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Feminism: Sex & gender discussions

Keir Starmer says Rape investigations 'undermined by belief that false accusations are rife'

144 replies

NormaStanleyFletcher · 13/03/2013 06:47

This bit makes me a little worried

"Following completion of the CPS study, false allegation cases involving rape and domestic violence will no longer routinely be referred to the DPP. "These cases will now be handled by [CPS] areas rather than headquarters, but we will continue to have an assurance regime where reports are sent in every six months," Starmer said."

When they were all being referred to Keir's department I felt more comfortable; I don't know exactly why but I have trust in him.

This bit is very interesting I thought

Of 159 suspects linked to allegedly false claims referred to the CPS between January 2011 and May 2012, 92% were women. Nearly half of them were 21 or under. One surprise was that in 38% of those investigations, the initial complaint of rape or domestic violence was made by someone other than the suspect. Among those under 18 it was 50% and often involved a parent

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NormaStanleyFletcher · 13/03/2013 06:48
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FreedomOfTheTess · 13/03/2013 08:00

A story on the report is also on BBC.

www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/21016808

Another interesting fact, is that 18% of those who do make those rare false allegations, have mental health problems.

So while I could never condone false allegations, it appears almost a fifth of those who do, have underlying problems which contribute to their actions.

It is good we have some solid figures on this.

The only thing that concerns me, is people who attempt to play down the false allegation issue, because it is so rare. As Keir Starmer says in the BBC article, "it's serious, but rare."

I sympathise with anyone who has been falsely accused of rape, because very often, people think 'there is no without fire'. This is even sometimes the case when the accuser has been convicted of making a false allegation smoke

Something else that concerned me about the BBC article, is that when there are PROVEN false claims, it still remains on the man's record until he applies for it to be taken off, and even then it can take months to be done. I don't like that all.

By all means keep it on record if someone hasn't been prosecuted for lack of evidence, but those where it has been PROVEN to be a false allegation, it should be removed immediately.

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NormaStanleyFletcher · 13/03/2013 09:04

Just read that BBC one, and it is interesting the different perspectives on the report. The guardian one seems to be much more about how rare it is. The BBC one is much more about how devistatingit is for anyone falsly accused. It doesn't quote the numbers convicted of rape or DV to give perspective to the number of people convicted of false accusations.

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JacqueslePeacock · 13/03/2013 09:48

The slant of the BBC piece is bloody awful. It misses the whole point of what Keir Starmer has said.

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JacqueslePeacock · 13/03/2013 09:51

In fact I'm almost tempted to complain to the BBC for perpetuating the exact problem Keir Starmer is talking about. 35 a month works out at about 0.6%. It's absolutely tiny compared to the horrendous figures for rape and domestic violence. And yet that is what the BBC has chosen to focus on.

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JacqueslePeacock · 13/03/2013 09:54

Sorry, TWO a month! 35 is in the entire 17-month period. I really need to proofread before posting. If it were 35 a month it might actually be worthy of the BBC article - although even then it would be a lot lower than the number of actual rapes.

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NormaStanleyFletcher · 13/03/2013 10:23

It is crap isn't it. I am going to look at the actual report to see how bad the misrepresentation is...

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NormaStanleyFletcher · 13/03/2013 10:27

Press release is here

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NormaStanleyFletcher · 13/03/2013 10:28

And imvho the BBC piece has really missed the point.

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FreedomOfTheTess · 13/03/2013 10:58

Is it so wrong for the BBC to point out how devastating it is to be falsely accused of rape?

After all the article does clearly state that Starmer says, "it's rare."

Not all rape articles have to feature the majority, sometimes it's important to speak out for the minority too, which is in this case is falsely accused men.

Perhaps it doesn't bother others so much, but I hate to see ANYONE falsely accused of anything, even if in the grand scheme of things it's only a tiny minority.

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FreedomOfTheTess · 13/03/2013 10:58

Perhaps I'm just not a proper feminist though, because I care about "the mens" too!

