What is happening to this Amish girl after she was raped by her brothers?

[EarthSight]

They've been given a 10 year suspended sentence, 100 hours of community service, and a $250. Disgusting.

Where is the girl now (who is pregnant with one of their children)? How does she feel that her brothers have been let go and not even jailed for what they did to her? Is she still living in the Amish community? My heart goes out to her.

metro.co.uk/2020/09/21/incest-amish-brothers-who-gang-raped-sister-12-spared-jail-over-fears-inmates-would-hurt-them-13305125/?ito=amp-trending-3

Agree with @FireUnderTheHand

Castration for child abusers and rapists. There really is no fair alternative. And no excuses or exceptions for MH / SN.

'Human rights' shouldn't be a consideration when someone has violently robbed another of theirs.

If these atrocities were so frequently inflicted on (grown) men .. don't you think there'd be a harsher punishment by now.

I read an article about this recently. Can't seem to find it now but essentially it was as other posters say - that this is an endemic issue among Amish communities, with these poor girls often abused by more than one male family member from their earliest childhood. Sex education is poor and shame is rife, with the girls made to feel they can't talk about it because it's such an open secret and the community doesn't want to know. Add to that the fact there's a huge emphasis on forgiveness. In the article, a girl raped by her own father was pressured by the community to write a letter begging the judge not to send him away. Huge, huge pressure. It made me feel ill reading it. No-one is advocating for these girls, bar the ones who got away. They're being failed in a really horrendous fashion by the American justice system.

Those young men were damaged at birth.Gene pool and all that.Absolutely disgusting.

I'm a bit surprised by the posts saying the boys may well have had SN etc

Feels like offering excuses for no reason? All seems to be based on one comment from the judge that could mean anything or nothing.

I don't think it was one comment from the judge, I think the prosecutor said very much the same thing. I don't think prosecutors generally advocate for the accused.

I don't think it is an excuse, I think it is people trying to understand what happened in court and whatever we think the judge and prosecutor obviously had more information than we do.

Where's the victim perspective though?

Surely there should be a balance between mitigation for the criminal and justice being done for the victim?

This is not a good balance at all. It's all in the side of the criminals.

She was a child raped by 4 siblings and bore a child from it. You don't get much worse than that surely.

The humanity of the criminals seems to be very important and the victim not at all tbh.

I don't think oh a man has xyz should be allowed to take this much importance.

And it wasn't one. There were 4 of them.

Where's the victim perspective though?
she is probably too crushed and broken to speak up for herself, the judge has put the final boot in himself

an endemic issue among Amish communities
pretending to occupy the moral high ground but they are animalistic and demonic.
Menonites seem just as bad, these communities work for the benefit of the men who are able to dominate and can enjoy the feeling of power they get from keeping their womenfolk oppressed

I hope she and the child have escaped. Sorry but if she stays there and that baby has children, its unthinkable.

Vile people, some bloody white haired elder in a blue shirt running this shit.

@GrolliffetheDragon

I don't care how old they are or how immature they are or if they have LD or are completely mentally incompetent...

I disagree these things are irrelevant. I can't find anything that says how old the younger brothers were, but I don't believe a child should recieve the same punishment as an adult.

And I speak as a victim of child-on-child sexual abuse.

I speak as a CSA survivor and rape survivor... my heart goes out to you fellow survivor.

With that being said, my empathy is gone for anyone that abuses a child sexually, physically, or emotionally - regardless of their age. Children that rape also tend to go on to perpetrate just as (or worse) crimes of power and control as they age (see serial rapists that started as child rapists). Giving them a pass because they are children completely disregards the victims.

This is how children that rape are treated in court in the US...
"(The boy) told me that he saw them 'raping' her," wrote investigator Patricia Fimbresa about one of the 9-year-olds. "I asked (him) to tell me what he meant by 'raping her.' (He) told me that it was when you see a girl and take them somewhere that nobody sees, and you do things to them and run away." With the full understanding that all boys admitted their actions with two actually using the word rape. The judge had this to say to the poor poor little rapist "I will tell you I'm very proud of you for being back there and working so hard," she said as she held up a certificate that his juvenile facility had given him for good behavior. "I know it's not easy and pretty hard to make friends in there ... Hang in there, OK?". That is what the judge said to the rapist. Nobody GAF about the victim as per usual... poor poor little boy. "Investigator Samantha Pimentel wrote that when she talked to the girl's father on July 23, he appeared disgusted and frustrated and said in front of his daughter that all she does is cause problems and ruin the family's chances of becoming U.S. citizens. Another investigator, Jacquelyn MacConnell, wrote that the father told investigators that "it is her fault." www.cbsnews.com/news/rape-uproar-9-year-olds-charged-with-assaulting-8-year-old-will-stay-in-juvy-detention/

