Lack of convictions for RAPE...I really want to do something about this, if possible

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Having just read about the DM story concerning the man acquitted of rape because he was "too drunk" and the subsequent horrendous account of a poster's own failed attempt to get justice for her rape on the same thread I am spitting with rage.

I want to do something positive. I have a baby daughter and I don't think I can be comfortable with myself if I don't make some attempt to fight for justice for rape victims and send out a message that RAPE IS A SERIOUS CRIME AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH.

I have two thoughts so far about this:

1. Set up a campaigning blog reproducing press accounts of rape cases and (where no press reports exist) publishing rape survivors' own accounts.

and

1. Set up a charity specifically to raise funds to assist rape survivors to pursue civil cases against their attackers.

These are just kernels of ideas at the moment, but I would welcome any suggestions about how I could make this work.

It pisses me off that a victims sexual history can be bought up.

It is like a burglar using the home owners previous burgalries as a defence, they obviously ask to be stilen from. They must enjoy it, they send out the wrong signals etc .

Rape is the one and only criminal act that i can think of where teh victim is blamed.

Interesting, link, Sardine Queen, thank you! Good for her :) It's the first time I've thought about this. Sorry if I seem a but dumb. Do accused (unconvicted) rapists ever sue for defamation? If complainants are protected from this in a criminal case, would a civil case expose them to counter-claims?

I'm sure they could garlicbutter.

However as very few claims of rape are actually malicious/made up, you probably wouldn't see much happen from that.

Reading the news it also seems to me that while the police and CPS are very poor at obtaining convictions for rape, when they find out a woman has lied they are excellent at prosecuting her.

I will go against my feminist freinds and say that if a woman has been proven to have made a false accusation then the police are correct in prosecuting.

Whilst there are women who make such allegations it makes those who are brave enough to make a true accusation all that harder.

I don't know that anyone has said that the police shouldn't prosecute when there are false allegations mamazon?

Personally I think it should be case by case. For example if a woman is mentally ill then I'm not sure that treatment wouldn't be more appropriate. I also disagreed with the decision recently to imprison that woman for falsely withdrawing allegations.

But on the whole obviously if someone has made a malicious allegation and wasted police time then yes they should face the consequences.

My point was simply that the police and CPS seem to be far more adept at prosecuting these women than they do men who rape people. I don't have any stats to back that up, just that I read about it in the paper all the time, while i don't read about successful prosecutions for rape very often at all.

And that given that rape is super-common, while false claims are rare, it seems to indicate that maybe the criminal justice system take cases of women who have lied much more seriously than cases where women have been raped.

Sorry for multiple posts.

That particular case drew a lot of attention and I do not think it is representative of ordinary investigations. We need to keep some perspective and concentrate on raising the conviction rates for rape and not dwell on the very very few number of women who make up allegations.

yes yes i agree. A conviction of PTCOJ is high profile yet the rape cases get a one inch paragraph at the side of the local paper.

If women are being pursued more vigorously and punished more harshly for making it up, than men are for actually raping people, then I really think there is an issue there.

If it is the case then it certainly demonstrates very clearly a built-in misogyny in the entire criminal justice system.

If you take out the nature of the crime itself, Police and CPS will find the easy route to convict anyone for any crime -usually with an admission attached. No one admits to rape but people will admit to perverting the course of justice if all the information shows that is the case. It is easier to show.

And I agree about the misogyny too.

it's probably way easier to get a woman for making it up than to get a rapist - if they get her to sign something to say none of it was true they've got all they need to prosecute her.

x-posts with Scurry

I agree Lenin. I like your "We believe you" slogan very much.

That could be the opening page of the blog....

Rape Myths:

No. 1..... etc.

I'm thinking "aloud" here as ideas occur, btw - I haven't necessarily thought everything through by a long way....

I think we need some kind of procedural change.
I was very struck by the fact that judges have to give reasons for their verdicts whereas a jury's deliberations are private. This is insane. And when it comes to rape it means that juries can come to a verdict based on all sorts of prejudiced, ignorant false beliefs but there is no comeback.
Maybe in a sense the problem is that the reality of rape is so far removed from most people's expectations (eg. you might reasonably expect if a woman has been raped she won't want to talk to her rapist; in reality she might well be in denial or taking a while to process what has happened and consequently continue to go out with him) that it is not reasonable to expect juries, who know nothing about it, to come to sensible verdicts - it would be like asking a bunch of non-medically trained people to diagnose an illness.

I am inclined to think that taking rape trials out of the hands of juries is the way to go though I can see there are arguments against this.

If there was some way of making their deliberations open and constraining their decisions more so they cannot reach a verdict on the basis of demonstrably false beliefs, that would be good, but I have never heard this suggested so I guess there are too many problems with it.

I think it is incredibly urgent though.
BrokenGirl is worried her attacker may attack someone else. He has already done more than enough damage. My waking up to this issue was partly as a result of a girl from my school being murdered by a serial killer who, like so many others, had a long record of violence against women for which he was not properly punished. The reality is that men who kill women do not generally do so with no warning, they build up to it after a series of more and more violent attacks over the years. The fact that even when it is bloody obvious a man is committing acts of increasing violence there is apparently no way to keep society safe from him because of these big holes in our legal system is horrendous.
I mean, the scale of what some of these men do and still get away with is mind-boggling - that the London cab rapist had raped over 100 women without being stopped is unbelievable, if it happened in another country you would think it was a sign of a very uncivilised country and probably severe gender inequality.

Specialist juries?