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If someone's wronged you, and the opportunity arises that means you can take revenge on them, would you take it and how far would you go?

Personally, this has come up within the last few days; someone wronged me pretty damned badly and having divulged it to a few friends, they're baying for some blood, as am I. The opportunity to beat him to a pulp has arisen and whilst I would sorely wish to watch and participate, its the fear of recriminations that is holding me back.

I am disapointed that its just the fear of punishment that's holding me back (I really thought better of myself) I feel it is a just punishment for what was done, and its the only damned justice I'm likely to ever get.

So, what would you do, and why?

I have a very vengeful streak, there are a few people in this world that I wish real harm upon because of what they've done. However, its laws that get inthe way of my revenge as well.

I think that in some circumstances, perhaps mob rule would cause better justice than the justice system creates. However, there are real problems with degenerating into vigilantism, including getting the wrong person. But really, for some crimes such as sexual assault, and child abuse, I feel no qualms with punishing the *genuine* perpetrator, because of what those things do to the victim.

not to mention the fact of how hard it is to get convictions for those crimes. Its frankly criminal (sorry, bad pun) at how hard it is to get a rape conviction. Not only that, but if a victim does get through to court she (as it invariably is) is treated as a liar, and its her put on trial, she has to prove that she was raped, rather than the guy prove he didn't, which makes a big difference.

The victim is attacked again; her reputation is questioned, she is forced to re-live an exceedingly tramatising event over and over, not only in reporting it, but in retelling it multiple times, while she is being attacked for *shock horror* consuming alcohol, for wearing the "wrong" clothes, for trusting people that she thought were friends, for apparently "leading on" a guy. The fact that these women usually say they disn't want sex and fought off their attacker is rarely brought up.

Revenge in the form of vigilatism for hard to convict crimes? I say bring on the lyncing rope.

I've seen too many of these crimes go unpunished, and their victims having to live a life of fear because they can't find any closure on their attack(s) because there's been no justice for them, or, hell, fearing that they're going to bump into their attacker because they're allowed to walk free, while the victim is condemned to a lifetime of punishment for doing nothing.

A friend of mine was raped and refused to report it... she pointed out all those points to me and kind of opened up my eyes to our "justice" *spits* system.

Its true though, They only ever convict people that wrong middle class, middle aged, white men. Rape and sexual assault on women is viewed as a "women's problem", and where we live has one of the worst conviction rates for those crimes, mainly because the police (as revealed by uindercover research) have a culture of being uncomfortable with those crimes, not to mention sexist and racist.

Police basically suck, and I want to not only revenge my friend but protect the other women this guy could hurt, or hell, has hurt before her. The only problem is, as a middle class white guy, there'd be a hell of a lot of fuss created and my a** would be thrown in jail. My defence of a revenge attack because the police would've done jack s**t would be useless and once again, the b*****d would walk scot free.

**not to lessen your opinion, or offend**

Why is child rape "especially"? I hold all three of those crimes with equal revulsion, true, we in this society hold childhood as an age of innocence an purity, and sexual activity and rape in particular as seen as an "end" to these concepts, but, I see no difference in the rape of a child and the rape of a woman (or man, though that's far less common).

It is still the unwanted invasion of their body, it is still violation. The age of the victim is in my opinion of no concequence, rape is rape.

i am a firm believer in the concept of vengeance, and i'm far too embittered towards people to show mercy.
so the best vengeance is a slow and painful death.

...I can think of some better ways to punish people, that don't end in death. Well, not for a very, very long time.

I know Izzie, I asure you it would be worth any kind of trouble. Its one of those extreme cases of revenge that in a better society would be able to be sorted out through the criminal justice system. However, we don't live in Utopia and its a pipe dream anyway so mob rule is the only kind of justice available.

I think a better subject line for this would be, if something really horrific, such as murder, torture, rape etc, the extreme injustices in life, you had no way of getting any punishment for this person, would you take it upon yourself to gain revenge/justice for yourself, or even a freind?