False Rape Allegations

Discussion in 'Women's Forum' started by iiaajmn, Oct 18, 2004.

  1. iiaajmn

    iiaajmn Banned

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    This thread will be devoted to discussing one of the most heinous of crimes: the false rape allegations.

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    Believe Her! The Woman Never Lies Myth
    Frank S. Zepezauer*
    ABSTRACT: Empirical evidence does not support the widespread belief that women are extremely unlikely to make false accusations of male sexual misconduct. Rather the research on accusations of rape, sexual harassment, incest, and child sexual abuse indicates that false accusations have become a serious problem. The motivations involved in making a false report are widely varied and include confusion, outside influence from therapists and others, habitual lying, advantages in custody disputes, financial gain, and the political ideology of radical feminism.


    Male sexual misconduct — rape, incest, stalking, sexual harassment, child molestation, pornography trafficking — has, according to some observers, become a problem so big that it demands a big solution, not only the reform of our legal system but of our entire society. Yet the increasingly heated debate over this crisis has focused primarily on how these misbehaviors are defined and how often they occur. The estimated numbers keep mounting. We hear that perhaps 31 million women are suffering from some form of rape, 41 million from harassment, 58 million from child sexual abuse, and all 125 million of them — from toddlers to grandmothers — from a toxic "rape culture" that suffocates the feminine spirit.

    Much less discussed is how often an allegation of male sexual misconduct is false. The question seldom enters the debate because, presumably, it had long ago been settled. Pennsylvania State Law Professor Philip Jenkins (1993), in a review of the "feminist jurisprudence" which leads the sex crisis counterattack, reports that in response to the question its proponents have established an "unchallengeable orthodoxy." It is that "women did not lie about such victimization, never lied, not out of personal malice, not from mental instability or derangement" (p.19).

    Jenkins is not the first to cite this will to believe. Wendy Kaminer (1993) reported that "it is a primary article of faith among many feminists that women don't lie about rape, ever; they lack the dishonesty gene" (p.67). Eight years earlier, in 1985, John O'Sullivan discovered a widespread defense of the belief that "no woman would fabricate a rape charge" (p.22). Feminists themselves admit as much. Law Professor Susan Estrich stated that "the whole effort at reforming rape laws has been an attack on the premise that women who bring complaints are suspect" (Newsweek, 1985, p.61). Some feminists believe that even defending that premise is a sex crime. Alan Dershowitz (1993) reports that he was accused of sexual harassment for discussing in class the possibility of false rape allegations.

    Believing the self-proclaimed victim of sexual misconduct has thus evolved from ideological conviction to legal doctrine and, in some jurisdictions, into law. California now requires that jurors be explicitly told that a rape conviction can be based on the accuser's testimony alone, without corroboration (Associated Press, 1992; Farrell, 1993). Canada is proposing that a man accused of rape must demonstrate that he received the willing consent of a sexual partner.

    These new rules rest on the assumption that women do not lie because they have no motive to lie. Consequently, as Jenkins (1993) states, the question of the "victim's credibility" has now become "crucial."

    Is that credibility warranted, particularly as feminist jurisprudence would want it established, as nearly automatic? Not if we consult recent history. And if we do, we will find that we do indeed face a sexual misconduct crisis, but not the one radical feminists now insist is ubiquitous in our society.


    False Accusations of Rape

    Begin with evidence of false accusation of rape, the crime which has become not only the metaphor for all cases of sexual misconduct but for male sexuality itself. Alan Dershowitz (1991), for example, has further harassed his students by telling them that an annual F.B.I. survey of 1600 law enforcement agencies discovered that 8% of rape charges are completely unfounded. That figure, which has held steadily over the past decade, is moreover at least twice as high as for any other felony. Unfounded charges of assault, which like rape is often productive of conflicting testimony, comprise only 1.6% of the total compared to the 8.4% recorded for rape.

    Consult also a recent development, DNA testing, which is now becoming routine in rape investigations (Krajik, 1993). Also routine is the discovery that a third of the DNA scans produce non-matches. Consequently, a growing number of men are not only gaining acquittals but are also being released from prison. As with all rape statistics, these figures need careful scrutiny. Police investigators warn, for example, that a mismatch proves innocence only when the DNA could have come from no one but the assailant and its profile or makeup doesn't match the suspect's. Even so, the DNA tests, primarily a prosecutorial weapon, have now been added to the arsenal of defense attorneys, and more evidence of false allegation is appearing.

    Although useful, the F.B.I. and DNA data on sex crimes result from unstructured number gathering. More informative, therefore, are the results of a focused study of the false allegation question undertaken by a team headed by Charles P McDowell (McDowell & Hibler, 1985) of the U.S. Air Force Special Studies Division. Its significance derives not only from its scholarly credentials but also its time of origin, 1984/85, a period during which rape had emerged as a major issue, but before its definition included almost any form of non-consensual sex.

    The McDowell team studied 556 rape allegations. Of that total, 256 could not be conclusively verified as rape. That left 300 authenticated cases of which 220 were judged to be truthful and 80, or 27%, were judged as false. In his report Charles McDowell stated that extra rigor was applied to the investigation of potentially false allegations. To be considered false one or more of the following criteria had to be met: the victim unequivocally admitted to false allegation, indicated deception in a polygraph test, and provided a plausible recantation. Even by these strict standards, slightly more than one out of four rape charges were judged to be false.

    The McDowell report has itself generated controversy even though, when rape is a frequent media topic, it is not widely known. Its calculations are no doubt problematic enough to raise serious questions. If, out of 556 rape allegations, 256 could not be conclusively verified as rape, then a large number, 46%, entered a gray area within which more than a few, if not all, of the accusations could have been authentic. If so, the 27% false allegation figure obtained from the remaining 300 cases could be badly skewed. Moreover, the study itself focused on a possibly non-representative population of military personnel.

    The McDowell team did in fact address these questions in follow-up studies. They recruited independent reviewers who were given 25 criteria derived from the profiles of the women who openly admitted making a false allegation. If all three reviewers agreed that the rape allegation was false, it was then listed by that description. The result: 60% of the accusations were identified as false. McDowell also took his study outside the military by examining police files from a major midwestern and a southwestern city. He found that the finding of 60% held (Farrell, 1993, pp. 321-329).

    McDowell's data have received qualified confirmation from other investigators. A survey of seven Washington, D.C. area jurisdictions in the 1991/2 period, for example, revealed that an average of 24% of rape charges were unfounded (Buckley, 1992). A recently completed study of a small midwestern city was reported by Eugene J. Kanin (1994) of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Purdue University. Kanin concluded that "false rape allegations constitute 41% of the total forcible rape cases reported during this period" (p.81).

