Every time a rape is reported a crime has been committed. The crime was either a rape or a false report and police need to determine which one. These crimes don’t sound of equal weight but they are, and here’s why.
Rape can affect the sexual life of a victim for the rest of their lives. A false accusation can affect the sexual life of a victim for the rest of their lives. Rape can cause an innocent person to feel like they are living in a virtual prison. A false allegation can cause an innocent person to live in a literal prison. Rape can cause extreme physical damage or be part of a murder. A false accusation can result in death. Rape can result in post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A false accusation can result in PTSD.
The reason we are asked to listen with compassion to anecdotal evidence of a rape and not anecdotal evidence of false rape accusations is the premise that a woman’s life is more important than a man’s. There is no way around that fact. We are asked to suspend the human, civil right to be presumed innocent because somewhere some woman might be hurt and that chance outweighs the equal hurt that might be done to a man by the accusation. The discussion is cut off by claims that false rape accusations are extremely rare but the reality is that no acceptable empirical studies have ever been done.
The 2% myth and the extended 6-8% mythical allowance are based on guesses. The only attempts at studying the reports with any sort of methodology have resulted in 40-60% false reports. It’s astounding that feminists haven’t conducted proper empirical studies to contradict the best evidence we have. You’d think they’d want proof and they seem so damn sure of themselves so it’s rather telling that they resist making it a fact.
A false accusation of rape is one of the few crimes against which the victim is offered no protection by our current society. In fact, feminists who have lobbied for anonymity of accusers have no interest in providing anonymity for the accused. By insisting that all rape accusations be automatically believed feminists also show they have little regard for presumption of innocence or reasonable doubt which pits feminists against the very foundation of our legal system.
Presumption of innocence is a legal protection offered to all people, and men are people too, which is based on the idea “that most people are not criminals” and “requires that the trier of fact, be it a juror or judge, begin with the presumption that the state is unable to support its assertion.” There is no clause in the constitution that states “unless you are charged with rape.”
Freethought Blogs recently entertained an anecdote that appeals to us to disregard the chances of false rape allegations even though we know they happen and even though we know the rate of false reports is undetermined. This was offered to them as a comment on another member’s blog and it so impressed a member that she featured it with admonishment that 6-8% false report statistics are wrong. I agree they are wrong, but I’m prone to move the number in the higher direction while this person appeals to consider it lower.
Let us have a look at the story.
EEB is the witness. She says that she was raped but forced to say she made a false accusation, arguing that although she was raped the false accusation stat is elevated by cases like hers. In her story she tells us that police dismissed her because she has a mental illness and “I ‘claimed’ I had been sexually assaulted in the past.” EEB does not claim that the other accusations were true only that this particular story is true. By omission, we can assume the others claims were not true and that she is a false accuser in the past so still a legitimate part of whatever stats may exist “when they wrote their reports.” (There are, as yet, no official reports… but we’re working on that.)
She doesn’t want to tell us what “very flimsy ‘evidence’” they had that she was lying for the reason of not “go[ing] into it because it’s both complicated and ridiculous” but feels like the rest of the story deserves detail. She tells us that the police officer accusing her of lying has a personal history with bipolar women that tainted him against her but she doesn’t think we should be concerned with people’s personal histories, like hers. She tells us that a public awareness campaign was launched after her attack was reported and that they spent months questioning her but also asserts that they never believed her claim or took her seriously.
Here is her claim:
EEB was assaulted by a stranger while walking home. She was left “dripping blood,” torn from vagina to anus and having burns on her labia, and somehow made it home to call the police instead of an ambulance. Her father is apparently a cop so she might have had that number on faster than 911 speed dial.
She recounts that instead of sending an ambulance they sent “detectives.” These detectives told her that the hospital “wasn’t ready” for her and, instead, made her answer questions about her rape and what medication she takes. Though she was in shock and “not thinking much” she had the presence of mind to ask for a female “detective” which they denied her, and then asked for a “rape counselor[sic]” when they finally took her to the hospital. The inflatable hospital that just finished getting ready for her only had one black light to look for evidence and it was broken. They also refused to give her any emergency birth control.
My first suggestion to EEB is that she move out of Twin Peaks.
This is truly a monster rapist on the loose. A perineal tear of the third degree usually only happens in childbirth. It should be easy to find a rapist with a cock the girth of a baby’s head and who likely has singe marks on his trousers indicating a penis so hot it can burn labia. Of the copious details given, EEB leaves out the part where she got stitches. You’d think she’d want us to know how many it took. When she was being driven home, the same night, it was by the same “detective” who drove her there. So they released her within the time frame of a work shift.
While claiming that, outside of police, she only told two friends and her family, she states that when the bully cop called the papers because “the community needs to know there was no threat to public safety” it was a form of “public humiliation”. She tells us the police made her re-enact her rape with the bully cop playing the part of the rapist and then the bully cop made her give him a hug after she admitted she made it all up. Her rape counsellor, kept outside of the interrogation room, appeared to be angry with her but, as fate would have it, she ran into said counsellor two years later only to find out that the woman was mad at the cops instead. We all love happy endings.
This counsellor is credited with previously having “kicked major ass. And really helped me through the process; I don’t know what I would have done without her.” Ass kicking just ain’t what it used to be.
EEB says the police questioned her more about her mental illness than about the rape while complaining that “they made me go through what happened” and that she “described the rape more times than I can count,” and “even got on the ground and acted out the rape for them”.
I agree with EEB. I think this case is “both complicated and ridiculous.” The reason that she told this bizarre story is because she wants us to know that false rape statistics are not accurate. Again, I agree with her. EEB would like her anecdote to convince you not to question rape accusations or to consider how many of them may be false but I think she’s accomplished the opposite. I think we need to come up with better tools of analysis and, meanwhile, keep a close eye on all men who have a cock with the circumference of a pineapple.
Anecdotes are the life blood of feminism. They usually contain words and phrases like “shock,” “it never crossed my mind,” “excruciating,” “invasive,” “terrible pain,” “submitted,” “horrific,” “I almost died,” “accusations,” “living hell,” “angry men,” “panic attack,” “humiliation,” “terrorizing,” “he made me,” “over and over and over.” And “I’m not the only one.”
Well, yes, you are.
Surely nobody else knows what it’s like to be EEB. We don’t know why she does the things she does, we don’t know what special false rape accuser support group she goes to in which so many of her friends share the same fate. I’ve never heard of such a group. I’d like to read their minutes. I’d also like to thank EEB for sharing what must have been an extremely emotional story to write. It has given us many reasons to demand a proper method of investigation into all accusations. Something thorough, public, well documented, fair, and respectful of all parties involved.
The law is there for everyone’s protection. It states if there is a reasonable doubt we must not convict.
