Why Hackers Get More Jail Time Than Rapists

The veil of Maya lifted; view of reality gifted…

I haven’t tried it, but I’m pretty showing up at a Barak [bomber] Obama rally with:

Libyan bombing campaign = WAR CRIME

Would get me arrested.

Fascism, it’s not just for Republicans anymore.

Yes Sonofdunnco, sadly, the “Democratic” audience is cheering the out of time lip sync.

“Obama administration’s policy toward Libya and Syria eyes the same familiar endgame as what the Bush administration sought in its foreign policy adventures. The fact that many of those on the left who campaigned against Iraq and Afghanistan are now generally silent, or even supportive of Obama’s agenda”

http://www.correntewire.com/usint_l_cronies_hypocrisyevil_behind_destruction_of_syria

Oaktown Girl, I don’t agree with your opening point, Obama is an extreme right wing politicians, his supporters are also extreme right wing…they just don’t have the cajones to admit to themselves that they are smug, self-righteous goose stepping fascists.

With as many humans as Obama murdered carrying out Bush’s policies in paying racist Al Qaeda gangs to overthrow the Libyan government and Mujaheddin to overthrow the Syrian government…Showing up at an Obama rally with a gun is like showing up at a KKK rally with a white sheet and saying “hey guys…am I overdressed for this thing?” .

@ Oaktown Girl
@S Brennan – Why are you insisting on twisting my comment…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah, he seems to do that; you go girl…

While USA’s ruling elite play in the middle eastern sandbox, murdering their way to regime change, Asians are playing the adult game of world empire. I know some on this board will cheer the rise of China so let me get up on my pedantic soapbox and outline the details of what that really entails:

World empires rise and fall. A world empire falls when it’s ruling elite decide to look at things in the short run. When they adopt this view, they can clearly see that treasure spent on maintaining the empire, both industrial, infrastructure and military would be better spent on lucre themselves…than invested in infrastructure for those that come after them.

World empires must be destroyed by their own ruling elite…otherwise they were never really world empires. And were it just that, fading into the night, it would be sad, but not tragic. However, since the end of the Bronze Age, each empire that has ended, has done so in the spastic cataclysm of war…with it’s ever ready handmaidens, famine and disease.

The opponent, the seceding empire, may not secede in it’s fight for world preeminence, that is not always the eventuality, the importance lies in the destruction of communication, commerce and civil order. Once these affairs darkened Asia and the Mediterranean in differing times…and progress, though reversed locally, was not extinguished…but the twentieth century has changed the scale of wars of empire. When our leaders have had their fill at the public trough and brought about war of empires to our shores, the price could be quite a bit higher than “just” a few centuries of famine and disease.

When you think of war with China, do you think of our superior force? Well, if you do, did you know that in 1939 at the start of WWII, the US was ranked 17th, behind Romania, in military power? So why did the USA win so conclusively and in such a short time? The answer is simple, we had as much industrial capacity as the rest of the world combined. Please read this sentence from the linked article.

“Much of the US manufacturing base is in the Pearl River Delta or the lower Yangtse.”

History says, we either turn this ship around, or we sail into oblivion.

I am sure our ruling elite thinks to make away with their lucre…that is, if they think at all…but has anybody heard of a modern day Caesar living well, or for that matter, has anybody heard of any of the great families of the Roman empire living well today? When you stop and think about it, with the world in rubble, what percentage of America’s high born would even survive the diease and famine that accompany a fallen empire…let alone prosper in great wealth?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/9950791/The-dangerous-drift-towards-world-war-in-Asia.html

Ian, you nailed it in this brief, ever so pithy post. You have a talent for that.

I’ve been thinking about this over and over since reading this yesterday. Yes, rapists and the very threat of rape are of primary importance in keeping females in line. Makes them so much more easily controllable..

I was trying to think what our society would be like, what our schools would be like, what chldlhood and young adulthood would be like, if there were not this widely accepted idea that a female is easily raped. And must be very, very “careful.”

Why, women would be much more free to choose where to go, what to do, with whom to do things.

And, indeed, Swarz’s attempts to make information more freely available is completely threatening. As is Wikileaks. Obama gets that perhaps more than Bush/Cheney did. Comparing Obama’s attacks on whistleblowers of government and corporate secrets and wrongdoing is not exactly day and night, but Bush/Cheney did not prosecute people that Obama goes after with regularity.

Recently, women and some men have been saying society has an obligation to teach boys and men that rape is not acceptable. Realizing how rape is being used to enforce social norms might assist people in coming to terms with teaching males they simply cannot rape. Period.

