Child Support and Rape

[CVT Temp]

http://clarissasblog.com/2011/08/07/rap ... d-support/

This is a discussion that I've always been bothered by. Personally, I'd rather the state subsidize child care, but that makes me a filthy socialist. However, I find it disturbing that she's so cavalier about sacrificing adult rights for the sake of children. It's not just disturbing, but irrational. From rather basic logic, children are not as much people as are most adults simply due to the fact that adults have more complex cognition, introspection, and preferences. Why would any rational person think it right to involuntarily sacrifice the well being of an innocent adult for the sake of a child, especially when alternative methods exist?

I mean, I don't really like children to begin with, but still, this is an absurd notion. Of course rape victims should not be forced to pay child support, and neither should anyone else made to become a parent against their will (forced pregnancy, semen theft, etc.). If the child really needs support, that's why we have welfare programs, is it not?

[Cameroi]

anyone who thinks welfare programs are adaquite, has obviously never been on one.

[CVT Temp]

anyone who thinks welfare programs are adaquite, has obviously never been on one.

I wish to make them more adequate. I'm rather to the left of most in the US.

[Camicon]

Biological parents should not be forced into caring for a child they didn't want. I think people that do that are selfish pricks/cunts/whathaveyou, because I believe that they have a responsibility to care for their children, wanted or not. But when other avenues for child care are available (adoption by other adults, foster parents, state-run orphanages, increased welfare payments to single parents, etcetera) forcing biological parents into paying child support should be a last resort.

[Cosmopoles]

It might seem harsh but if the rape hasn't been proven, what can you do? It doesn't seem right to absolve someone of their responsibility to a child if you don't know for sure that a crime has been committed.

[Coccygia]

If somebody commits rape, and it results in a child, damn right they should be required to pay child support. They did not consider the woman's rights did they now? Why should ANYBODY worry about theirs?

[CVT Temp]

If somebody commits rape, and it results in a child, damn right they should be required to pay child support. They did not consider the woman's rights did they now? Why should ANYBODY worry about theirs?

You read the premise wrong. Try reading it again. Then you won't look so foolish.

[Nova_Ravenna]

No, the state should not be paying any money to anyone at all for anything.

[Uiiop]

No, the state should not be paying any money to anyone at all for anything.

Are you able to tell us why not?

[CVT Temp]

Are you able to tell us why not?

Because A = A.

[Coccygia]

If somebody commits rape, and it results in a child, damn right they should be required to pay child support. They did not consider the woman's rights did they now? Why should ANYBODY worry about theirs?

You read the premise wrong. Try reading it again. Then you won't look so foolish.

Oops. (Next time read the whole thing first...)

But in my defense, saying that rapists shouldn't have to pay child support is the kind of thing I've come to expect around here.

[Xathranaar]

No, the state should not be paying any money to anyone at all for anything.

Are you able to tell us why not?

Well quite obviously he is extrapolating from how badly state spending on education failed him.

[Point Breeze]

I completely agree with OP regarding the blogger's attitude. That argument is absurd.

Regarding the issue, I believe that the victim of a rape should absolutely NOT be responsible for the resulting child's care. While consent isn't necessary for procreation, it is for the establishment of a family or relationship. However, I really lament the poor guy's situation in this case. Since he didn't report the rape, I can't reasonably see the courts excusing him from child support unless he actually has some evidence of it.

Always report your rapes, people.

[Czechanada]

Child support is rape. It rapes a man's wallet.

[Ethel mermania]

If somebody commits rape, and it results in a child, damn right they should be required to pay child support. They did not consider the woman's rights did they now? Why should ANYBODY worry about theirs?

edit: ninja'ed

[CVT Temp]

Child support is rape. It rapes a man's wallet.

No, just no.

[Point Breeze]

Child support is rape. It rapes a man's wallet.

I hear that.
*clinks glasses*

[Saintland]

His money, his choice. Yes, kids may need support from their father, but that doesn't mean they have the right to it. The kid's needs are irrelevant. What's relevant are the reproductive rights of the man.

A woman's right to choose is protected by law. Women have the option of choosing birth control that is not dependent upon cooperation from their partner to be effective. Women can choose whether their baby is born or aborted (and the father has no say in the matter). Women can choose whether to give the baby up for adoption (and the father has no say in the matter). Women can choose to keep the kid and raise it on their own or they can choose to get married and raise it with a man or (in some enlightened states) with a woman. A man's right to choose is not protected by law. There is no birth control for men that is effective when his partner is determined to get herself pregnant with his seed other than abstinence or sterilization (and most men that don't want kids now want to have them eventually, so abstinence is their only option). If a child is conceived, a man has no say in whether the kid is born or aborted. If the child is born, a man has no say in whether the mother gives it up for adoption. If the mother keeps the kid, a man has no say regarding whether he is compelled by law to support a kid he may not have wanted in the first place.

How would women like it if they had the same reproductive rights as men (none)? How would women like it if abortion and birth control were illegal? If giving a kid up for adoption was banned? If they could be compelled by law to raise a kid they don't want? Rick Santorum would love to bring such a nightmarish world into existence for women and then women would have as few reproductive rights as men do.

