4 ms·

So many questions. How did "sexual assault" sneak in here next to homicide? That's not a capital crime. Is the irony of having a one-person opt-in/opt-out box e

So many questions. How did "sexual assault" sneak in here next to homicide? That's not a capital crime. Is the irony of having a one-person opt-in/opt-out box entirely lost on the people running genealogy websites? How can you give informed consent to sharing your data when the entire point of these sites is not knowing what you discover? And of course the biggest problem of all, which is that these sites are used to discover third-parties not using the site or consenting at all. The article bizarrely omits this, making the whole thing seem like a cookie consent popup.

radicalbyte 7y ago
Rape (and related crimes) and Murder are both crimes which have a large external cost and where there is a reasonable chance at repetition. The value to society of catching the perps in these cases is large enough to make giving police access on a case-by-case basis worth it.
- mc32 7y ago
  And also vicious physical assaults. They can leave people injured for life.
- dmitrygr 7y ago
  > value to society of catching the perps in these cases is large enough That is for a judge to decide. While signing (or not) a warrant
gumby 7y ago
> So many questions. How did "sexual assault" sneak in here next to homicide? That's not a capital crime. Regardless of one's belief of how murder should be punished, I think it's pretty clear that rape is an offense as destructive as murder. The reason it does not bear the same penalty is pragmatic: if the punishment were the same then why should a rapist not kill the victim as well? The penalty would be no worse and the chance of being captured would go down. > How can you give informed consent to sharing your data when the entire point of these sites is not knowing what you discover? Your question isn't just genetic question but really a mass surveillance question. E.g. relatives tend to look alike so an advanced facial recognition system could be used to, say, see where a wanted suspect's possible relatives live and then follow them in case said suspect contacts them. Or simply look for people who have a "guilt factor" above X near where a crime was committed and sweep them up.
- zeveb 7y ago
  > The reason it does not bear the same penalty is pragmatic: if the punishment were the same then why should a rapist not kill the victim as well? The real reason is even more prosaic in the U.S.: the Supreme Court in Coker v. Georgia decided that it was unconstitutional, despite having been constitutional and practiced by some number of states for nearly 200 years. It doesn't get any more philosophical than that: six men didn't like it, so the nation doesn't have it any more. But, to the grandparent's point, rape has been a capital crime in the past, and there's no reason it couldn't be again.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

radicalbyte 7y ago

Rape (and related crimes) and Murder are both crimes which have a large external cost and where there is a reasonable chance at repetition. The value to society of catching the perps in these cases is large enough to make giving police access on a case-by-case basis worth it.

mc32 7y ago
And also vicious physical assaults. They can leave people injured for life.
dmitrygr 7y ago
> value to society of catching the perps in these cases is large enough That is for a judge to decide. While signing (or not) a warrant

gumby 7y ago

> So many questions. How did "sexual assault" sneak in here next to homicide? That's not a capital crime. Regardless of one's belief of how murder should be punished, I think it's pretty clear that rape is an offense as destructive as murder. The reason it does not bear the same penalty is pragmatic: if the punishment were the same then why should a rapist not kill the victim as well? The penalty would be no worse and the chance of being captured would go down. > How can you give informed consent to sharing your data when the entire point of these sites is not knowing what you discover? Your question isn't just genetic question but really a mass surveillance question. E.g. relatives tend to look alike so an advanced facial recognition system could be used to, say, see where a wanted suspect's possible relatives live and then follow them in case said suspect contacts them. Or simply look for people who have a "guilt factor" above X near where a crime was committed and sweep them up.

zeveb 7y ago
> The reason it does not bear the same penalty is pragmatic: if the punishment were the same then why should a rapist not kill the victim as well? The real reason is even more prosaic in the U.S.: the Supreme Court in Coker v. Georgia decided that it was unconstitutional, despite having been constitutional and practiced by some number of states for nearly 200 years. It doesn't get any more philosophical than that: six men didn't like it, so the nation doesn't have it any more. But, to the grandparent's point, rape has been a capital crime in the past, and there's no reason it couldn't be again.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]