AIBU to think these boys should have been incarcerated?

[newrubylane]

BBC News - Teenage boys sentenced for raping lone girls
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clypg68e2neo

I've never started an AIBU before, but I'm genuinely really shocked. I'm just not sure how this sentence is justifiable. Their actions were premeditated and deliberate, they were carrying a knife and they filmed themselves. They're obviously a danger to women/girls, and probably to other boys too.

If anyone knows how and why this sentence might have come about, I'd be interested to hear it.

”Shouldn’t criminalise these boys”
They are criminals! They’re rapists!
I’m another that would like to see them locked up for life because girls aren’t safe while they walk the streets.
Those poor girls. I bet their parents want to tear them to shreds I know I would.

To me, the age of these boys should be considered an aggravating factor, not mitigating. If they are already planning & executing gang rape, filming it for their own titillation at age 14, and are not properly punished, what will they be like at 20? And 30? And what about other boys who see this news, learning that rape will be practically unpunished? This sentence makes the danger of rape & sexual assault worse for all girls & women.

My heart goes out to the girls who were brutally raped. I truly hope that they can find a happy and peaceful future.

This post nails it.

The should be under locked supervision for life. They should not be free to do this again.

Sorry, I’ve been thinking about this and it continues to bother me. We can swap the objects of your sentences to make the point clear. So if we say “The girls were all from the local area. The boys were just boys from the travelling community,” I’m not sure anyone would find that ok.

I know I’m hammering the point but language is used to minimise girls and women all the time. We are not “just”
anything.

Not sure why you think you have made the thread so difficult for me? Although it’s interesting that your few short posts on the matter (certainly to this point) all focus on a) telling the wimmin how hysterical and pointless our discussions are and b) getting quite cross yourself at a comment from a pp regards suggestion of violence to males.

Takes all sorts I guess

It's hardly condemning them. These girls will be changed forever by these rapes and that trauma may well mean they can't or don't want to be intimate or trust in future. Who could blame them?

Do you understand how trauma works? It doesn't sound like you do.

Online form signed and let's hope this goes somewhere.

I wish I hadn’t read the article. I feel like there’s an awful story about teenage girls being raped daily in the bbc at the moment. It’s terrifying as the mother of a daughter.

The way the judge seemed to reassure them they wouldn’t go to prison made my gut turn. I’ll also submit the form. Thank you for sharing it. I hope something happens. Those poor girls.

What is your name? - Apply to have an unduly lenient sentence reviewed – GOV.UK

When I was a child, I was assaulted by a 13 yr old boy. Thank God I wasn't raped, but it had a profound effect on me.

Yes, I've had some happiness in my life, but the assault had a profound effect and caused me misery for very many years. I can assure you that I'll be filling up that form.

Unfortunately I do know exactly how trauma works, and I wonder how many survivors you really know if you think something that damages you forever cannot also exist alongside happiness and peace in the future.
It is possible to heal, with help. But no sentence on its own is going to do that. I wonder how many people ‘signing forms’ and calling for ‘decades long sentences’ are also petitioning in any way for funding for survivors, or work with them or advocate for them.

None of which lets these boys off the hook, but punishment isn’t the end of the story.

I have also submitted the form to object to the unduly lenient sentence. I hope that many more people do the same.

A rape conviction needs to lead in almost every case to a custodial sentence, anything less undermines the seriousness of the crime. Any rehabilitation (if it is even possible) should follow the appropriate punishment.

I find the judge's comments especially that '"I should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily' really egregious and insulting to the victims. 1: the victims were also children. 2: these perpetrators ARE ALREADY CRIMINALS so how does 'unnecessarily criminalising' them apply? Surely that ship has sailed.

I think a lot of people skim read the FOR THEIR AGE part or misinterpret it. He was low for the age of 13/14, that doesn’t necessarily mean he had significant delays , or had the mental age/intelligence of a much younger child. It’s not the excuse people think it is, and probably the reason why he was actually fit to stand trial.

Basically that's a pat on the back .... What they do isn't a child like behaviour or a mistake of a young mind.... It is an adult crime and it should be an adult consequences !

Thanks, the form also asks for the name of the court they were sentenced....and probably other details. Could you share those here aswell please? Thank you

The boys committed two separate rapes. There have already been two separate offences against two different victims.

This was a repeat pattern of premeditated gang rape and needs to be treated as such. They are all of the age of criminal responsibility.

The judge who passed this sentence is not fit to preside in court.

They were sentenced at Southampton Crowm Court

Completely agree

Sorry if this has been asked multiple times, but is there a petition link?

I will try do the sentence review thing, don't suppose there is already a good form of words that I can cut and paste?

Exactly this. The judge needs to be scrutinised here.

Maybe judges who fail to jail convicted rapist should get prison sentences if they rape again, see if that focuses their minds and changes their assessment of risk.

I also find some of his remarks to be almost flippant.

Throw them in the pit, they’ll never be good members of society so why risk anyone else.

Not sure about a petition, but here’s a link to the sentence review.

it will ask for names, but just say they haven’t been released due to their age, and the court is Southampton. I don’t think the words matter too much - the important thing is we make it clear how we feel by force of numbers.

www.gov.uk/ask-crown-court-sentence-review

Perhaps its time we made men responsible for raising good men. Hit them where it hurts, their wallets. Make it well advertised
From 2027/8 whatever, any male under the age of 18 committing heinous crimes, , your father (regardless of the fact they may be estranged) will be fined a set ££££ garnered directly from wages, benefits, savings.

Repeat offence custodial sentence and double the fine for fathers.
Just thinking outside the box
So sick of reading so much violence against our poor girls.

Will we ever learn the names of the boys involved, It would be nice to pre warn our Dds

Thanks for linking the case, I have submitted an unduly lenient sentence report