    Kanin provides significant confirmation of McDowell's findings in several ways. Kanin's subject, for example, covered a nine-year period — 1978-87 — during which rape had become a highly-politicized issue. Members of the police department from which the data was taken were therefore sensitive to the kinds of misperceptions about which parties to the dispute had complained. The city offered a relatively useful model: free of the unrepresentative populations found in resort areas, remote from the extreme crime conditions plaguing large communities, small enough to allow careful investigation of suspicious allegations, but large enough to produce a useful sample of 109 cases. The investigators also separated "unfounded" from "false" rape allegations, a distinction sometimes blurred in other reports. Moreover, among the strict guidelines used to determine an allegation's unreliability was McDowell's requirement that only unambiguous recantations be used.

    Equally revealing were addenda following Kanin's basic report. They reported studies in two large Midwestern state universities which covered a three-year period ending in 1988. The finding of the combined studies was that among a total of 64 reported rapes exactly 50% were false. Kanin found these results significant because the women in the main report tended to gather in the lower socioeconomic levels, thus raising questions about correlations of false allegation with income and educational status. After checking figures gathered from university police departments, he therefore reported that "quite unexpectedly then, we find that these university women, when filing a rape complaint, were as likely to file a false as a valid charge." In addition, Kanin cited still another source (Jay, 1991) which supported findings of high frequency false allegations in the universities. On the basis of these studies, Kanin felt it reasonable to conclude that "false rape accusations are not uncommon" (p.90).


    Sexual Harassment

    Alan Dershowitz's experience with an esoteric definition of sexual harassment also raises questions about false allegations in this newly-defined but widely publicized crime. Skeptical checking has revealed that, as with rape, the percentage of unfounded accusations of sexual harassment may reach astonishingly high levels. That was the claim of Randy Daniels, whose confirmation for New York City's Deputy Mayor was almost derailed by a sexual harassment charge he was able to refute. To see whether his experience was relatively rare, Daniels checked with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He found that in 1991, the EEOC investigated or mediated 2119 cases of sexual harassment and found that 59% were determined to have no cause (Daniels, 1993, p. 1). Since the Hill/Thomas affair they have gone up sharply — up 64% in one year — but so have false allegations, remaining steadily in the plus 50% range.


    Child Sexual Abuse

    This rape and sexual harassment pattern — expanding definitions, rapidly increasing accusations, intensely politicized publicity campaigns, and significantly high percentages of false allegations — has also appeared in still another arena, the agencies which deal with the sexual molestation of children. With this kind of sexual misconduct the credibility of a third party, the child, becomes a factor, and we hear, in addition to appeals to "believe the woman" an appeal to "believe the child." We are now learning that children can be manipulated into supplying dramatic testimony of sexual abuse and that in most cases the accusation originates not with the child but with the mother. Thus the question of credibility once again focuses on women. As one lawyer put it, "For a lot of these people 'believe the child' is just code. What they really mean is, 'believe the woman, no questions asked"' (Stein, 1992, p. 160).

    To keep this issue in perspective, note three significant facts. The first is that of the 2,700,000 cases of child abuse reported every year less than 10% involve serious physical abuse and only 8% involve alleged sexual abuse (Schultz, 1989). The second is that, contrary to the male victimizer/female victim paradigm of feminist ideology, at least as many boys as girls are victimized by child abuse, if not more. The third is that the majority of child abusers are women, that the most dangerous environment for a child is a home formed by a single mother and her boyfriend, and the safest is formed by a married mother and a husband who is the child's biological father.1

    In many cases allegations of child sexual abuse occur in a nasty divorce made nastier by a custody fight. It is now so common that it has received scholarly attention and its own acronym, S.A.I.D. (Sexual Allegations in Divorce). The consensus is that in "S.A.I.D. syndrome" cases the number of such allegations increased so rapidly — up from 7 to 30% in the eighties — that one scholarly team called it an "explosion." Others, noting how often the guilt of the accused was assumed, used the word "hysteria" and searched for analogies in the Salem and the McCarthy witch hunts (Stein, 1992).

    Another consensus is being reached: that the majority of these allegations are false. Melvin Guyer, Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, reports that "in highly contested custody cases where the allegation is made, a number of researchers have found the allegations to be false or unsubstantiated in anywhere from 60 to 80% of those cases " (Felten, 1991). Another investigative team stated that of 200 cases they studied" about three-fourths have ultimately been adjudicated as no abuse" (Felten, 1991). Some studies have come in with a lower but still significant estimate. For example, a 1988 study by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts said that sexual molestation charges in divorces are probably false one-third of the time (Dvorchak, 1992).

    Allegations of child abuse, both divorce related and in general, are flying out so frequently that those who believe themselves victimized by false charges have organized a nationwide support group, VOCAL (Victims Of Child Abuse Laws), which now includes 80 local chapters. This group refers its members to both informal and professional counsel, sends out a newsletter, and offers access to a rapidly expanding data base. In 1989, its summary of relevant statistics cited 23 studies which reported findings on both sexual and non-sexual child abuse. Among these, the lowest assessment of false allegation was 35%, the highest 82%, averaging at 66%.


    Recovered Memories

    Those joining VOCAL are finding that an even more dramatic form of child abuse allegation is now sweeping the country. It originates with a "recovered memory" of sexual atrocity, often involving incest or satanic ritual abuse, usually made by an adult daughter against her father, and almost always discovered in therapy. This form of allegation made the headlines when celebrities such as Roseanne Arnold, La Toya Jackson, and Suzanne Sommers declared they had suddenly remembered a long repressed victimization. It is also claiming celebrities among the accused, most notably Cardinal Bernardin of the Roman Catholic Church, which was however later recanted.

    In such cases the question of credibility applies not only to the accuser or accused but also to the therapist as well as the therapeutic technique and its supporting theory. Because cases of recovered memory of abuse have surfaced relatively recently, skeptical criticism is just now beginning to appear in the media although the underlying issues have been under debate for decades. One result has been the formation of an organization whose title already makes an assertion, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. Thus to VOCAL we can add FMSF among the acronyms coined in response to the false allegation problem.

    It appears to be widespread. The FMSF reported that within two years of its founding in 1991, it had built a file of 12,000 families who believed themselves victimized by accusations prompted by false memories. Eleanor Goldstein (Goldstein & Farmer, 1992) estimates that the actual number of involved families reaches into the tens of thousands. She also cites data from the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse on the highly inflated estimates of victimization. Contrary to statements that one in four women have been abused prior to the age of 18, retrospective surveys reveal great variations, from 6 to 62%, which means, Goldstein says, "that we don't have any valid statistics at all" (p.2).