Granting men an exception to involuntary child support when they are the victim of rape or semen theft is like granting women a right to an abortion only in the case of rape, incest or life of the mother. I appreciate the small amount of concern for men's reproductive rights, but that's just not good enough. Men should have the same reproductive rights that women have and maybe then women's reproductive rights would be more secure. The problem people made when they began to push for equal rights for women was considering women's position in society as analogous to that of racial minorities in the Jim Crow days. Separate, but equal was actually separate and unequal for the "races" (which was and is a nonsensical concept). However separate, but equal accurately described the relations between men and women and by seeing women as being oppressed like African-Americans were, the "women's rights" movement went astray and became effective a movement that seeks to end oppression of women and preserve oppression of men. The society of the 1950s oppressed men and women equally, but in different ways.

To summarize, the arguments in favor of forcing men to pay child support against their will are basically many of the same arguments used in favor of banning abortion. The case in favor of a man's right to choose is at least as strong as the case in favor of a woman's right to choose and probably stronger because abortion arguably violates the "negative" rights of the fetus while the right to not pay child support violates "positive" rights, which are inherently dubious because they impose positive obligations on other people. In order to be logically consistent and non-bigoted, you have to either support or oppose the right to choose for everybody. If you favor reproductive rights for half the population and oppose them for the other half, you are a sexist.

[Tahar Joblis]

I completely agree with OP regarding the blogger's attitude. That argument is absurd.

Regarding the issue, I believe that the victim of a rape should absolutely NOT be responsible for the resulting child's care. While consent isn't necessary for procreation, it is for the establishment of a family or relationship. However, I really lament the poor guy's situation in this case. Since he didn't report the rape, I can't reasonably see the courts excusing him from child support unless he actually has some evidence of it.

Always report your rapes, people.

In an environment where rape of a man by a woman is very typically not recognized as such and often laughed out of the room, we can't exactly blame men for not reporting being raped.

Heck, we can't exactly blame women for not reporting being raped, what with the way some advocacy groups try to make it seem like nothing will ever come of their reports except more trouble.

But that's not really the point. Where does the burden of proof lie?

Traditionally, the burden of proof lies on the accuser, in order to protect the innocent from being punished. What do we have in this situation? The burden of proof is reversed. In order to avoid being punished, the rape victim must prove their rape was a "legitimate rape."

This is the travesty of justice.

Incidentally; the OP's link notes:

Reader Christopher Marshall pointed out to me that the man went to the police 2 weeks after the incident and they refused to follow up on it. This is what we need to fight: the prejudice against men that positions them always as the perpetrators of violence and never as victims. Here is the real injustice in this case. A statement that a crime has been committed is dismissed by the authorities.

Which is to say that ... yes, he did report his rape; and the authorities simply ignored that report. Probably laughed it off. But remember: You're requiring him to prove that he was raped in order to avoid being punished. You've placed the burden of proof in the place that maximizes the punishment of victims for being victims.

[Ostroeuropa]

Can someone justify child support to me AT ALL?
And bare in mind, if you accept this premise that rape victims shouldn't pay, then it must have little or nothing to do with the childs welfare.
I will remind you that consent to sex is not consent to pregnancy. Thats a big part of abortion rights. Secondly, if consent is what you are concerned with, then the mere act of not wanting to pay surely shows quite clearly where the persons consent lies.

In short, can you justify forcing one person to pay, but not another.


If consent to sex = consent to pregnancy and childcare, on what basis do we permit abortions, but force continued sustainment through work for the child?
If consent to sex does not equate with that, whence cometh the supposed responsibility of either parent for the child?

[Kilobugya]

I agree with you that childcare should be socialized. The whole "child support" thing is quite broken. Everyone taking care of a child should receive funding from the state to ensure the child's well-being and happiness, and most child-related things (daycare, school, child healthcare, ...) should be totally free. A child didn't chose were to be born, and is not responsible of the poverty of his parents, nor of fights between them.

[Ostroeuropa]

I agree with you that childcare should be socialized. The whole "child support" thing is quite broken. Everyone taking care of a child should receive funding from the state to ensure the child's well-being and happiness, and most child-related things (daycare, school, child healthcare, ...) should be totally free. A child didn't chose were to be born, and is not responsible of the poverty of his parents, nor of fights between them.

This seems a sane solution.

[Risottia]

Of course rape victims should not be forced to pay child support

This.

Also, I would question the idea that a rapist gets to keep and raise a kid. I fail to see how being raised and educated by a rapist would be in the best interest of a minor.

[Ostroeuropa]

Of course rape victims should not be forced to pay child support

This.

Also, I would question the idea that a rapist gets to keep and raise a kid. I fail to see how being raised and educated by a rapist would be in the best interest of a minor.

Alleged rapist I gather.
it is alleged that one of the people was raped by the other. (And was alleged long before the child was born, at the time the rape allegedly occured.)
It has not been proven, and the state demands that child support happen.

[Torisakia]

Nah. If they had the audacity to rape someone, what makes you think they have the money to pay child support?