I'm not sure if you are being facetious, but that's actually exactly the right q...

tptacek · on Oct 12, 2015

Wait, doesn't that logic essentially inoculate hedge fund managers and private equity barons from rape prosecutions? That can't possibly be right.

_bz2r · on Oct 17, 2015

I think you and I agree. I'm saying the opposite of "hedge fund managers get special treatment":

> that number should be the same no matter who the victim (or perpetrator) is.

Meaning: if you are wealthy, law enforcement pays $20,000 to investigate and prosecute the person who raped you. If you are a hobo, law enforcement pays $20,000 to investigate and prosecute the person who raped you.

GFK_of_xmaspast · on Oct 12, 2015

I'm not certain hedge fund managers and private equity barons are subject to most of our laws anyway.

tptacek · on Oct 12, 2015

So let's just officially immunize them?

idlewords · on Oct 12, 2015

And give them autism? Nice try, comrade!

arcticbull · on Oct 12, 2015

Well played.

polack · on Oct 12, 2015

I was actually being serious and I agree with you that it would be good with a defined number.

minority-one · on Oct 12, 2015

If you're being serious then I'll give you a serious answer.

Exempli gratia, let's pretend I was raped. I should be able to reify my victimhood and sell it to a lawyer, thereby transferring to that lawyer the right to extract compensation from the perpetrator.

Now there's a market for it and the price is whatever a lawyer is willing to pay. You will quickly see a market form around it. This was done in Medieval Iceland for longer than the United States has been a country, so mind your glass ceiling when criticizing this idea.

TheOtherHobbes · on Oct 12, 2015

Did you perhaps mean "monetise" and not "refiy"?

Incidentally, you've just created a market for rape, and persuaded rich people that rape is just fine because they can afford pay off most victims.

For very rich people, that means practically all possible victims.

For poor people, that means practically all possible victims because they can't afford to pay anyone anyway.

Is this really a workable view of criminality and justice?

minority-one · on Oct 14, 2015

I really meant reify, as in "turn an abstract thing into a marketable thing". Monetize would mean something else.

> Is this really a workable view of criminality and justice?

It worked for 400 years in Medieval Iceland. If you are interested in debating this I'd like to hear from you why you think that what you say would happen if this was in place, in fact did not happen when this was in place.