Why are people so defensive towards alleged rapists?

[PinkyofPie]

If you're charged with a crime that goes to court, unless there's a reason to retain anonymity (such as it involves your child therefore naming you effectively names them) the press can name you if they wish to do so. Be it burglary, assault, theft or rape.

So why, every time a rapist is on trial, do people hop about saying "innocent until proven guilty" "they shouldn't be named they're tarred for life now" etc. But literally NO other crime.

A few days ago my local paper posted a picture on their FB newsfeed of 2 men on trial accused of raping a 18yo in the park. The above comments were there and even calls to "name and shame" the victim and also "will she get sentenced if they're found not guilty". Perhaps because "not guilty" does not mean innocent and if the law worked that way even fewer women would report rape than there is now

One of the men accused also posted mocking both the trial and people who actually had sensible comments. I looked at his profile, which is public, and there's lots of people saying "good luck mate" for today (verdict) and memes about liars getting their comeuppance.

Today both men were unanimously found guilty by the jury in just 7 hours.

No comments so far on the post about their guilt.

Can anyone offer an explanation as to why people take this attitude with rape, and only rape? The poor survivor has had to read all that sympathy for them

An agenda for what exactly?

There just needs to be restraint in publishing details. I can see your points with regards to other victims coming forward, but for the men that are genuinely falsely accused then it's life changing - an allegation is out there forever.

I've been thinking about it and I'm beginning to think that rape doesn't really exist.

I suspect it was term coined by feminists in the 1970's as another way to hurt and abuse innocent men who were already downtrodden and oppressed by us evil women.

There is no proof rape is a real thing. It is clearly just something us evil bitchy women use to get poor innocent menz sent to prison.

Us women are evil. We must be stopped but how?

There are male posters who just hang around on MN waiting for threads on the subject of rape to post on. They post on almost no other threads. I would love to know why they think this is normal.

Seriously?

I Googled false rape accusations prosecuted. According to The Guardian there were 109 in 5 years prior to 2014.

Of the ones I looked at several were not false in the sense of consenting or not consenting but false as to the fact that intercourse didn't happen at all. One was false to the extent that not only did intercourse not happen but the alleged attackers didn't exist and had not broken into her house. I am not forming the impression that if a court doesn't convict or if the CPS decide not to prosecute that will lead to a charge being brought against the woman.

The police will take demonstrably false accusations of rape seriously. They will take demonstrably false allegations of all crime seriously.

Oh, all those thousands and thousands of men who are wrongly accused. 85,000 of them every single year.

Oh no, hang on, that's women raped. But yes, it's more important to think about the feels of a handful of men.

Poor Michael Jackson. No one is buying his music anymore. Poor Bill Roache. Poor Craig Charles. Poor Woody Allen. Poor Roman Polanski. Their lives are all ruined beyond repair. They will never work again.

Wait a minute...

Hap I wonder why posters like that are not banned tbh.

What do they add to the place?

I've not said anything like that. I don't have the answers, I wish I did.

As I have already said, rape is horrendous, happens far too often and I totally agree the sentencing is ridiculous.

All I am saying is that you can't just chuck people under the bus. Imagine if it was your brother/father/nephew/uncle etc who was falsely accused?

Ok. Obviously by far too often I mean it should never ever happen, before you jump on me for that one.

Imagine if it was your brother/father/nephew/uncle etc who was falsely accused?

Because of course if my father, uncle, nephew or brother was accused of rape then the accusation would of course without a doubt be a false one.

Obviously rapists don't have families or friends or jobs or any kind of life outside raping people and of course all rapists have horns and the word "rapist" tattooed on their forehead.

So there is of course no way that anybody's father or son or nephew could have possibly raped someone therefore the accusation would obviously be a false one.

Right.

Some men are evil and some women can be vindictive bitches - there's bad on either side. Lives shouldn't be ruined for either.

Though I understand what you are trying to say, imo that phrase makes it look too much like an equal equation of:
false rapes/accused person's life ruined vs true rapes/raped person's life ruined.
It couldn't be less equal.