    How many of those reports of remembered child abuse, whether in the high or low range, were false? Several sources suggest that they may match figures on false allegations in reports of rape and sexual harassment. The National Center for Child Abuse reported that false allegations, which were 35% of all claims in 1975, had by 1993 reached 60% (FMSF Newsletter, 1993).

    Other sources suggest that the kind of child abuse caused by satanic ritual cults is almost totally a myth. There may be a satan and he may have followers but, contrary to widely held belief in the mid-eighties, they did not surface all over middle America. Where accusations actually led to trials, as in Jordan, Minnesota and in Los Angeles in the McMartin Preschool Case, prosecutors suffered embarrassing defeats. An extensive New Yorker report of a Washington State case reveals that at least one conviction was indeed achieved. However, after a careful analysis of the facts, the writer concludes that it was a grievous miscarriage of justice, one more ghastly example of the recovered memory theory gone amok (Wright, 1993).

    With regard to recovered memory cases which do not involve satanism, other indications point to a high number of false allegations. A strong phalanx of professional opinion has raised significant doubts about the veracity of long repressed memories even within a carefully disciplined therapeutic context. For that reason emphatic warnings are now being issued against their being used in a courtroom — not to mention a press conference — without persuasive corroboration, which, it appears, is often missing. Some mental health experts make the point more pungently. Dr. Paul Fink, head of Psychiatry at Albert Einstein Medical Center said, "If a therapist says 70 to 80% of patients remember abuse, I say the therapist ought to be a shoemaker" (Sifford, 1992). Dr. Richard Ofshe, a member of the FMSF professional advisory board who exposed the proliferating fallacies in the Washington State case, stated that "the incidence of cases in which repressed memories correspond with facts about abuse is as common as Siamese twins joined at the head" (Brzustowicz & Csicsery, 1993, p.8).


    Motivations of Accusers

    Even so, reasonable doubts about a woman's veracity in all these often sensationalized sexual misconduct cases do not necessarily mean that she has deliberately lied. She may, for example, have suffered from confusion, a problem now proliferating as the definition for sex crimes becomes increasingly complicated and inclusive, leaving all parties struggling with questions about definition and propriety. Or she may have been affected by emotional instability or mental illness, which one study reported was a factor in 75% of false allegation in divorce cases (Wakefield & Underwager, 1990). In some cases a woman or her defenders might exaggerate a misdemeanor into a felony or, as happened in Washington state, translate bad parenting into sexual misconduct.
     
  2. iiaajmn

    iiaajmn Banned

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    In addition, there has been a tendency to emphasize what a victim felt rather than what happened. Thus, a woman can truthfully say she felt raped, abused or harassed by behavior which is actually non-criminal. Moreover, the woman's feelings are often influenced by outside parties with whom she has confided — friends, family members, social workers, therapists, clergymen, rape counselors, lawyers, political activists — any of whom can interpret her emotion as a sign of felonious abuse.

    With regard to recovered memory, evidence published by the FMS Foundation suggests that the woman may be as much victimized by therapy or by recovery movement" enthusiasm as by a perpetrator hidden in her subconscious. Ericka Ingram, the primary accuser in the Washington State case, had come under the influence of both secular and religious counselors. Their intrusive encouragement helped to loosen a flood of wild charges she leveled against her father and mother as well as two of her father's colleagues. These realizations have led to an increasing number of lawsuits now being filed by former patients against incompetent or overzealous therapists. By the same token, among the divorcing wives who file sexual molestation charges against their husbands are some who have been coached by self-serving lawyers. Columnist Barbara Amiel (1989) stated that "a lawyer is coming close to negligence if he does not advise a client that in child custody cases and property disputes, the mere mention of a child abuse allegation is a significant asset" (p.25).

    In The Morning After, Katie Roiphe (1993) reported still another cause of false allegations: political passions generated by activities such as the "Take Back the Night" marches. She tells about "Mindy" who so wanted to be a "part of this blanket warmth, this woman-centered nonhierarchical empowered notion" that she was "willing to lie" (pp. 40-41). A similar story was told by a Stanford University professor whose daughter was, he claimed, behind a conspiracy to murder him. He testified that he had had a good relationship with her until she attended an anti-rape rally. "She appeared to have gotten swept up ... and was experiencing great emotional distress" (Wykes, 1993).

    These mitigating circumstances have often softened the judgment of authorities who confront women guilty of misrepresentation. In the Washington D.C. area, for example, police send women who lied about rape not to the court room but to a counseling center. The Princeton woman who accused a fellow student suffered no more than an obligation to write a public apology. Because of these sometimes compelling reasons for a departure from the truth, many officials hesitate to call a woman a liar.

    But it appears, some women with little or no evidence do not hesitate to call a man a rapist. It also appears that more than a few of them have in fact knowingly and willfully lied. Regardless of the influences working on Ericka Ingram, for example, there came a point when the evidence openly confounded her story, leaving her with the choice either to persist or recant. Because she not only persisted but further embellished her story, Richard Ofshe called her an "habitual liar" (Wright, 1993, p.69). Whether Anita Hill lied about Clarence Thomas still cannot be determined, but David Brock demonstrated that in several other matters she had indeed lied. And as Charles P. McDowell and other rape allegation researchers have discovered, at least one out of four women in their study population have openly admitted to having lied.

    Such disclosures should encourage skepticism toward the now widely held belief that, in accusations of sexual misconduct, women never lie. The same skepticism should be activated when we hear its supporting explanation: that filing such a charge is so painful that only a truthful woman would proceed. That belief, although equally strong, is equally suspect. The research that revealed how many sexual misconduct allegations are false has also revealed how often these unfounded accusations are strongly motivated.

    The clearest example of compelling motive can be found in the Sexual Allegation in Divorce (S.A.I.D.) syndrome. In such cases questionable allegations multiply because the accuser has far more to gain than to lose. Simply charging a divorcing spouse with child molestation — or wife battering or spousal rape — can turn a hot but evenly balanced custody battle into a rout. In many cases, the accused husband must vacate what had been the "family" home and submit to prolonged alienation from his children. He also finds himself ensnared by both the criminal justice and the social service bureaucracies whose conflicting rules of evidence can deny him the presumption of innocence. In a process that only a Kafka can describe, he must then devote his resources to defending himself rather than pursuing the original divorce litigation.

    Even then he may find himself in jail or in court ordered therapy while his accuser has won de facto custody not only of the children but of the house. Should he eventually win vindication, a process which can literally take years, he may enjoy at best a hollow victory which leaves him financially and emotionally drained, nursing a permanently injured reputation and functioning as an "absent" father with a sparse schedule of controlled visits. It is no wonder, then, that to express the reality commentators have sometimes used dramatic language, such as "the ultimate weapon" or the "atom bomb."

