ABSTRACT
Sexual crimes are amongst the most serious violent crimes, such as rape and child sex abuse.1 While there is widespread support for severe punishment, there is general disagreement on its justification. Some retributivists argue that rape and child sex abuse are evil acts that deserve significant punishment on account of their wickedness. Other deterrence proponents argue that these crimes should be punished severely because of their relative dangerousness and the problem of serial reoffending. But which view is most persuasive? Is there a more attractive alternative? This chapter will focus on the crimes of rape and child sex abuse. We will
examine how both are defined in order to better understand their criminalization. We will next consider how satisfactory different approaches to punishing these crimes perform in light of the available evidence. One finding is that much of the evidence is relatively poor, but nevertheless consistent and perhaps even surprising. There is a compelling argument to be made in favour of the unified theory of punishment and its endorsement of punitive restoration.
