Rape 'myths'

[mommyisbest]

Has anyone read Melanie Phillips in The Times this morning?
She's written about rape. She's comparing charging rates with convictions rate and prosecution rates against other crimes such as murder to prove there is nothing too badly wrong with the way rape is prosecuted. Her grasp of the problem is so rudimentary. She references the low charging rate but says as the prosecution rate has gone up- we should remain optimistic. What?!!! It's a bonkers analysis. It's not just obfuscation- it's deceit.

New approach to rape is founded on a myth

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ab0770a0-1f50-11ee-97d4-77262736e260?shareToken=11aa4a647018ff180c1c3cee3b167783

That is a crappy article that engages in exactly the sort of side swiping at arguments that she accuses her targets of doing.

However, I do agree that there is a lot of sloppy thinking around what happens with rape prosecutions and fair amount of desire by the feminist movement to accept some claims about things like how widespread rape is with out robust evidence (though I think it’s also a very difficult subject to ethically research robustly).

What angered me is her totally ignoring the issue about charge rates. So she uses prosecutions rates and convictions rates to show that the issue isn't what feminist organisations claim it is. This is disingenuous at best and deceitful at worst. It is an issue that the charge rate is so low for rape. Isn't that the point that feminist organisations making? Or is there more to it?

She's a horror. Always was. I wouldn't take a word she wrote seriously.

Mumsnet have a campaign page on this.

https://www.mumsnet.com/articles/we-believe-you-campaign-rape-myths-busted

I was particularly annoyed by the lack of any analysis looking at rape as a serious crime. Analysing it against murder, GBH with intent, and other crimes that can carry a life sentence. I don’t think it’s at all reasonable to look at it as just one of all the many crimes, including the kids who spray paint cocks on their school walls and the number of people who steal nappies from Tesco.

I’m not sure on the charging v. prosecution rates, I had a quick google but couldn’t find a definition for the two statistics. How are they different? I had assumed that now CPS have to approve a charge, the prosecution and charge rates were the same.

Yes excellent point. She's happy to compare prosecution/conviction rates for different crimes but wouldn't extend this to sentences which is arbitrary.
Also did you notice she carved out an exception for men involved in gang crimes?

While gang members may be innocent of specific crimes being investigated, their record of systematic criminality means the police would be derelict in their duty if they didn’t mount an aggressive investigation.
Thats also arbitrary! What about the 'systematic criminality' of men who rape? I bet once a man has raped and learnt that he can get away with it, he does it again.

The gang thing was weird.

Also her use of “innocent until proven guilty” as some sort of reason not to mount a competent investigation. Innocent until proven guilty is a conceit of the courts, not the whole justice system. The police couldn’t investigate anyone if they followed that thinking! Her whole argument seemed to be men might not be guilty so the police shouldn’t try too hard - it was just utter wank.

She has no excuse for getting this so wrong. She's married ti legal specialist and BBC legal affairs correspondent Joshua Rosenberg.

No way! Joshua Rosenberg is married to her?! Wow. I still finding it infuriating that she has such a huge platform and can write pretty much any drivel without anyone being able to challenge her. These kind of casual fallacies harm womens progress so much.
Thank you for linking to the mumsnet campaign. I will definitely be promoting that on social media.

"the rate of rape convictions had dropped from 69 per cent in the previous quarter, it still stood at 62 per cent, compared with a drop from 83 per cent to 82 per cent for crime overall".
Even her own statistics contradict her point.

I do think that there is a valid point somewhere that you could make about not reacting the wrong way to the shocking state of rape convictions. Specifically the Scottish plan to remove the right to trial by jury for rape cases. That won't solve any of the actual issues and is a very dangerous precedent. That Philips manages to avoid making that point effectively is a further fail.