Women tell the truth
Feb. 24th, 2007 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyThere's a widespread belief that women often make false reports of rape, posing a serious risk to innocent men. For a long time now, I've been meaning to write an essay challenging this view. To the best of my knowledge, there is no real evidence that women often make false rape reports. The incorrect belief that they do has had serious consequences.
I've just discovered that the folder I've been keeping my research in has been damaged by water, so I'm going to assemble the evidence I have here, in a series of postings. Your comments and feedback are very much invited, whatever your views.
The first thing I want to do is go over some of the issues, "out loud".
Some of the things I need to discuss in the essay...
- The difference between different kinds of false reports. There are differences between a lie told in private and a report filed with the police; between naming a specific man and describing an imaginary attacker; and so on.
- The difference between "false", "unfounded" / "unsubstantiated", "not guilty", etc.
- The danger posed to innocent men by shoddy police work.
- The view that women who do make false reports are not punished, or inadequately punished.
I suspect the following related issues are so huge they're going to be beyond the scope of the essay: that it'd be most useful for me to focus on the direct evidence about false reports.
- The tradition of hostile interrogation of women who report they have been raped, in the police station, the hospital, and the courtroom; the legal traditions which assume women are likely to make false accusations; the dangers of basing police and legal decisions on assumptions rather than evidence.
- The low report, arrest, and conviction rates for sexual assault. (Does a small proportion of reports of genuine crimes inflate the proportion of false reports?)
- The difficulty of proving sexual assault beyond reasonable doubt; especially the difficulty of establishing lack of consent.
- The confusion in many peoples' minds over what legally constitutes sexual assault.
I've just discovered that the folder I've been keeping my research in has been damaged by water, so I'm going to assemble the evidence I have here, in a series of postings. Your comments and feedback are very much invited, whatever your views.
The first thing I want to do is go over some of the issues, "out loud".
Some of the things I need to discuss in the essay...
- The difference between different kinds of false reports. There are differences between a lie told in private and a report filed with the police; between naming a specific man and describing an imaginary attacker; and so on.
- The difference between "false", "unfounded" / "unsubstantiated", "not guilty", etc.
- The danger posed to innocent men by shoddy police work.
- The view that women who do make false reports are not punished, or inadequately punished.
I suspect the following related issues are so huge they're going to be beyond the scope of the essay: that it'd be most useful for me to focus on the direct evidence about false reports.
- The tradition of hostile interrogation of women who report they have been raped, in the police station, the hospital, and the courtroom; the legal traditions which assume women are likely to make false accusations; the dangers of basing police and legal decisions on assumptions rather than evidence.
- The low report, arrest, and conviction rates for sexual assault. (Does a small proportion of reports of genuine crimes inflate the proportion of false reports?)
- The difficulty of proving sexual assault beyond reasonable doubt; especially the difficulty of establishing lack of consent.
- The confusion in many peoples' minds over what legally constitutes sexual assault.
