A very compelling reason not to report rape

[GoldenWonderwall]

www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/vulnerable-women-routinely-jailed-false-rape?bfsource=bbf_enuk&utm_term=.dqqYVQ8bn4#.xkj2yRPZQA

I feel sick. I can’t believe that the police and cps use the difficulties in securing rape convictions against women to convict them. Taking a mother away from her baby, causing a mentally ill woman to take her own life. I’m sure there is some sensational reporting here but I’m unsurprised.

What can we do? Is there anything to be done or is it just another big brick in the wall of stfu about rape and sexual assault ladies?

That poor girl lastGirl

Falsely reporting a crime is falsely reporting a crime. There’s no evidence that any of these women maliciously created a scenario to get back at some bloke. There is evidence of severe and enduring mental health problems, backgrounds of abuse and prosecutors that don’t appear to know their arse from their elbow.

If you read the article, the woman separated from her infant child had a history of being covered in bruises and injuries. If she was (as was said) maliciously doing it to herself a la Gone Girl why did no one help her? Why did her partner not do something to help over that time or leave because that person was obviously implying they were being domestically abused. It’s bollocks quite frankly and the misogyny drips from every case. The cps aren’t fit for purpose.

There is evidence of severe and enduring mental health problems, backgrounds of abuse and prosecutors that don’t appear to know their arse from their elbow.

This is the case with most crimes, I believe. Prisoners kill themselves at the rate of two a week.

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/26/prison-suicides-in-england-and-wales-reaches-record-high

It's only a couple of steps away from stoning a woman for adultery if she reports being raped by someone other than her husband, isn't it

It's horrific.

I was witness for the prosecution in my friend's rape trial - who had been subjected to marital rape for years. What she went through in court was Hell on earth. Having experienced this, with her, I would be very unlikely to report rape myself.

She did get a conviction - and thank god, because I am convinced that had he been found not guilty, he would have brought a private prosecution against her for false accusations/perjury. He is a vindictive fucker who used every nasty trick in the book to discredit her, and he has a lot of money, enough to fund a private prosecution.

Having experienced this, with her, I would be very unlikely to report rape myself.

Sorry for the repetition there.

I knew a girl (yes, she was a girl, very young) who was jailed for this. She was living in a homeless shelter at the time, had a long history of abuse and neglect from when she was a baby and had severe mental health issues. She did lie about things, maybe even compulsively, but there is NO WAY anyone will ever convince me that jail was the place for her.

Would you say the same for a rapist who had an abusive childhood and MH issues?

@iloveirnbru: No, I wouldn't, because rape and lying are not even remotely comparable crimes. One is a physical and sexual assault against another person's body, the other is untrue words.

I'm also going to highlight the very first sentence, which you seem to have misunderstood or ignored: I knew a girl (yes, she was a girl, very young) In this forum, we use the word "woman" to refer to adult female humans and "girl" is reserved for female human children. Thr poster has made it clear that she means "female human child" when she writes "yes a girl, very young". You are treating a child who lies as equivalent to an adult rapist in terms of accountability.

@thebewilderness, I haave another rule of misogyny for you: Whatever a woman or girl does wrong, no matter how minor it was or what the mitigating circumstances are, is automatically deemed to be as bad as the worst things that a man or boy does.

The majority of thee women were raped.
The police punish them for recanting.
They recant most of the time because the rapist threatens to kill them or their family.

This was a common practice in this area until the police were repeatedly embarrassed by evidence found when the serial rapists they had failed to pursue were finally caught. The evidence consisted of trophies from the rapes where the police had prosecuted the victims.
The common thread seemed to be that the police officers badgered the victims until the victims gave up on ever being believed and recanted so they could go the eff home and stop the abuse. Bingo! Charged and convicted. Exonerated when the serial rapist was finally found.
It happened so often it became a scandal, just like this news report is scandalous. Prosecutors abuse their power and the public pays the victim a token settlement for what should never have been done to them and lawmakers designate money to train the police not to be misogynists. It lasts a little while, then they go right back to abusing victims and their prosecution power.

But what kind of mentally stable woman makes a false accusation? The whole thing just seems wrong and mishandled. Time for a think of the law surely. Anonimity for those accused of rape would do away with the justification for prosecuting false rape allegations altogether for instance.

@metrorider but surely the consequences of a rape accusation (prison time, relationship break down, sex offenders register, being unable to find work, mental health problems, suicide) while different to the consequences of rape are equally serious. In many ways are crime where you attempt to Rob someone of their reputation is far worse than a physical assault. One can move past sexual assault (not all do of course but many do) but you can only move past allegations of a serious crime if the world lets you. There is also an undercurrent of the perversion of the rule of law where false accusations are concerned so that adds another element to it.

How horrendous that women are being jailed for reporting a crime. And I agree I’m sure in the majority of cases they will have been raped but evidence not enough to convict the perpetrator. So how can there possibly be enough evidence to prove they weren’t raped??

Fuck off Racecardriver. You're trying to tell me that having a man pin you down and stick his penis inside you against your will possibly with violence is not as bad as being accused of rape and having your reputation damaged?

I've seen it all now, someone sticks their cock inside you no big deal you'll get over it, get accused of rape end of the world.

Fucking hell all the rapists and rape apologists and fucked up prosecutors need to go create their own society where they can just rape one another, because of course rape isn't that bad you can get over it.