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BeerTricksPotter · 13/03/2013 11:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ArbitraryUsername · 13/03/2013 11:09

I don't think it's necessarily wrong to point out that it is dreadful to be falsely accused of anything rape. The problem is that the amount of attention paid to this is utterly disproportionate to the scale of false accusations and it has serious consequences for how society in general treats rape victims. The fact is that a tiny minority of reports of rape are false or malicious. A really tiny minority. There just isn't the need for so much focus on it.

We don't see regular newspaper articles about how dreadful it is to be accused of burglary and how it ruins lives etc. There is widespread condemnation of burglars and no one seems overly concerned about how this affects the falsely accused.

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NoTimeForS · 13/03/2013 11:13

Rule of journalism = put the main point of the story first.

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FreudiansSlipper · 13/03/2013 11:14

no it is not wrong to point out how terrible it is to be accused falsely of rape and the damage it can do

but stick to the what the report is about it is not suggesting that is is not devastating it is saying that it is a crime that very rarely thankfully happens and it is taken seriously.

yet it gets a huge amount of publicity in some areas of the press this hardly helps those victims who feel they will not be believed as so many women lie, the truth is very very few women do lie. again it is about women being manipulative, sneaky lying to get someone back blah blah blah when it is about these women being liars they are not this way because they are women it is because of who they are not what sex they are

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FreudiansSlipper · 13/03/2013 11:16

do lie about being raped....

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slug · 13/03/2013 11:21

Funny isn't it how so much emphasis is placed on the reputation of men who may be falsely accused of rape yet how little is placed on the reputation of women who are branded as liars for making claims that are not investigated properly/dismissed/ignored/never get as far as court.

Anyone would think that a man's reputation in society far outweighed a woman's right to justice.

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ArbitraryUsername · 13/03/2013 11:24

And, yes, reports of a study that showed that false accusations of any other crime were actually very rare would be unlikely to take great care to stress how terrible false accusations are.

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runningforthebusinheels · 13/03/2013 11:25

Five Live are also concentrating on how bad it is to be falsely accused - with lots of case stories and a very unpleasant man talking about how Keir Starmer's figures are all wrong and how irresponsible he is to release them.

I do find it disconcerting that the press release is 'false rape and dv accusations are perhaps far rarer than previously thought' with figures to illustrate this.

Yet, the BBC reports 'yes but false rape allegations are devastating.' Yes, well, being a victim of rape/dv is pretty bloody devastating too - and we still have a devastatingly low reporting & conviction rate.

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JuliaScurr · 13/03/2013 11:35

crap reporting by BBC

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NormaStanleyFletcher · 13/03/2013 11:51

This report is NOT about how devistating it is to men falsly accused (and I absolutely agree that it is devastating). I have read all of it now. It is about the number of false allegations (not all are accusations - some of the people who reported being raped didn't identify their 'attacker'). The reasons/origins of those allegations, and what the CPS response should be.

Keir acknowledges how devistating it is, maybe realising that otherwise it would be all about the menz, but that is in the introduction only (and the press release).

Didn't work did it? When some of the coverage does seem to focus on the devistation of those few falsly accused.

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Bramshott · 13/03/2013 12:36

God it's depressing isn't it - main focus of the press release is around busting "the damaging myths and stereotypes" around false accusations of rape, and here's the BBC trotting out those same damaging myths and stereotypes Sad.

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NormaStanleyFletcher · 13/03/2013 13:58

Yep - the more I think about it the angrier I become.

The report is Very interesting. Very easy to read. I would really recommend reading it. It is linked to in the press release that I put a clicky to upthread

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TunipTheVegedude · 13/03/2013 14:00

Oh well. It's the same BBC that covered up Jimmy Savile for decades. Misogyny still alive and well there I see.

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teatrolley · 13/03/2013 15:48

Of course media reporting has no influence on this widespread and deeply harnful misconception. The daily mail has a tiny article buried halfway down it's homepage. Funny how any instance of false accusation gets a massive space as the headline article.

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