Instead, there’s some kind of undercurrent that men can rape…if they can get away with it. And they can blame the female if they do get caught.

I don’t know whether Obama has any realization that threat of rape is useful in controlling his own daughters, but he did make that tasteless joke about some boy band guys better realize that he, Obama, controls drones and they better treat his daughters with deference.

Mind blowing.

Fear is such a marvelous control mechanism.

Hackers don’t get more jail time than rapists. Average sentence on a conviction of rape is over ten years and average period of time actually incarcerated is about half that, say five years. Probably half of all convicted hackers get no jail time at all, and of those who do go to jail the average sentence is less than six months.

Neither rapists nor hackers represent a meaningful threat to “important people”.

I only spent a moment to do a cursory internet search, but the following links, although they have dated information, are consistent with my experience:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_and_punishment#Punishment

http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/cyberspace/security/focus3.shtml

My experience may be a bit dated too, but I doubt average sentences for rape have changed much. Perhaps average jail time for hackers has increased, but it’s doubtful that it’s more than for rapists.

I rooted around a bit in the 2010 federal sentencing guidelines. Out of a maximum possible base offense level of 43, sexual assault rates a 30 and aggravated sexual assault rates a 38. By comparison, offenses involving fraud or deceit, if the statute under which the defendant was convicted allows a sentence of 20 years or more, have a base level of 7. If the maximum sentence under the statute is less than 20 years the base offense level is 6.

@ paulbkk

Thanks, interesting. You in BKK per chance?

@ Celsius 233

yes, I live in Bangkok

@ Ian Welsh

graciously conceded, sir.

You are correct that prosecutors can load up a hacking indictment with multiple counts, and often do if their plea offer is rejected. Still, sentencing for violent crime is generally far more draconian than for non-violent crime, even though the economic costs of non-violent crime may be vastly higher.

After become familiar with Scott Adams’ right-wing douchebaggery, I can no longer even enjoy his cartoons. They used to be delightful satire back when I was in cubicle-land, but now I see that he is only lampooning office environments that shoot themselves in the foot profitability-wise, and that the “humanistic” discomfort suffered by his characters serves only to punctuate this point.

@Petro And another smiley face turns to a frowny face as I search for humor in these trying times. Thanks for verifying my never quite understanding his humor but being mildly amused by the idea of most people living in Weaseltown and are weasels. The better office dramedy was “Enlightened” on HBO by Mike White and Laura Dern. Hit too close to home, I guess. Not renewed for another season.

“Rapists uphold the social status quo”

Nonsense. Utter nonsense.

I can see why the law would be more worried about someone who hacks into a big business’s finances or a top-secret government than a rapist who victimized an average person and it has nothing to do with rape upholding some social order. And there have been rapists who received 25, 50, 75 year-sentences.

I can see why the law would be more worried about someone who hacks into a big business’s finances or a top-secret government than a rapist who victimized an average person and it has nothing to do with rape upholding some social order.

Firstly, I can see why, too – and I don’t have to like it. Secondly, perhaps your definition of “social order” is different, or more specific, than others’, but the “social order” (government self-protection or capitalism) is what would make them more worried.

As to the scales of the sentencing, upthread you’ll find that Ian concedes some overstatement.

““rapists and the very threat of rape are of primary importance in keeping females in line”
I guess men and boys are never, ever raped in America. Not in churches or schools or military barracks or jails. Whew! What a relief.”

But that just underscores the point about rape reinforcing the status quo. Where males face rape – the big one that comes to mind is in prison – it’s used as a means of control both to break prisoners and to add to the threat of prison for those who may commit crimes. Rape is primarily about power and it is usually used against the weakest, which does, IMO, mean that America’s rape culture (and we certainly have one, IMO) reinforces the status quo – the strong over the weak.

And rape, while it certainly does happen to males and is just as wrong when they are the victims (and the prison conditions for men in this country are an outrage), it is hardly an equal opportunity occurrence across genders outside of the prison context. The percentage of American women who report having been raped in various surveys is quite shocking. And,
yes, it does reinforce the social order (which is not the same thing as saying that everyone who benefits from the social order is a rapist or somehow supports rape). Just the freedom of movement issue is a huge one if you’re a woman in this country. There are things my husband does and places he is willing to go, esp at night, that I would never do and I’m not someone who lives in fear and paranoia. Yet my husband doesn’t think twice about it – his feeling safe to go or the fact that I wouldn’t. It’s simply not part of his world view because it never has had to be.

So, Ian; what’s next? I await with baited breath… 😉