To think that people accused of rape should be given anonymity until proven guilty?

[DaleyBump]

Controversial.

I don't mean to start a bunfight, honest! Am I the only one that thinks that people accused of rape should be given the same anonymity as the rape victims until they've been proven guilty? By all means, once they've been found guilty, feed them to the dogs but being accused of rape publicly and then being found not guilty still has a major effect on someone's life.

I'm not saying rape victims should be outed at any point, by the way.

And the concept that you are presumed innocent until proven guilty does not require anonymity on any level at all.

Anonymity for people charged of crimes effectively means secret courts.

Is that really what we want?

Will we just do away with our open legal system entirely?

Jury trials too?

Should be the same for both IMO. Either both parties named, or neither, until verdict given.

Sabrina

That is terrible but those kinds of incidences are rarely reported. Revenge attacks happen but usually within organised crime or gang related circles.

If you named and shamed a rapist or child abuser then you would get every Tom, Dick, Harriet gunning for them. This was the case a few years ago when a tabloid published a list of known offenders.

Also, sex offenders are one of a small group of criminals that will get severely targeted in prison by inmates who have likely murdered, burgled, attacked others or sold drugs etc. Yet these criminals do not look at each other in the same way. Sex offenders are the lowest of the low and for good reason. After all, every criminal has a mother and possibly a wife and daughters or a sister.

Raping is just not on and everyone knows it, hence the need for anonymity.

"Raping is just not on and everyone knows it"

:o

I'm hiding this thread, full of ignorant people jumping on a hot topic issue without doing a shred of research because a mere google is too hard for them and well, Phillip Schofield said it, so I agree!

Sorry techno - that is rubbish. Accused rapists are more likely to be believed than the victim.

Hence the utterly crap conviction rates.

Join

YABU no other accused criminals are given anonymity (except in special circumstances) and I don't see why those accused of rape should be given special treatment.

but no not everyone knows that rape is not on the do not believe all rape is rape

my mother still believes that a woman can not say no stop after a certain point as a man has to finish, or that no always means no but she is appalled that women are dragged off the street and raped

Rape trials are already weighted against the victim. Most rapes happen behind closed doors with no witnesses, and no proof to show it was not consensual sex. In a he said, she said case, judges and juries are understandably reluctant to convict only from a verbal account.

If you have a serial rapist (and most are) who is tried only on each individual case, he could walk away scott free each and every time, so will never be stopped.

Rape victims should never be named, regardless of whether the accused is found guilty or not. We should all be aware that convictions are hard to secure, and putting the boot in by splashing the victims name all over the papers and calling her a liar would be totally barbaric. Reports of rape would plummet even lower than they are. We may as well adopt the practice of saying that a woman can only report a rape if she has two independent male witnesses.

YANBU

"Rape victims should never be named"

Unless they choose to waive anonymity.

YABU for all the reasons given by far more eloquent posters than me

If your Mum is that candid FreudiansSlipper could you not give her a sex ed lesson? And tell her that just as men can suffer blue balls, women can suffer blue ovaries (and more frequently do!)

Playfellows That goes without saying!

To people who think that every case that goes to court they must be guilty, I have an urge to tell people that their partners are guilty of rape. I wouldnt do it, but I would hope that they would then realise how absurd they are being.

Yanbu. I tend to agree. Once found guilty you face the full shitstorm you deserve.

Actually, why dont people get anonymitiy for all sorts of crimes? Didnt know they didnt actually.

I'm not sure it does PomBear.

Waiving your anonymity after a rape trial is not always straightforward.

News organisations can be very wary of being in contempt of court to the extent that they effectively gag women who would like to speak publicly about what happened to them.

Freudianslipper

No you're quite right, people in general aren't outraged by rape at all .

But why are you focussing on the tiny proportion of rapes with your examples. Stats show that roughly 90% of rapes are carried out by someone known to the victim so is often a partner, work colleague or friend. The examples you're talking about are the much rarer scenarios that seem to get the press headlines.

I can almost guarantee you that for this 90%, the vast majority of the population would be outraged. You are simply choosing to focus on the minority that casts doubt even with many women.

Those accused of rape should be named but if acquitted, I see no reason why accusers shouldn't be named either.

To those who are saying that a man accused of rape should be given anonymity because the woman who is the victim witness is - why?

Well if you're in favour of even more rapists walking free than currently and ensuring that the idea that false allegations are the most serious problem around the issue of rape is the one that most people have even though they are a miniscule number of all allegations then no yanbu.

If OTOH you wd rather the issue of rape was properly addressed, then yabvu

I think it was only a couple of weeks ago that the results of some survey were published that revealed that one third of women believed it wasn't rape if there was no violence.

So you're probably right that the majority of people are outraged by rape, problem is they are only outraged by rapes that fit their narrow (and wrong) definition.

"Actually, why dont people get anonymitiy for all sorts of crimes?"

Because we have a system of public justice.

Our courts are open.

Anyone can attend.