[Avodah] rape

[Eli Turkel]

And? Of course it's a civil matter, just as if he punched her in the
face.  If he harmed her he's still liable for the usual damages; in
addition, here he's liable for the extra damage he did to her shiduch
prospects.>>

First a technical question: damage to shidduch prospects should be
grama and not be chayav

For substanstive it has bothered me for years that rape is a criminal
offense only if the girl is a naarah and the fine goes to the father or
else for a married woman and the husband is affected.

For a grown up (bogeret) single woman there are no criminal punishments.
The civil punishments depend on the amount of damage done. So if
the rapist was "gentle" the payments would be small or minimal. Even
boshet is very circumstance related. Perhaps if a famous movie star
raped a fan there is no boshet.

The only answer I saw was that Jewish law is not primarily punishment
oriented. Since rape is condemned that is enough. In fact rape in
marriage was not considered a crime in western society until quite
recently. There are numerous court rulings especially in England upholding
the husband's right to rape his wife. However, this was already condemned
in the Talmud as against halacha but again without any punishment


-- 
Eli Turkel