Victim blaming, or sensible advice

[MyUserName]

What I don't understand is why people (and not just men) are so keen to disbelieve women who report rape. If someone reports an assault, "Do I believe you?" isn't usually the starting position.

I am not an expert in the field but I would assume that the belief and lack of belief of a victim is important when two people are making opposite claims about consent and there are no witnesses or other types of evidence. So it would not be a question of belief in the victim's word but proof beyond reasonable doubt based purely on someone's word?

In situations where there is an assault kind of rape (my then gf, now wife,was at the receiving end of one of these but luckily she kicked the guys head in. He managed to out run her but when she was being interviewed by the police whether she was telling the truth or not was never an issue, nor was what she was wearing, why she was along at night etc.

[mudskipper]

I am not an expert in the field but I would assume that the belief and lack of belief of a victim is important when two people are making opposite claims about consent and there are no witnesses or other types of evidence. So it would not be a question of belief in the victim's word but proof beyond reasonable doubt based purely on someone's word?

In situations where there is an assault kind of rape (my then gf, now wife,was at the receiving end of one of these but luckily she kicked the guys head in. He managed to out run her but when she was being interviewed by the police whether she was telling the truth or not was never an issue, nor was what she was wearing, why she was along at night etc.

Agree - but plenty of crimes are one person's word against another. That's why you have to prove beyond reasonable doubt. Many rape cases are dropped because of this - 'false accusation' stats seem to include 'insufficient evidence to prosecute' - some surely are false accusations, probably many aren't.

Any discussion of rape inevitably ends up with someone bringing up women who make it up. That doesn't happen for other crimes.

Not playing down the impact of women who do falsely accuse someone - it must be devastating - but I'd hope it's very much the exception, not the norm.

[MyUserName]

Agree - but plenty of crimes are one person's word against another. That's why you have to prove beyond reasonable doubt. Many rape cases are dropped because of this - 'false accusation' stats seem to include 'insufficient evidence to prosecute' - some surely are false accusations, probably many aren't.

I find it unlikely that most of them are false accusations. A person would need some serious malice to make up something like that and push it as far as court.

Any discussion of rape inevitably ends up with someone bringing up women who make it up. That doesn't happen for other crimes.

True, although I am not sure there are many serious crimes which hinge so completely on one person's word against another's?

Not playing down the impact of women who do falsely accuse someone - it must be devastating - but I'd hope it's very much the exception, not the norm.

This sort of thing happened to a friend. He had sex with a girl at a party in the next room to where everyone was partying. She claimed he raped her he claimed consent. It went to court and witnesses said that they had seen them come out of the room laughing and joking and the victim had rejoined the party and seemed to enjoy herself until her boyfriend picked her up later. Other inconsistencies were brought out in her statement and he was found not guilty (or the case was thrown out, I cannot remember exactly). He was fired for bringing the company into disrepute and had to move home (from North England to South Wales) to avoid being hassled.

[SueEllen]

What I don't understand is why people (and not just men) are so keen to disbelieve women who report rape. If someone reports an assault, "Do I believe you?" isn't usually the starting position.

One of the issues is guys who rape are normal men.

The media makes out in it's reports that the man involved is some kind of weirdo/monster so this means that when people are confronted with a victim of rape they don't believe them.

The paedophile cases going on at the moment are another example of this. The children who were abused weren't believed because the (mainly) men involved were normal.

[EternalOptimist]

What I don't understand is why people (and not just men) are so keen to disbelieve women who report rape. If someone reports an assault, "Do I believe you?" isn't usually the starting position.

I guess we are getting close the point where we are asking for a poll
anonymous of course

1)have you ever been assaulted sexually
2)raped
3)convicted of rape
4)falsely accused of rape

[mudskipper]

I guess we are getting close the point where we are asking for a poll
anonymous of course

1)have you ever been assaulted sexually
2)raped
3)convicted of rape
4)falsely accused of rape

I can imagine the AndyW option might seem to be in poor taste!

[EternalOptimist]

I can imagine the AndyW option might seem to be in poor taste!

heh heh