    The impressive results that are so often easily achieved with false allegations in custody disputes suggest the kind of temptations women may feel in other situations. Among those found to have lied about rape or sexual harassment, for example, a number of motivations have been identified. The McDowell report listed those they uncovered in declining order of appearance. "Spite or revenge" and "to compensate for feelings of guilt or shame" accounted for 40% of such allegations (Farrell, 1993, p. 325). A small percentage were attributed to "mental/emotional disorder or attempted extortion." In all cases, then, the falsely alleging woman had any of several strong motives to lie. But, as with the S.A.I.D. syndrome, the most common motive was anger, an emotion which prompts more than a few embattled women to reach for "the ultimate weapon.

    Although money gained through extortion ranked low among the motives for false rape allegations, it appears to rank higher when sexual harassment claims prove to be unfounded. A casual survey of some of the suits that have been filed suggests why. In the eighties, successful claims often brought damages in the $50,000 to $100,000 range. After the explosion ignited by the Hill/Thomas case, not only the number of claims but damage awards have skyrocketed. A clothing store cashier successfully sued her employer for $500,000. Employees of Stroh's Brewery claimed that the company's commercials, which showed the "Swedish Bikini Team," constituted harassment and sued for damages ranging between $350,000 and $550,000. In the famous locker room harassment case, Lisa Olson was reported to have received a settlement ranging between $250,00 and $700,000. Damage claims — and awards — in the millions are becoming more common.

    In some cases which were later proved to be false, the financial stakes were particularly high. One lawyer was charged with coaching six of his clients to "embellish or lie" about some of the incidents on which they based a sexual harassment case. They had asked for $487,000 (Gonzales, 1993). Eleven women from the Miss Black America Pageant, after claiming that Mike Tyson had touched them on their rears, filed a $607 million lawsuit against him. Several of the contestants later admitted they had lied in the hope of getting publicity and cashing in on the award money which would have given them around $20 million each (Farrell, 1993, p.328).

    But where extortion does appear, the motivation may be political as well as monetary not only in particular cases but in the growth of the entire sexual misconduct crisis. Whether it is rape or sexual harassment or divorce-related child molestation or recovered incest memory, many of the investigators eventually mention the influence of ideological feminism. Katie Roiphe, for example, found feminist politics at work in the phony rape story invented by Mindy, the imaginative Princeton co-ed. Norman Podhoretz, who wrote about "Rape in Feminist Eyes," attributes the current over-publicized obsession with rape to "the influence of man-hating elements within the (women's) movement (which) has grown so powerful as to have swept all before it" (1992, p.29). As far back as 1985 John Sullivan attributed the overheated denial of false accusation to attempts to defend the "feminist theory of rape." And Philip Jenkins (1993), who reported the trend toward automatically-assumed female credibility, stated that it was part of a larger campaign to establish "feminist jurisprudence."

    Whatever their motivations in particular cases, there is little doubt that ideological feminists have achieved significant political gains from publicizing the sexual misconduct crisis. Lisa Olson's feelings of harassment may for example have been genuine, but as the focus for a prolonged media event that established for female reporters an access to locker rooms it was as unpopular with the general public as it was with male athletes. The real Anita Hill may or may not have been lying, but the Hill/Thomas affair propelled sexual harassment into a hot issue that rapidly generated a subindustry of scholars, consultants, and bureaucrats, prompted a "Year of the Woman" campaign that helped several women into congress, and revived a flagging women's movement.

    The same spectacular results may follow from the Tailhook Scandal, which, like Hill/Thomas, is raising serious questions about motive and credibility. Whether Paula Coughlin's testimony will become as clouded as Anita Hill's, her whistle-blowing has already scuttled the careers of a still growing number of naval officers, not to mention the Secretary of the Navy himself, intensified in-service anti-sexual harassment campaigns, reinforced an already strong feminist presence in the armed forces, and helped soften the military's granitic opposition to women in combat. These incidents also helped to power a "Violence Against Women" bill through congress which will channel still more millions of government money into women's programs, not to mention winning congressional validation of feminist jurisprudence. That's a lot of political gain achieved by the words of a few women who suffered little more than an affront to their sensibilities.


    Conclusions

    This growing gap — between the anguish suffered by the victims of traditionally-defined sex crimes and what is suffered by victims of ideologically-defined crimes — suggests that the crisis we face is not the result of a sexual misconduct epidemic but of the crisis mentality itself, an ever more hysterical vision of a "rape culture." It has a foundation in reality. In what has become a ritual disclaimer, those who have exposed the surprising number of false allegations of sexual misconduct have also admitted the appalling number of genuine accusations. And those who have attacked the incompetence, self-interest, and zealotry that has denied the extent of false allegation have also recognized the courage and energy that has exposed the problem of honest allegation begging vainly for belief. They have therefore applauded the effort to seek for this long ignored injustice both social and legal remediation.

    But that effort, carried too far and exploited too often, has generated another gap: between our awareness of the now highly visible victims of sexual misconduct and the almost invisible victims of false allegation. The lesser known victims have their own stories to tell, enough to reveal another long ignored injustice that demands remediation. False allegations of sexual misconduct have deprived a rapidly growing number of men and women of their reputations, their fortunes, their children, their livelihood, and their freedom; have wasted the time and money of countless tax-supported agencies; have destroyed not only individuals but entire families and communities; and have left some so desperate that they have taken their lives.

    For that reason, in the current revision of our sexual misconduct code, we must retain as a guiding premise the realization that women can lie because we know that, for several reasons, more than a few women have lied, more often than researchers into false allegation had expected, far more often than "rape culture" ideologues have admitted ... too often, in any event, to be ignored by our jurisprudence, feminist or otherwise.


    Endnote
    1. These assertions are themselves widely disputed. However, one of the most extensive studies on the subject, by Strauss and Gelles (1990) reports that for physical abuse, the rate is higher for mothers than for fathers: 17.7% for mothers vs. 10.1% for fathers. They found that preteen boys are slightly more likely to be abused than their sisters but that the pattern changes alter puberty. Strauss and Gelles, however, also refer to some contravening studies that show higher rates for fathers.

    Susan Steinmetz (1977/78) who has collaborated with Strauss and Gelles, reported independently that "mothers abused children 62% more often than fathers, and that male children were more than twice as likely to suffer physical injury" (p.499).

    David C. Morrow (1993) reports: "Drawing upon reports of the American Humane Association, the Association of Juvenile Courts, the National Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse, and the FBI's 1978 crime report, John Rossler of Equal Rights for Fathers of New York State estimated that mothers commit over two-thirds of all child abuse, 80% of it in sole custody and none in joint custody situations, while boyfriends and new husbands perpetrate most of the rest. A similar study conducted a few years earlier in Utah by Ken Pangborn showed abuse 37% higher among single mothers than the general population and 67% of all abuse in the doing of women of whom 80% are single mothers."

