a crime of opportunity, like stealing a car—sometimes committing rape in the course of stealing a car. Violence is a means, for them, not the end. Most rape victims are young and relatively attractive. The horrifying thing is that rape is sexual—for the rapist.
Execute rapists, by all means. It will save souls and educate potential criminals about the dangers of overriding your moral sense. But we'll only bring confusion on ourselves by denying human nature.