The vast majority of crimes are susceptible to explanation or understanding, and punishment is very often unjustified, morally or practically. Leniency and pity are called for, and we must support every conceivable protection for the accused. It would be outrageous, for instance, if a released murderer were refused access to the airwaves or permission to publish a book on the grounds that he was a murderer.
However, there is one crime that is of special heinousness, deserving only the most condign punishment. It is a crime that must, for moral reasons, be treated with exemplary severity and unparalleled harshness.
That crime is rape.
The sentences given to rapists are ludicrously inadequate, and a different standard of proof is necessary to secure conviction of the accused. The presumption of innocence ought in this case to be abandoned or at least diluted; and because in this crime there can be no smoke without fire, it is distressing that so many cases end in acquittal. After all, rape is a more serious offence than murder, and people accused of rape are almost always guilty even if found innocent.
In the case of rape, it is safest always to adhere to the jurisprudential principle guilty because charged.