    Diane Russell (1986) reports that of adult women in San Francisco who reported one or more experiences of incestuous abuse, overall 4.5% were abused by a father (biological, step, foster or adoptive). But the abuse was much more likely to occur with a stepfather. Russell reports that 17% of the women who were raised by a stepfather were abused by him compared to 2% of the women who were raised by a biological father. This indicates the greater risk to a girl of growing up in a household without her biological father.

    Thomas Fleming (1986) cites a Canadian study that concluded that preschoolers were 40 times as likely to be abused in broken and illegitimate families as compared to those in intact two-parent families.

    The consensus thus appears to support the assertion that child abuse is much more common in single parent families or families missing the biological father, that women are more often the abusers, and that male children are more often the victims. [Back]



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    O'Sullivan, J. (1985, August). Rape in the New Age. American Spectator, p. 22.

    Podhoretz, N. (1992, November). Rape in feminist eyes. Commentary, p. 29.

    Roiphe, K. (1993). The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism on Campus (). Boston: Little, Brown & Company.

    Russell, D. E. (1986). The Secret Trauma: Incest in the Lives of Girls and Women (). New York: Basic Books, Inc.

    Sifford, D. (1992, March 15). A special tribute. Philadelphia Inquirer.

    Stein, H. (1992, June). Presumed guilty. Playboy, pp. 74-76, 160-165.

    Steinmetz, S. K. (1977/78). The battered husband syndrome. Victimology, 2, p. 89.

    Strauss, M. A., & Gelles, R. J. (1990). Physical Violence in American Families ()(). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

    Wakefield, H., & Underwager, IL (1990). Personality characteristics of parents making false accusations of sexual abuse in custody disputes. Issues In Child Abuse Accusations, 2(3), 121-l36.

    Wright, L. (1993, May 17 & 24). Remembering Satan: Part I & Part II. New Yorker, pp. 60-83, & 54-76.

    Wykes, S. L. (1992, December 9). "Plot" target says daughter changed. San Jose Mercury, p.1-B.
     
  3. seamonster66

    seamonster66 discount dracula

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    While not all allegations of rape are true, it still doesn't give you the right to bore the hell out of me with 10,000 word essays.
     
  4. Sera Michele

    Sera Michele Senior Member

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    I agree that this is a very heinous crime.

    It is just a terrible thing to do. For one, you are causing permanant damage to a person's reputation.

    But the most important thing: It completely undermines any real claims of rape. People that do this are doing major damage to REAL victims chances of getting justice.

    But fact of the matter is, cases of false allegations are low compared to the insanely high number of women that have actually been sexually assaulted and raped. We need to focus efforts on putting a stop to the conditions that foster rapists. Because as many false allegations come and go, there are many, many more REAL allegations that don't get reported because of the taboos that society has put on this subject.

    Edit: and I would just like to add, prosecutors being unsuccessful at getting convictions doesn't mean that the accusation was false. It is more of a testament to how poor the justice is for rape victims. Especially when 25% women have experienced some sort of sexual assualt in their life.

    Also, people getting released from jail on rape charges because of new DNA evidence doesn't mean the woman wasn't raped, just that they caught the wrong guy.

    Here is an article that may be of some interest:
    http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/db/issues/99/12.03/view.schwartz.html

    Personally, I think it is disgusting how much effort some people have put into trying to prove that many women are lying about rape. It's no wonder women have a hard time coming forward. The ones that do are presented as liars, sluts, extortionists, etc...

    I am offended that this article was even posted in women's issues. Women who have been raped (well, people in general who have been raped) have a hard enough time getting through the shame and embarassment in order to come forward. You are basically showing them what they can expect if they do.
     
  5. iiaajmn

    iiaajmn Banned

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    So essentially what you're saying is that for the sake of women who are raped, we should not address the fact that there is a significant number of false rape allegations. I don't find this encouraging at all.

    In fact, in one study, it was determined that 41% of rape allegations were false. This is very, very significant, and the fact that so many women are making false allegations should be alarming to feminists--but instead, they react much like you have, if at all. This is a topic that needs to be addressed by women, and has every right being here.
     
  6. kppdlevel1

    kppdlevel1 Member

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    Beat me to the punch. I hope you didn't read all of it.
     
  7. Sera Michele

    Sera Michele Senior Member

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    That is absolutely rediculous. What makes them false? The fact that the defendant wasn't convicted?

    Needs to be addressed by women? Women have a hard enough time coming forward with rape that they don't need to be bombarded with statistics showing them that they will likely be put through the ringer on the stand. That they will likely be called a liar, that they will likely be shamed and discredited.


    Don't come around a woman's forum complaining that women are lying about rape. I have known enough my lifetime (and I'm still young yet) that were sexually assulted by a man to know that 41% are not false.

    And I have read plenty of studies preformed confidentially (with no benefit or loss to the victim) in which 25% of women claim to have been sexually assaulted by men in their lifetime. I have more girlfriends than not who have been sexually assaulted by men. Now, I am not some feminist man-hater, but I myself, and many girls I know have been raped. And I even went to a christian school. These wern't tramps I was hanging out with. It is a severe problem, and not one that will go away trying to fudge the numbers on the amount of victims.

    Did you even bother to read the article I linked to?
     
  8. tfou

    tfou Member

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    It is a very horrible thing that some people may do. No one should do damage to someone like that. But it does happen unfortunately.
    I don't believe your number of 41% of rape allegations are false. What all was used to get this number? It is so easy to come up with a statistic that suits your beliefs. In fact, 98.7522223% of statistical data is found to be false.

    Anyways, I think that the issue does need to be addressed, and it certainly does not help all of the girls who are really raped. There are many girls who are too afraid to come forward. So there are many guilty men walking the streets freely. What do you suppose we do about that?
     
  9. iiaajmn

    iiaajmn Banned

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    The study was conducted by a professor from Purdue University, and the the allegation was considered false only when the alleged victim stated that the allegation had been fabricated.

    A women who claims to have been raped is not immediately deemed to be a liar, but it does need to be determined whether or not the allegation is true. This is not in an attempt to defame the alleged victim, but to deal with the issue justly. Certainly you're not suggesting that a person who has been accused of rape should have their legal rights suspended?

    Sorry, but I'm not trying to fudge the numbers or make the issue go away. I want the truth to be addressed. People who are fudging the numbers on this issue are the feminists who ignore the issue, and claim that all women who cry rape have been raped. That's a myth. Sad to say, but there are people pathetic enough to exploit rape as a means of gaining some sort of end. It's those women you should be directing your fury towards, not me.
     
