Rape and Unemployment

Sports journalist and role model Charlie Webster

There's been quite a fuss made of the release of footballer Ched Evans, he went to prison for rape but his case is currently being reviewed. There have been demands that he never play football again and two or three people have resigned from honorary positions at Sheffield United FC where he is currently training, though not employed. The main thrust of the outcry is that footballers, supposedly, are role models. Really?

Interestingly a woman called Charlie Webster has led the outcry and is one of those who resigned from her position at Sheffield United. The main thrust of her argument is that he is not a good role model. Well I think this article might suggest that Charlie, a sports journalist, stripping off for a lad mag isn't such a wonderful role model herself.

Firstly I don't accept that footballers are role models. Role models are people in your life who have a real influence on you. Parents, teachers, priests, relatives. In other words people who are real and whose behaviour has a direct influence on people, especially younger people. A man kicking a ball about is just that.  He is one dimensional, he is not 'real'.

While rape is clearly one of the most vile crimes, there are many other vile crimes. If a footballer commits another crime should he never be allowed to work again either? Is it right that criminals in high profile positions should be treated more severely than the rest of us? Does the law no longer apply equally to all men? Should all rapists be forced to pay for the rest of their lives, even after they have been punished? Or just famous ones?

If Ched Evans is never allowed to work again the logical conclusion is that no convicted criminal should ever be allowed to work again because every criminal is a role model to somebody, somewhere whether it be to a son or daughter, a friend, a relative or whoever. If that is the case we have completely given up on rehabilitation and will be creating even more huge problems for the future, problems that will impose painful financial and moral burdens on us in the future.

But I don't think that will be the case. I firmly believe the Ched Evans affair is yet another example of the lynch mob mentality of social media and the desire of so many people today to be regularly morally outraged and offended.