Boys that rape are treated as victims and the victims are treated as the perpetrators globally. Look at Australia - five boys under the age of 13yrs gang raped a 5yr old boy and they were given suspended sentences AFTER GANG RAPE. www.cnn.com/2020/07/17/australia/australia-queensland-rape-boy-intl-hnk/index.html

(US again we have sooooo many examples) Leniency for 16yr old that raped a girl at a party... "teen accused of rape deserves leniency because he's from a 'good family' and excels academically" after he admitted to raping the girl and shared video of the rape with the caption "[w]hen your first time having sex was rape," www.insider.com/judge-teen-accused-rape-deserves-leniency-good-family-excels-academically-2019-7

I could give a million examples to support my position but I think the above are decent support for my perspective.

I stand by my assertions. You let it go you reap what you sow.

Ruin someone else's life you forfeit yours IMO, but that is just my opinion and let's be honest women and children are discardable in most societies so it isn't like anyone in power GAF about survivor opinions.

@BlueJay99

Agree with *@FireUnderTheHand*

Castration for child abusers and rapists. There really is no fair alternative. And no excuses or exceptions for MH / SN.

'Human rights' shouldn't be a consideration when someone has violently robbed another of theirs.

If these atrocities were so frequently inflicted on (grown) men .. don't you think there'd be a harsher punishment by now.

PREACH SISTER PREACH!!!!

But in all seriousness... nail, head - you hit it.

Boys that rape are treated as victims and the victims are treated as the perpetrators globally
I know, the boys are treated with sympathy as if the girl has deliberately tempted them with the intention of causing problems.
Sickening:(

That's awful, that poor girl. And the judge being more worried about the perps well being than than the victims?

Is the girl still with her family? Are any of the brothers who raped her still with the family? What will happen to the baby?

The judge "ordered them to write a letter explaining how they’ll protect their own children from abusers like them".

Like the child that one of them already created by raping his 12 year old sister..?

Surely any fool could see that they probably will be the ones abusing their children? Possibly the very child that was the product of incest, until what, they're the father's of their own grandchildren/great nieces and nephews? 😷

@Heffalooomia

an endemic issue among Amish communities pretending to occupy the moral high ground but they are animalistic and demonic. Menonites seem just as bad, these communities work for the benefit of the men who are able to dominate and can enjoy the feeling of power they get from keeping their womenfolk oppressed

They are all just as bad 100%.

Saved my brother from being raped by a Brother in the boy's restroom when I was in 5th grade... I heard him cry as it echoed through the halls. The Brother was my teacher and was pissed that I had written a petition to get him fired for abuse (yes in 5th grade I had seen enough shit already) so he targeted my kindergarten aged little brother I guess as revenge (small Catholic school total of 250 pupils spread from kindergarten to 5th grade). He did not succeed in sexually assaulting my little brother and until about 5yrs ago my brother had completely suppressed the memory until he called one day and asked me if it really happened (I never shared the story with him as I didn't want to make him relive it) I confirmed and we cried together to celebrate his escape.

A friend I used to have (she committed suicide about 10yrs ago) was a Mennonite and her continuous rape and forced births destroyed her body and mind. Her mother moved them into the colony (when friend was 7yrs old) because she "met a nice man" and wanted them to be a family. That 'nice man' began raping my friend immediately upon their moving in to his home along with his tag-team partner (his 15yr old son). My friend had six children before she escaped which were all 'given' to other families in the community.

I had a friend that was from a strict Muslim family/community who was married off to a man arranged marriage style (purchased) and shipped off to Afghanistan when we were in 10th grade, we were classmates. I never heard from/saw her again.