  10. interval_illusion

    interval_illusion Deceased

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    first of all, that article was too long. couldnt you have just summed it up and then provied a link if anyone wanted to read further? i know that's a lot of work (hah).... but come on now.....

    in any case, from what i gathered, i just have to say, you cannot ever judge one situation based on a whole. that is why statistics are flawed. they are just that,- statistics. individual situations dont have anything to do with them....

    also, you seem a little bit upset about the men getting raped and talking shit about feminists (i gather that from a few other threads as few)... maybe you should step aside, think about what real feminism actually is (and isnt) and then, if all else fails, remember what the forum title says "women's issues". if you're upset that we're not talking so much about men, i think there is a personal forum ( i KNOW there used to be), that is dedicated to MEN'S issues. :)
     
  11. Maggie Sugar

    Maggie Sugar Senior Member

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    I haven't bored myself with ALL your references, but this one. Warren Farrel is a seld admitted pedophile!!!! He thinks incest is GOOD FOR CHILDREN, He is also a HUGE "father's rights advocate." http://www.gate.net/~liz/fathers/farrell2.htm
    Your sources come from pedophiles? Negates your entire point.

    The "false allegation" rate is at about 2-4% of sexual assault allegation.

    1. Thoennes N, Tjaden PG: The extent, nature, and validity of sexual abuse allegations in custody/visitation disputes. Child Abuse & Neglect 14: 151-163, 1990.

    2. Everson MD, Boat BW: False allegations of sexual abuse by children and adolescents. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 28: 230-235, 1989.

    3. McCurdy K, Daro D: Current trends in child abuse reporting and fatalities: The results of the 1993 annual fifty state survey. Chicago: NCPCA, 1994.




    Finally, the extensive study of 1,249 allegations by Everson and Boat found a false allegation rate of 1.6% for children under 3 years of age, 1.7% for children aged 3 to 6, 4.3% for children aged 6 to 12, and 8% for adolescents (for an age-averaged rate of 4.7%). (Everson and Boat, J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 28, 230 (1989).)

    The study of 142 cases by Faller gave a 3% false allegation rate. (K. C. Faller, Childhood Abuse: An Interdisciplinary Manual for Diagnosis, Case Management and Treatment (
    ColumbiaUniversity Press, New York
    , 1988).

    Jones and McGraw found that false allegations by children represented 2% of the 439 allegations they studied (false allegations by adults gave an additional 6%). (David P. H. Jones and J. Melbourne McGraw, J. of Interpersonal Violence 2, 27 (1987).)

    Contrary to myth, allegations of sexual abuse in custody proceedings are relatively rare. An American Bar Association and Association of Family and Conciliation Courts study concluded that of 9,000 custody-visitation disputes, that fewer than 2% involved allegations of sexual abuse.Moreover, they found that allegations arising in post-divorce cases were even more likely to be valid.
    (Association of Family and Conciliation Courts Research Unit, "Allegations of Sexual Abuse in Custody & Visitation Cases: An Empirical Study from 12 States," at 15-16 (March 1988).

    Frequency of Divorce-Related Sex Abuse Allegations: Not True

    Quoted from a report of a study by J. Pearson, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Policy Research, an independent, nonprofit organization established in l991 to research and evaluate a variety of family law and child welfare issues, from article published FAMILY LAW JOURNAL, Summer l993, Vol 27, No 2 copyright American Bar Association Family Law Section.


    My references beat your pedophiles. haha



     
  12. Maggie Sugar

    Maggie Sugar Senior Member

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    I think we need to ask ourselves WHY someone who is not a survivor or a parent of an abused child would have SUCH an unlimited interest in this particular subject....................


    Survivor or offender?

    Survivors don't make it harder for other survivors.
     
  13. Sera Michele

    Sera Michele Senior Member

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    Being a rape victim when I was younger, and being embarassed and shamed into keeping it quiet at the time I have a major problem when people want to use numbers like 41% of all allegations are false.

    Thanks for doing that research, Maggie. Articles such as the first one posted aren't credible, and should not be presented as so. It is damaging to the advancement of victim's rights.
     
  14. iiaajmn

    iiaajmn Banned

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    Or, maybe just someone who's interested in the TRUTH.
     
  15. iiaajmn

    iiaajmn Banned

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    Oh, how is the article not credible? Because you don't agree with the findings? Nice criteria.

    The only people you should have a problem with are the 41% of the people who made false rape allegations. Of course you won't do that, because they're women, and as a feminist you want to perpetuate this myth that "no woman would falsely allege being raped". Sorry, but that's just not true.

    I don't think that showing that 41% of rape allegations were false at all minimizes the suffering that true rape victims have experienced, and I highly doubt that it will make society any less concerned about rape. Rape has ALWAYS been a serious crime, and always will be. But sadly there are women who really don't seem to care and exploit the issue, and this needs to be addressed.

    Now, read the following:

    Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 23, No. 1, 1994, pages 81-90
    False Rape Allegations
    Eugene J. Kanin, Ph.D.
    Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Purdue University, 1365 Winthrop E. Stone Hall, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-1365.

    This article was posted by Gerry Harbison -- harbison@unlinfo.unl.edu. The comments in square brackets are his.


    ABSTRACT:
    With the cooperation of the police agency of a small metropolitan community, 45 consecutive, disposed, false rape allegations covering a 9 year period were studied. These false rape allegations constitute 41% the total forcible rape cases (n= 109) reported during this period. These false allegations appear to serve three major functions for the complainants: providing an alibi, seeking revenge, and obtaining sympathy and attention. False rape allegations are not the consequence of a gender-linked aberration, as frequently claimed, but reflect impulsive and desperate efforts to cope with personal and social stress situations.

    INTRODUCTION
    [the author discusses the history of unfounded rape allegations, and how legitimate cases of rape were discounted until pressure from women's groups caused them to be taken more seriously. However, the pendulum has now swung the other way]

    Currently, the two main identifiable adversaries involved in the false rape allegations controversy are the feminists and the police. The feminists are by far the most expressive and prominent on this issue. Some feminists take the position that the declaration of rape as false or unfounded largely means that the police do not believe the complainant; that is, the rape charges are real reflections of criminal assault, but the agents of the criminal justice system do not believe them (Brownmiller, 1975; Russell, 1984). Some feminists virtually deny the existence of false rape accusations and believe the concept itself constitutes discriminatory harassment toward women (see Grano, 1990). On the other hand, police are prone to say the reason for not believing some rape complainants resides in the fact that the rapes never occurred (Payton, 1967; Wilson, 1978; Jay, 1991). Medical Examiners lend support to this police position by emphasizing the ever-present possibility that rape complainants may be lying (Shill, 1969, 1971).

