Women 'blamed' for being raped

[monkeytrousers]

here

We really need to reeducate ourselves about this I think. Only a few days ago a poster on another thread was trying to say that acquaintance rape wasn't as bad as stranger rape. It's this kind of ignorance we really need to challenge.

Reporting a rape to the police is not seeking advice

Please do not get me wrong I have the utmost sympathy with rape victims and have been one myself. I agree that the findings of this survey are shocking and am dissapointed that women feel that rape victims are culpable. I also am angry that STUPID women abuse the police system.

Sorry, my spell check is changing words madly

With the phone... it makes sense to keep it in your bag/pocket, in the same way it makes sense not to get insanely drunk.

Going to the police is what we're all told to do though, isn't it. I know what you mean but I think the attempt to turn the spotlight on a minority of women who may do what you say is wrong at this time.

Carmenere, it's been shown time and time again that police officers regularly over-estimate the number of false rape allegations.

According to women's orgs, the number is about 10%. According to most police officers, the number is about 50%.

flamesparrow, I think the trouble is that rape is the one crime that is regarded differently. If you go out and get drunk and then get mugged for your handbag or your mobile phone, no-one is going to say, oh well it was partly her own fault for getting herself in such a state. And if the police caught the person who mugged you and s/he was prosecuted, the barrister who cross-examines you wouldn't be allowed to ask you questions like, "Well, Ms Flamesparrow, have you ever voluntarily given money to anyone, or allowed them to use your mobile phone? Oh, you have, have you? So, Ms Flamesparrow, how are we to know that you didn't,in this case, permit the defendant to take your mobile? After all, you've done it in the past, haven't you?" Which is, unbelievably, the line they are still allowed to take when questioning rape victims, as the judge still has discretion to allow question's about the rape survivor's past sexual history.

And blaming women for the low number of convictions, when they are up against a police, prosecution and legal system that is so utterly hostile to us, is not good enough.

94% of initial rape allegations do not end in convictions.

94%. 94%. 94%.

Let's all digest that figure.

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Does anyone think that 94% of rape allegations are false?

What is really revealing is if you ask people about male hetrosexual rape. Most people are horrified at this, and somehow think it's worse that female hetrosexual rape.

Normsnockers, I really don't think that alcohol is solely the issue here. I think that whether a woman is drunk or sober when the rape takes place, one of the main difficulties she faces is the way that the defence is still very often allowed to question her about her previous sexual history.

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That doesn't actually explain why conviction rates have fallen so drastically, though, does it?

Normsnockers - there is no heiaracy on the trauma of being arped for god sake. If a man sets out on a night to abuse vulnerable women, whether drunk, disabled or just with a low IQ it's just as heanous as someone who hides down a back alley and jumps on a granny. This is exacly the kind of igniorance which needs to be challenged.

Of course we all need to be responsible for our own saftly and I agree women are more vulnerable when they're drunk, especially after the fact adn trying to defend herself in a court of law. But being stipid doesn't equate to it being your fault. Lets get that straight.

I didn't know that they were allowed to bring up the past sexual history!! I was just meaning the starting situation leading to increased rapes.

006, no I don't think it is

or more correctly I think any attempt to find some equivalence is immoral in itself.

I'd say male rape must be more of a shock - men are generally raised to think it just won't happen, that rape is what happens to women, whereas women have it drummed into them from birth that men are scum ... but the rest of the trauma would be the same.

I think there is a difference (not in the outcome to the raped person, but in the psyche of the rapist) - in the same way as there being a difference between the guy who hunts down people to murder, and the one who loses his temper and shoots his mate when he find him in bed with his wife.

They are rapists adapting to their environment. If stalking drunk women gets them more 'hits' then that becomes their modus, especially when cultural attitudes are so sympathetic to them. They are exploting societies predudices about women. How pre-meditated is that?