When I get asked why I am an atheist (with this knowledge) my only response is, what am I supposed to do pray to a male god conceived by males in an effort to control and subjugate women? I mean let's get serious here faith if it is something you hold dear I get it lots of people need to believe in something bigger than themselves but how can any woman actively participate in organized religion? Be spiritual or whatever but why hold on high men (all religious figureheads in Abrahamic religions) that seek to oppress and dismiss you? I just don't get it at all. Not judging but genuinely curious and confused. I self-ejected from Catholicism during my confirmation rite (I was 12yrs old) because my 12yr old self could see clearly the church's objective - obfuscation of reality and thousands of words forcing females to capitulate to men without regard for us as whole human beings.

Fireunder, your post is so utterly shocking that I can hardly bear to believe it
It just seems utterly inconceivable, I'm so sorry
Horrifying what goes on in these closed communities, the minute they have free rein they became bestial

This poor poor young woman was forced to bear 6 children, she was used as a sex toy and a baby making machine, a mere piece of equipment or livestock for the use of other humans
just no words
😥

That poor little for what she has been through. She and the baby deserved justice. I hope both of them are safe & being looked after

There truly is no peace for so many - sheltered from 'the evils' of society only to experience torture that most of us could never fathom.

Bizarre thing you know, to look at your experiences and life as 'lucky' when others consider your experiences to be torturous. It puts things in perspective to be so viscerally aware of how far the lives of many girls/women are from comfort, dignity, safety, freedom, and education in a country considered to be a superpower.

Staggering.

There was a spate of mass rapes in a Bolivian Mennonite colony maybe ten years ago — the rapists drugged the women (who were aged from five to sixty five) with animal tranquilliser, and the women’s stories of waking up bloody and bruised were dismissed as imagination of haunting by the devil. From what I remember the elders of the community locked the perpetrators in a barn, finally, and were planning to imprison them themselves, until in the end they handed them over to the authorities.

www.theguardian.com/world/2009/sep/10/mennonites-rape-bolivia

If anyone’s interested, Miriam Toews’ novel Women Talking is very good on the psychology of Mennonite women who had this done to them. (She’s a Canadian Mennonite.)

Very true about religions having free rein to abuse women and girls FireUnder. With all the abuse justified by religious texts, going right back to wicked Eve tempting Adam in the Garden of Eden. Stories written by men, in order to blame women.

I am concerned that this thread has developed from "hate the crime" to "hate the people". Rape can. and does, happen in any community; and it is right to condemn that. But it is cultural imperialism to then tar all people and an entire community based on one or two criminals. The Amish are no more likely to commit rape than anyone else - possibly, in fact, less so. But lets not let facts get in the way of a good witch hunt.

Native American communities have similar problems because of tribal autonomy.

You are wonderfully demonstrating here that you know nothing whatsoever about US First Peoples. Suddenly we are now lumping in an entire racial grouping comprising many vastly differing cultures - a great many of which are matriarchal - with the Amish and other religious minorities. Perhaps people would be best served finding out something about what they are talking about before stirring up their racist shit.

The rape and murder of First Peoples women - both in the US and elsewhere - are not covered up by tribal autonomy at all. Most of the perpetrators are not First Peoples, and they go unpunished because "Red Lives" matter less than anybodys lives. Missing, presumed dead, is a shockingly common fate for First People Women in both the USA and Canada. Tribal autonomy is not the cause of this. Racism is the cause.

Anyone can take individually shocking stories and apply them to entire communities and whole cultures. That says more about the bigots who do it than it does about those communities.

I did wonder about the comment on Native Americans but didn't feel able to say anything as I have no knowledge. I suppose you can't just make sweeoing statements about whole communities.

Maybe some Amish are kind people living fulfilled lives? i just don't know. Not all closed communities are full of rapists and not all open ones are full of decent people.

Agree some random unsubstantiated comments.

My view, thinking about the closed religious communities near me (London), is that outsiders don't know what's going on. Could be anything. And when you have a highly patriarchal religion, where there is little to no opportunity for victims to report or do anything at all, and as they're closed there are very few/ any outside eyes noticing things and reporting etc, it's a situation ripe for all sorts of abuse.

There have been report after report about horrendous systematic sexual abuse in closed groups where the men are dominant. Cults, exclusive religious groups, even the situation with Pitcairn Island which again was a closed community type situation.