According to the CDC, between 300,000 and 1,300,000 women are raped every year, with an estimated 60% of all rapes going unreported each year (accounting for the huge range of the above estimate of women raped annually). In fact, it is estimated that a sexual assault is committed every 2 minutes in the United States. On top of these particularly startling statistics, it is true that rapists are afforded a great deal of protection under the law.

Did you know that 31 states in the United States of America allow for rapists to sue for both visitation rights and custody? Such neglect in the protection of rape victims and their children is a gross oversight in the legislation of each of these 31 states. On top of the results of such legislative neglect, the United States Supreme recently (2008) rendered a decision that prohibited the use of the death penalty as punishment for the rape of a child.

The fact of the matter is, rape is one of the most heinous acts a person can commit, an act that needs to be punished in a manner that, perhaps, is excessive of the perceived severity of the crime. The fact that a rape conviction typically entails, on average, an 8-year sentence is definitely a start, but the act of rape is most certainly a crime that should be punished more severely throughout the entirety of the United States.

The goal of this petition is to provide the impetus for a re-examination of our current laws, hopefully resulting in stricter punishments across the board for cases of both rape and sexual assault. These stricter punishments will hopefully serve a two-fold purpose: to effectively punish such heinous, despicable acts while also presenting a strong deterrent to their perpetration.