    METHODS

    [I've included these in full, since they're obviously crucial]

    This investigation is essentially a case study of one police agency in a small metropolitan area (population = 70,000) in the Midwestern United States. This city was targeted for study because it offered an almost model laboratory for studying false rape allegations. First, its police agency is not inundated with serious felony cases and, therefore, has the freedom and the motivation to record and thoroughly pursue all rape complaints. In fact, agency policy forbids police officers to use their discretion in deciding whether to officially acknowledge a rape complaint, regardless how suspect that complaint may be. Second, the declaration of a false allegation follows a highly institutionalized procedure. The investigation of all rape complaints always involves a serious offer to polygraph the complainants and the suspects. Additionally, for a declaration of false charge to be made, the complainant must admit that no rape had occurred. She is the sole agent who can say that the rape charge is false. The police department will not declare a rape charge as false when the complainant, for whatever reason, fails to pursue the charge or cooperate on the case, regardless how much doubt the police may have regarding the validity of the charge.

    In short, these cases are declared false only because the complainant admitted they are false. Furthermore, only one person is then empowered to enter into the records a formal declaration that the charge is false, the officer in charge of records. Last, it should be noted that this department does not confuse reported rape attempts with completed rapes. Thus, the rape complainants referred to in this paper are for completed forcible rapes only. The foregoing leaves us with a certain confidence that cases declared false by this police agency are indeed a reasonable- if not a minimal reflection of false rape allegations made to this agency, especially when one considers that a finding of false allegation is totally dependent upon the recantation of the rape charge.

    We followed and investigated all false rape allegations from 1978 to 1987. A ranking police official notified us whenever a rape charge was declared false and provided us with the records of the case. In addition, the investigating officers provided any requested supplementary information so that we could be confident of the validity of the false rape allegation declarations.

    FINDINGS

    [The author notes that previous estimates of false rape reporting vary pretty much from 0 to 100% and probably reflect bias.]

    Regarding this study, 41% (n= 45) of the total disposed rape cases (n= 109) were officially declared false during this 9-year period, that is, by the complainant's admission that no rape had occurred and the charge, therefore, was false. The incidence figure was variable from year to year and ranged from a low of 27% (3 out of Il cases) to a high of 70% (7 out of 10 cases). The 9-year period suggests no trends, and no explanation has been made for the year-to-year fluctuation.

    [Author says recanted and unrecanted reports were from people indistinguishable by background]

    The study of these 45 cases of false rape allegations inexorably led to the conclusion that these false charges were able to serve three major functions for the complainants: providing an alibi, a means of gaining revenge, and a platform for seeking attention/sympathy. This tripartite model resulted from the complainants' own verbalizations during recantation and does not constitute conjecture. Of course, we are not asserting that these functions are mutually exclusive or exhaustive; rather, these rape recantations focused on a single factor explanation. A possible objection to these recantations concerns their validity. Rape recantations could be the result of the complainants' desire to avoid a "second assault" at the hands of the police. Rather than proceed with the real charge of rape, the argument goes, these women withdrew their accusations to avoid the trauma of police investigation.

    Several responses are possible to this type of criticism. First, with very few exceptions, these complainants were suspect at the time of the complaint or within a day or two after charging. These recantations did not follow prolonged periods of investigation and interrogation that would constitute anything approximating a second assault. Second, not one of the detectives believed that an incident of false recantation had occurred. They argued, rather convincingly, that in those cases where a suspect was identified and interrogated, the facts of the recantation dovetailed with the suspect's own defense. Last, the policy of this police agency is to apply a statute regarding the false reporting of a felony. After the recant, the complainant is informed that she will be charged with filing a false complaint, punishable by a substantial fine and a jail sentence. In no case, has an effort been made on the part of the complainant to retract the recantation. Although we certainly do not deny the possibility of false recantations, no evidence supports such an interpretation for these cases.

    [there follows a long discussion of motivation for false reports]

    RELATED FINDINGS

    [this I found fascinating]

    In addition to the foregoing, certain other findings and observations relevant to false allegations warrant comment. First, false allegations failed to include accusations of forced sexual acts other than penile-vaginal intercourse. Not one complainant mentions forced oral or anal sex. In contrast, these acts were included in approximately 25% of the rounded forcible rape complaints. Perhaps it was simply psychologically and socially more prudent for these women to minimize the humiliation of sexual victimization by not embroidering the event any more than necessary. This phenomenon has been observed previously (McDowell and Hibler, 1987).

    [author notes that extortion was never found to be a motive. And now the important bit, IMHO]

    One of the most haunting and serious implications of false rape allegations concerns the possibility of miscarried justice. We know that false convictions occur, but this study only tells us that these false accusers were weeded out during the very early stages of investigation. However encouraging this result may be, we cannot claim that false charging does not incur suffering for the accused. Merely to be a rape suspect, even for a day or two, translates into psychological and social trauma.

    CONCLUSIONS

    [a long discussion of how police procedures affect the reported incidence of false rape reporting. And the final summary...]

    We may well be faced with the fact that the most efficient police departments report the higher incidence of false rape allegations. In view of these factors, perhaps the most prudent summary statement that is appropriate from these data is that false rape accusations are not uncommon. Since this effort is the first at a systematic, long-term, on-site investigation of false rape allegations from a single city, future studies in other cities, with comparable policies, must assess the representativeness of these findings.

    ADDENDA

    [Other studies on college campuses have come up with a figure of about 50% for false rape reports]

    Quite unexpectedly then, we find that these university women, when filing a rape complaint, were as likely to file a false as a valid charge. Other reports from university police agencies support these findings (Jay, 1991). In both police agencies, the taking of the complaint and the follow-up investigation was the exclusive responsibility of a ranking female officer. Neither agency employed the polygraph and neither declared the complaint false without a recantation of the charge.

    [There are obviously a few caveats, addenda and quid pro quos here. Nonetheless, I think those who question the need for thorough cross-examination of alleged rape victims should consider the fact that statistically, this study suggest that there is about a 50% chance they're lying.]
     
  16. iiaajmn

    iiaajmn Banned

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    Seriously, you need some help, if you're claiming that because I want to discuss this issue, that I must be an "offender".

    I find it intersting that you would make such an allegation; here you are claiming that false allegations are rare, but conversely you readily resort to making false allegations of my being an "offender," I guess with the intention of getting me mad so you can run to xaoflux and get me banned.

    You really seem to be trying your best to prove me right.
     
