This suggestion was made tongue-in-cheek. The proposed change in Australian law that she is protesting (because she thinks it will make false rape claims more common) is, to my way of thinking, completely just and fair. Consent can be withdrawn during sex, and the guy has no right to continue without consent. I'm not sure why that's controversial.
As readers of this blog know, I frequently report on the "depressing" news of false allegations of sexual assault. While there is no firm consensus about the frequency of such accusations (except that the oft-repeated two percent is without any legitimate basis and is far too low), the serious literature shows a range of false claims from nine percent to in excess of fifty percent of all claims. This means that of all rape claims, it could be that half the real victims are men falsely accused.
One can acknowledge that rape is an awful thing and, without contradiction, assert that false accusations of rape are not "an urban myth" as some in the sexual assault counseling industry maintain. It is perplexing, and hurtful, that these people, who properly want to raise awareness about rape, feel a need to denigrate the falsely accused by dismissing their victimization as an "urban myth." We owe it to those innocent men and, yes, to true rape victims whose claims might be doubted because of these lies, to educate women about the harm they do when they cry "rape" when no rape was committed.
Some of you may have even figured out that I have a special interest in this issue. I do. I am currently writing a more serious article about the unnecessary politicization of what should be a straightforward question -- what is the frequency of false rape claims? And, yes, it is a depressing subject. Depressing because special interest politics have long interfered with the search for the truth.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
re: your last paragraph.
I think your writing such a paper is a serious undertaking. But from my experience, unless you have someone on the inside you will have a difficult time getting true numbers from any police agency, let alone Pittsburgh P.D. (that's a subject for another post).
I'm not sure if any agencies even keep track of rape reports that subsequently are retracted, found as unfounded or otherwise debunked.
Good luck with that.
The numbers are a moving target -- there have been very few serious studies, but one track carefully tracked claims in a midwest town found false claims were in excess of 40%. There are some FBI stats, but no one is ever going to be able to say with certainty. They classify them as "false" or "unfounded," which are both different from "unproven." The worst of it is that the rape cottage industry lobby has ordained two percent the as the final number, and people who've objectively looked at it say that's simply far too low, it's a number made up from whole cloth.
Post a Comment