Reply #40: iirc, death used to be the punishment for rape in many states. just as folks

[mopinko]

are saying- it was reduced both because of the incentive it gave to murder victims, and for the incentive it gave juries to be reluctant to convict. i remember this as an early feminist quest, to change these sentences to something reasonable, because almost no one was being convicted.
especially in the case of child rape, if the case hangs heavily on the testimony
of a child- forget it, there will be no conviction.

thank you for your story, bertha. you are a brave woman.