Language and Perpetrator Accountability

So, this is an issue I’d like to hear about from other people. It involves the language we use for perpetrators of sexual assaults, and how we use that language, and how we should use that language. I’d just really enjoy the input others have on this issue. I’m in a student group at my University that uses facilitation techniques and a bit of theater to educate our peers about the issues surrounding sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking, and this was a bit from a journal I wrote for the class.

It’s hard to find a balance between perpetrator accountability and recognizing that rapists are still people who commit terrible acts. I don’t know that a person should be defined solely by an act if that person is willing to grow out of it, grow from that experience. But, could calling someone who raped another person a “rapist” put that person in the mindset that “rapist” is all they’re going to be, and that they’ve no chance of changing? Furthermore, is a rapist really always a rapist? If a person has committed a rape, but regrets it, changes, expects and accepts the repercussions, grows from that experience, and never does it again, is it really fair to still call that person a “rapist” twenty years later? When does the language change, if it should ever change?