  17. iiaajmn

    iiaajmn Banned

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    Well, what it looks like that he's saying is that according to the Kinsey report there was some evidence that not all people who engaged in incest considered the experience negative, and that they only claimed that the experience was negative after they learned that society considered it a taboo. Which means that theoretically, the negative consequence of an incestual encounter is more likely to come about as a result of how society treats the participants, rather than from the act itself. That's how I understand the article.

    I for one don't condone incest at all, regardless of what you may think. You're just a feminist, and like all feminists are programmed to denounce any man who questions your narrow-minded ideology.

    Now, just out of curiosity, you wouldn't happen to be a lesbian, or know people who are gay???? Would you agree that their lifestyle is immoral and should not be condoned? That was the way it was fifty years ago. Society used to view homosexuality as base and evil, and went to great lengths to prove of homosexual acts were corrupting and destructive, both to the individual and society. Yet here we are, fifty years later, and homosexuality has become much more accepted, to the point where homosexuals are now getting married and even raising children. But I guess since you're so concerned about morality, and are one of those who believes that incest is immoral, certainly you must also think that homosexuality is immoral, too, since society has traditionally held this view and many people still do. But my guess is that you don't. So I'm just wondering how it is that you can accept one form of "deviant" behaviour, and not another?
     
  18. Sera Michele

    Sera Michele Senior Member

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    look, your article is not credible because it is written in the intrest of pedophiles and rapists. It is a complete falsifacation that 41% of rape allegations are false.

    And Maggie did not make a false allegation against you, you are being ludacris.

    And to compare incest to homosexuality is not fair. Dad's forcing themseves on their impressionable children, no matter how much the child thinks they like it, is WRONG. That is a far cry from being comparable to homosexuality.

    You don't have to think homosexuality is immoral just because you think incest is immoral. Your line of thinking is flawed, and downright idiotic really.

    Take your bullshit elsewhere. Giving us articles sourced from child molesters, and trying to tell us that almost half of women are making false rape allegations is not going to go far on the Woman's Issues forum.

    There are plenty of sources from credible people that would completely disagree with the numbers you are presenting here. I gave a link a few post back. And there are plenty more for someone who is willing to look.
     
  19. Sera Michele

    Sera Michele Senior Member

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    I read your article, and the 41% number was from one small mid-western town where the complaintant admitted her allegations were false...

    Does this at all take into account the women who just said that so they didn't have to go through the embarrassment of a trial, and be made to look like lairs or sluts? Or the women who were raped by husbands or boyfriends only to drop the charges and go back to them?

    Your numbers are flawed, and the study is flawed. Too many women drop charges because of the embarrassment and shame they have to suffer though, when chances are the person won't be convicetd anyways.

    Basically, just because 41% admitted they were false doesn't mean that they are. I denied my own rape for 4 years. And it was a very brutal rape. It is obvious to me that you have no understanding of what a sexual assault victim has to go through.

    The best studies to look at are confidential studies. Where women have nothing to gain or lose from being honest about their sexual assaults.
     
  20. ProfRob

    ProfRob Member

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    Rape is a terrible crime, and should be treated as such.

    But false accusations of rape just create problems, both for the accused, and for real rape victims who may be less likely to be believed. This is largely due to fallout from celebrated cases like Kobe Bryant’s. An even worse example is Gary Dotson’s, who spent 6 years in jail for allegedly raping Cathleen Crowell Webb. Webb later admitted that she’d lied about the rape, and had never even met Dotson prior to the trial, and DNA tests exonerated him. Because of cases like this, many people are more skeptical when someone claims to have been raped.

    [see: http://www.law.northwestern.edu/depts/clinic/wrongful/exonerations/Dotson.htm]

    One thing that greatly concerns me is that a lot of people accept that "1 in 4" business, first reported in a Ms magazine study by Mary Koss in 1984, which has been repeatedly challenged on methodogical grounds. 73% of the respondents whom Koss and her fellow researchers classified as victims of rape or attempted rape did not themselves say that they were victims; they were placed in that category because they said that they’d had sex while under the influence of alcohol or other drugs. If the victim were drunk or stoned, Koss thought, then she couldn’t give consent, which meant she was raped. But shouldn’t that decision, of whether someone was sexually violated or not, be made by the victim rather than the researchers? True, if a woman gets falling-down drunk and someone sexually abuses her, that should be considered a crime. But if a happy couple celebrate their anniversary by splitting a bottle of champagne and then jump into bed, that doesn’t sound like a crime to me. But both cases, according to Koss, were rape.

    Other studies have backed up the 1 in 4 figure, or even gone farther; Catherine McKinnon postulates that the incidence of rape or attempted rape is as high as ½ of all women. Other studies have suggested 1 in 9, or 1 in 19, or 1 in 1,150 (postulated from the FBI Uniform Crime statistics report, listing actual reports filed with law enforcement agencies, but not cases where criminal charges were brought.) I’ve no idea which figures are right, nor does it really matter—rape happens, and it shouldn’t. I just don’t like to see people blithely accepting, and passing along as fact, figures that may or may not be accurate.

    This is an emotional issue, and so people get very worked up when discussing it. Feminists insist that America is infused with a rape culture, in which women are even trained to accept the idea that they aren’t really victims when, in fact, they are. Conservative commentators insist that the rape epidemic is largely a feminist plot, encouraging those who may have been unwilling to have sex, or had second thoughts afterwards, to claim rape when they didn’t actually refuse to have sex.

    I think the answer is probably to apply equal standards. If someone commits a rape, they should be severely punished. But if someone lies and claims they were raped when they weren’t, a la Cathleen Webb, then she should be punished for ruining someone’s reputation, if not perjury. We should hold the rapists accountable, I say, but also those who tell lies about being raped. That just leaves the question of what to do with people who insist they were raped, but in which charges are not pressed or the accuser is not found guilty, such as Kobe Bryant. I don’t know what to do about that—I just think that Cathleen Webb, and others who make accusations which are later proved to be outright lies, should be punished. Gary Dotson spent 6 years in jail for a rape he never committed; Webb was never even charged with perjury for sending him there.

    Just a few of the many, many articles about all this:

    "The mother of all rape myths" debunks the 1 in 4 findings

    http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2001/0522.html

    "The Date Rape Research Controversy" defends the 1 in 4 finding

    http://members.aardvark.net.au/~korman/rape/controversy/

    "The Real Issue: Researching the "Rape Culture" of America" claims that feminists are fueling a rape crisis hysteria

    http://www.leaderu.com/real/ri9502/sommers.html

    I haven’t been able to find an online version, but a widley-cited article on this topic was published in New York magazine on March 8, 1993; "Crying Rape: The Politics of Date Rape on Campus" by Peter Hellman, who reports on a number of cases where people claimed to have been assaulted and later changed their minds.



     

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