From the Police Commissioners report a couple of years ago I recall that police in E&W submit 8% of rape complaints to CPS as provably false accusations. Only 2% are prosecuted. I think there's already quite a high bar to prosecuting someone for making a false complaint - it's absolutely not 'not enough evidence to convict'.

Did a pp really just say that being accused of rape is worse than being raped or did I read that wrong?

Misogynistic men always come out with that crap! They only care about themselves. They go on and on about rape accusations destroying poor men's lives...meanwhile those deviants Stuart Olding and that Jackson prick get signed to a new club! Ken Barlow and Kevin Webster (the actors) are on TV every bloody day almost in Coronation Street. Mike Tyson still around on TV.

But sure.... accusations DESTROY lives!

Meanwhile women are living with PTSD, physical injuries, mental scarring, isolation, fear from seeing their attacker who probably has walked free and living a lifetime of blaming herself and feeling distraught all because of some evil, repellant MAN!

Around 100,000 women are raped each year. A minuscule fraction of these rapists are convicted. Which means thousands of men have LIED about what went on. These men are liars. Yet no one cares.

It drags them out doesn’t it? I don’t know how anyone can seriously state being raped is less bad than being accused of being a rapist. Perhaps being murdered is less bad than being accused of being a murderer as at least one is dead, so cannot feel the sting of the reputational damage?

No woman should be prosecuted for reporting a rape without genuine evidence of malicious intent. If the police are going in guns blazing to completely innocent men where there is no evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing then the police need to sort themselves out, not take it out on women who by the sounds of it, have been traumatised by something and the logical answer statistically is that they have actually been raped.

Anyone would think they’re deliberately doing a shit job of it to stop all these women and children and men reporting crimes against them because they don’t want the work.

”No woman should be prosecuted for reporting a rape without genuine evidence of malicious intent.”

I think that’s fair. Onto this which is worse thing, I think it has to go to an actual rape itself. Rape is something that hangs over most women’s heads in such a way that it infects almost every decision women make. Up to and including feeling free to be out and about in the world. All we men have to do to reduce the risk of being falsely accused is to avoid ever being alone with women we don’t know extremely well.

I’m also struck by the double standard in that when men are accused why are they never told that they should never be alone with women, especially crazy unstable ones? People will say to rape victims “why were alone with/ had a few drinks before/ traversing that street at that time or wearing those clothes?” Nobody ever polices the falsely accused men in quite the same way?

I do worry that this article, and those like it will disinclined women to come forward as I think it overblows the risk. The article itself states the at least 200 women have been prosecuted for false accusations in ten years which is what? 20 per year? This is a fraction of a fraction of a percent of all women who come foward each year and you are way way more likely to see the rapists go to jail than the woman accused. And in given to understand rape convictions are woefully low.

This is a fraction of a fraction of a percent of all women who come foward each year and you are way way more likely to see the rapists go to jail than the woman accused. And in given to understand rape convictions are woefully low.

They are. But do you not see that when a woman is deciding whether to report a rape, this is an issue which might make you think "why bother", because the chance of getting a conviction and sending your rapist to prison is minimal too. Add to that the treatment the woman will get in court which can be horrifying, look at the Ulster rape trial where the complainants underwear was shown in the court and she was cross examined over a period of 8 days. Look at the vilification she might receive on social media like the Ched Evans complainant. And then look at the possibility that she might not be seen as truthful and either the police/CPS might prosecute or the alleged rapist might take out a private prosecution? Look at the Layla Ibrahim case I linked to below. Where is the strong evidence that she lied? And yet she went to prison 6 months pregnant.

Do you understand why it's yet another reason (and a terrifying one) why women might be reluctant to report a rape?

I'm annoyed that we hear a lot about suicide risk in falsely accused men and nothing is said about the women who commit suicide when their rapist is acquitted/not charged etc.
Total double standards. Men's lives are worth more.

@racecardriver A false accusation can't leave you with physical injuries, STIs, nor pregnancy. A false accusation can't leave you with vaginismus, where the vagina cramps involuntarily when penetrated and leaves the woman incapable of sex or tampon use and facing agony at every smear test. False accusation doesn't leave you having panic attacks during smear tests, coil fittings, and well woman exams.

A lot of the problems with false accusation could be solved with mandating that the press publish corrections as prominently as they publish the original incorrect thing, e.g. if the original story was a front page headline the correction should be as well, having cases come to court faster so that defendants spend less time in limbo, and recognising that presumption of the defendant's innocence and #ibelieveher

Damn, finger slipped and posted too soon.

recognising that presumption of the defendant's innocence and #ibelieveher can and should coexist. The victim has been raped but may be mistaken as to the identity of the attacker. The victim may not clearly remember details of the attack and that makes it impossible to prove the criminal intent and so guilt cannot be conclusively proved. The victim still deserves all support and to be believed, but that stops short of jailing the perp because our justice system is supposed to err on the side of presumption of innocence. I don't agree with defendant anonymity because so many rapists are serial attackers and it's only when the charge is reported that other victims come forwards. I do believe that rape charges making front-page headlines and reporters turning up to photograph and film arrests are poor newsroom decisions that reflect how rapes continue to be treated as salacious "sex scandal" stories when they are in fact about male entitlement.

I feel so angry and sick reading this.