Women who falsely accuse, of RAPE etc. Feminists ?

[Oblomov]

FACT
There have been lots of discussions on here of RAPE recently.
But what about all these woman who falsley accused. what damage they do. then it is even harder for women who have really been raped to be believed.

Do feminists believe that women do falsely accuse.
That poor head of Dept, was accused by a troubled girl and has now lost his chance of being a Headmaster.
What about that girl, who i remember from the papaers, scuffed her own arms when a boy she knew refused to give her the taxi money. she accused him of rape.

At uni, I knew someone who we all thought was falsely accused of rape. He never recovered. his perssonality changed forever.

I am not a rape supporter. I don't support men who rape. But neither do I hate men and automatically assume that all men are cappable of rape. Men are falsely accused sometimes you know. not every woman tells the truth.

Thebutterflyeffect i don't think that is true - do you have any evidence to back up the assertion that statistically false accusations of rape are no more common than other crime?

Well, do you have any evidence to back up the assertion that they are more common?

I can give you statistics very easily. But I want to ask why the onus of proof is in this direction? How about, for once, we stop assuming that women lie about rape in disproportionate amounts, and you come to us with evidence?

I await.

It must be terrible for you.

If the victim has clear mental health issues then maybe her ability to fully consent should be questioned.

(sorry, x-post, to Nancydrew)

Why is it being pursued if she has two convictions for false allegations?

Because presumably each allegation is judged on it's merit.

I suspect they are not convictions for false allegations but stories put about by the accused and his supporters.

Had a skim of that FACT website. Found the one about the young woman who faked her own rape rather disturbing. She apparently committed extensive damage to herself just to make a point. That sounds to me like someone who is not so much wicked as psychiatrically disturbed. Is jail really the most appropriate response?

I am sorry for the victims of false accusations of course. Some of my own sons are students and I'd be devastated and furious if they'd ended up in jail undeservingly. However, these four only spent "nearly three days behind bars", during which one of them tried to kill himself. That is an excessive reaction, surely? If the guy had done nothing you might expect he would trust that justice would be done and he would soon be released - which was, in fact, what happened - not that he would end it all. What on earth do they do to unconvicted suspects in a mere three days that makes innocent arrestees want to kill themselves? And do they just let them out afterwards or offer them ongoing support?

In fact most of those stories raise more questions than they answer.

I find the site more than a little worrying.

As a random thought seth I agree, unless in the most exceptional circumstances I would never advise a friend or relative to report a rape.

And that's a sorry state of affairs isn't it?

Jently: I would just say to you that I couldn't possibly comment on your case without knowing a lot more about it so I won't except to say that I hope justice is done in the end an that you and your childen are ok.

However, can I just point out that no one on this point, no one, has said that it is not a terrible thing that people are falsely accused of rape. It is terrible, but rape is very terrible too, beyond terrible, and it's really important that the empahois does not shift to the small number of falsely accused people and away from the huge number of rape victims.

Oh sorry, I see it says 'she has a history of crying rape' rather than that she was prosecuted for making false allegations. I see.

nancydrew - ? Overall, research suggests the rate of false allegations of rape are no higher than those of other crimes (Kelly, Lovett, and Regan, 2005) from here

I don't understand, Jently - he doesn't remember her but he had sex with her?

I think this case could be easily identified. Suggest no further discussion on jently's particular case.....sub judice?

Well, and just generally I think it's probably imprudent to make comment on this case. no, that's not true, i'm itching to make comment, I'm just not going to.

yes you're right scurry. jently - you might want to ask for your post to be deleted

Seth - TBH I made that same face when he said that to me but all I can say is, he was 24, he was out with his mates every weekend, doing what a lot of lads do and he is rubbish with names and faces. I have to believe him, it's all I've got to hold onto.

Nancy, it is a very sorry state of affairs. My aunt was raped as a young woman (late 70's) and had to have an abortion as a result :( she nor my grandparents reported it.

I think you're absolutely right edam.

It is contempt of court. You need that post deleted ASAP.

You are right Tortoise and Scurry, not a good idea to talk about the specifics of this case.

I am thinking now about the advice I will give to my sons when they are older which I hope will keep them safe from false accusations of rape.

I will advise them not to sleep with anyone in situations where they are so drunk they might not be able to remember what happened, or where the woman is so drunk they might not be able to remember what happens. I will advise them not to sleep with so many women they can't remember which one is which. I will advise them to never sleep with the same woman as their mates, at the same time (as happened in a recent case high-profile case in which the man was found innocent) in case it looks to outsiders like the woman might have been pressurised.
etc etc.

that kind of thing ought to keep them safe from most false accusations, though obviously the ones where you are randomly wandering down the street and a woman jumps out of an alleyway and accuses you of raping her may be harder to counteract, but those ones are quite rare I believe.

I don't see the point in having my post deleted. It's been all over the news anyway. If someone else wants to get it deleted then fine, I just wanted to make my point of what it's like for the victim of a false allegation.

It's the false accusations bit that's the problem Jently

ladybiscuit - thanks I have seen those statements by the fawcett society but I was interested in where they came from - I can see the citation but cannot find an original source.

Tortoise I wasn't actually asserting the contraty was true but rather that I don't think it is. This is based on some hazy recollection of a report which suggested that false accusations of rape are less common than some other offences offences whilst being more common for some others. I certainly don't have any statistics but I do like facts rather than opinions which was why I asked.

My personal experience is that I have experienced the main prosecution witness admit they made the story up on 5 occassions:

one was a road traffic/insurance scam;

one was a public order offence police v hunt sabs (the police officer didn't actually admit he had lied rather there was rather compelling video eveidence to prove it)

one was a GBH - again the CCTV was rather compelling.

and two were rape cases.

having said that of course I should point out that I would estimate 95% of the people I ever defended for anything were also probably lying.....