For what it is worth, I agree that it would be awful to be accused of rape/murder/killing my own child in a cot death for example/theft. People have been wrongly accused for all of these.

There has recently be a case of a school teacher, Kato? who was accused by student of raping her on 3 occasions in a classroom(?) with a glass window and an open door at lunch time I think. He was acquitted by the jury in a short time. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/26/geography-teacher-cleared-of-raping-private-school-pupil-whose-f/
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/26/geography-teacher-cleared-of-raping-private-school-pupil-whose-f/
So many people seem sure he was innocent, it seems he will genuinely be believed to be innocent terrible though it must be for him.

But what if other students had been assaulted by him in the past but had not dared come forward before? By naming him they would have been more likely to. This has been the case with abuse at some famous schools. That they did not, was in his favour I should think.

Here, a girl killed herself because she was going to be prosecuted for false rape allegations. (I do not know the story behind the allegations)
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3711168/Angry-vengeful-shipping-magnate-s-son-loses-libel-case-against-father-woman-accused-rape-killed-hers

You are not prepared to see any other view than your own are you? So I put it back - what's the point in posting on here?

Posters who don't believe men being falsely accused of rape ruins their lives should read this heartbreaking article.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/29/mother-of-son-who-hanged-himself--after-being-falsely-accused-of/

Well, I'm posting because I agree with what's being said. I accept the facts and figures presented to me.

I have a daughter that I worry about and sons that I'm trying to educate with regards to women.

I'm interested in Feminism and trying to learn more.

Seven RTFT.

That case has already been linked to and discussed.

It also wasn't proven to be a false accusation.

Is that the same story that's already been discussed on this thread?

Rtft ffs.

I asked how you would feel if your relative was FALSELY accused, of course all rapists have family, silly comment to come back with

But what if other students had been assaulted by him in the past but had not dared come forward before? By naming him they would have been more likely to

There is no reason not to name the accused. Occasionally it works to the accused's own benefit. I can't recall the exact details but there was a case where several former female employees of an accused came forward of their own volition to speak up as character witnesses.

Seven I'm going to copy and paste what I said earlier about that case.

It has already been pointed out that it was never actually proven to be a false accusation.

She withdrew her complaint after a few weeks however that doesn't mean she was lying. There are lots of reasons why a woman might withdraw a genuine rape complaint.

Him killing himself is not proof of a false accusation either. Plenty of people who commit crimes go on to kill themselves.

Once again I am not saying that he is a rapist. I am saying we don't know what happened.

However you can't start accusing her of a serious crime (falsely accusing people of crimes is a crime in itself remember) without proof either.

There are only two people who know for sure what happened and one of them is dead. So we will probably never know the truth.

To clarify (yet again!) we don't know for sure that the accusation in that case was false.

She accused him of rape but then withdrew the complaint a few weeks later. He later killed himself.

That's basically all we know and neither of those things prove that he was falsely accused.

He may well have raped her. Likewise she may well have made the whole thing up and falsely accused him. The point is we don't know because it hasn't been proven either way.

www.cps.gov.uk/thames_chiltern/cps_thames_and_chiltern_news/retracting_rape_and_domestic_violence_allegations/

This is interesting. Would you believe it? It seems people can be, or have been, prosecuted for not only for a maliciously false accusation of rape, but for retracting a rape accusation (when a rape really happened).

Does anybody want to bet on how many more posts it will be before that article is posted again as some kind of proof that false accusations ruins lives (even though we don't know the accusations made against him were false)?

It's already been posted three times so next time will be the fourth...I'll give it 20 posts.

A THIRD of college students in the US questioned in this (well reported but admittedly small) study said they would use force to have sex if they thought they wouldn't get caught.

There have been two larger studies done asking college students and army recruits about their actual behaviour. They suggested that about 10 % of men admit to rape as long as the word rape isn't used when they are questioned.

Nobody is disputing rape happens

I asked how you would feel if your relative was FALSELY accused

How would I know the accusations were false?