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.

Out of interest - I don't know alot about it - the prevailing view among friends is that it is hard to get a conviction for rape because basically it's one person's word against another's, there are usually no witnesses, forensic evidence is often poorly taken.

Someon on this thread said they would not advise a friend to report rape.

So what are the major barriers to conviction? Is it just prejudice against the victim?

Since I started learning more about feminism, and seeing the low conviction rates etc talked about, it's made me think that I wouldn't report after all. Unless I had the sworn testimony of a vicar and a JP who had been there and seen it anyway. The reasons why people get let off, it seems as though literally any excuse will be seized on by judges/juries/.

So you're single? Well you probably wanted it. Or, you're in a relationship? Then you wanted it, then lied about it being rape because you felt guilty for cheating. It seems so hard to get a conviction, and impossible to get one without having to sit through (as sAf has said) a disgusting unpicking of your entire life and mental state hitherto. You will inevitably have to listen to the defence lawyer making up some total shit about you, probably relating to you being a massive liar. Those who go through with it have my total admiration.

What sometimes worries me is the reporting of ongoing trials with the naming of the accused - given that the cornerstone of the law is that people are innocent until proven guilty, there is something a bit wrong about a person being labelled a murderer/theif/arsonist before conviction. I would prefer to see the news media forbidden to report identifying details WRT any criminal trial until the jury has reached a verdict, as a person falsely accused of any high profile crime often has to suffer 'trial by tabloid' with the papers dragging up ex-partners and embarrassing photographs and getting self-styled 'experts' to say what a monster/failure/tosspot the person is and how s/he must have done it...

sGB

You will never see a defendant referred to as an 'arsonist' or 'rapist' in a newspaper during an ongoing trial because there are strict laws against it.

Not being allowed to report a trial until it is finished also threatens another cornerstone of the law ' that justice should be seen to be done.'

Afterall you can walk into any criminal court and watch a trial - and many people do ( and bring their sandwiches and knitting!)

Semicolon: yet these laws are repeatedly breached even when a defendant (in a high profile case) has pleaded not guilty.

see mental health offered as explanation for false accusations.really irks that any reprehensible act described someone pops up must be mental health.not necessarily

also likely that base human emotions like rage,anger may be responsible

SM that's true, rage, anger, base emotions etc., probably are at the root of some false allegations of rape.

But seeing as how reputable research has shown that mental health issues are repsonsible for most of these allegations, I don't think it's unreasonable for someone to mention that. It's simply sharing knowledge, isn't it? I wasn't aware of that fact until someone on another thread linked to that research.

on mn any inexplicable act=mental illness

what reputable research would that be you are referring to?

Find medina example where a defendant is referred to as 'ghe 'rapist'' this will only happen after verdict.

Newspapers push it as far as it will go but you would have to be an idiot yo let something like they through.

I am looking for the report, sm. IIRC it points out that most reports found or admitted to be false, actually did not name an attacker. Some women with mental illnesses go to the police saying they were raped, but not saying by whom. So even the "false accusation" statistics can be misleading in that they are not all "accusations" aimed at a specific person.

Sorry bloody predictive text makes me sound pissed. Am not.

False accusations would be less damaging if the defendants were granted the same rights to anonymity as the victims.

Being accused of rape has its own particular social stigma. False accusation in any other crime (except pedophilia) just doesnt compare.

If guilty - name and shame the rapist. If innocent, name and shame the accusor.

Dont know if you read this post? Very intersting I think.

RamblingRosa Thu 02-Sep-10 11:32:16
OK, some stats and info to put this issue into context:

?In no other crime is the victim subject to so much scrutiny during an investigation or at trial; nor is the potential for victims to be re-traumatised during these processes as high in any other crime.? (HMCPS & HMIC, 2007)

"Passing this law [giving anonymity to men accused of rape] would boost the widely held belief that most women who report rape are lying. The latest research on false allegations found that the figures are around the same as with other crimes. If a woman is found to have made a malicious accusation of rape she loses the right to anonymity. Media coverage of false allegations far outweighs reports of men arrested for rape.Julie Bindel, Guardian, May 21st

Info from Fawcett Society report on rape:
? Overall, research suggests the rate of false allegations of rape are no higher than those of other crimes (Kelly, Lovett, and Regan, 2005).
? A recent study in the UK found 8% of cases reported to the police were designated ?false? reports. However, internal police rules specify that only cases where either there is a strong and credible admission by the complainants, or where there are strong evidential grounds, should be classified as ?false?. Further investigation of this figure of 8% found that only 3% of cases designated false fell within the police categories of ?probable? and ?possible? false allegations (as opposed to additionally those classed as ?uncertain?). (Kelly, Lovett, and Regan, 2005).
? There is an over-estimation of the scale of false allegations by police and prosecutors and subjective judgements are still being made about victims. This results in poor communication and loss of confidence between complainants and police (Kelly, Lovett, and Regan, 2005; HMCPS & HMIC, 2007).
? International research shows that, of the very small proportion of genuinely false allegations, in most cases there is no named offender (EVAW, 2007).

ccpccp - as you draw a comparison between the effects of an accusation of rape and an accusation of paedophilia, does that mean you also support anonymity for the latter?

Oh FFS.

So if you can't get a conviction because the jury can't believe that a man in a suit can possibly be a rapist, you get "named and shamed"?

What impact do you think that that would have on the rate of rape reporting? Given taht up to 85% of rapes are not reported because women know that they won't be believed and that 94% of those reported rapes don't result in a conviction, how will your proposal make women safe from rape and encourage men not to rape them?

...and bearing in mind the disproportionate media interest in false rape allegations, how do you think granting those accused of rape anonymity - treating them as a special cases - would impact on the already often hostile attitude towards victims of rape?

"If innocent, name and shame the accusor"

By innocent you mean found not guilty?

You cant possibly believe the atrocious conviction rate is indicative of the amount of false allegations, surely?

Because what you're advocating would mean not only would women be raped, go through the hell (particular to this crime) of a trial, see their rapist walk free...and then be publicly "named and shamed" as a liar

You cant mean that, right?

Of course s/he means that.

Women's pain is just of no consequence to most people.

We're not human enough to deserve any fucking consideration at all.

Naming and shaming is too good for these women - they should be stoned as in Iran and Somalia.

Hey FallingWithStyle - in pedofillia cases most definitely.

In fact any case where it is likely a person will be pre-judged due to the nature of the accusation, before a court of law has decided guilt.

However horrible the crimes, people are innocent until proven guilty in this country. The press dont seem to think so though, and will gladly run a story on the front page with lots of subtle 'guilty!' implication, then relegate the story to the back when the person is found innocent. Unless there is some nice 'nutter makes false accusation' angle they can work into it of course.

Not that it matters by that point. The damage is already done.