I have never shared the far right's sanctimony about sex. I really don't care what someone does for sexual gratification, as long as it is with a consenting partner. That last qualification is the result of not inconsiderable thought.
I have never personally seen the appeal of every sexual act, but I could not understand my unwillingness to accept bestiality or necrophilia. I questioned whether I truly did not care what someone's source of gratification was, or if I was only fooling myself, tolerating what was at least imaginable for me, and not tolerating what repelled me.
I finally understood my feelings when I met socially a woman who had been raped. The crime, described by her, was horrifying- a violent crime performed with the genitalia, where the worst damage is emotional, not necessarily physical. I realized that the acts I found unacceptable all involved a partner incapable of providing consent- children, dead bodies, animals, rape.
Society protects the identity of rape victims, and we typically judge rape as a horrible, violent crime, which it is. A very troubling aspect of rape, however, is the proportion of claims that are false. I am not even referring to those cases where a man is accused of rape, tried and acquitted. There are many more cases where the charge is simply made up.
There have been several large studies of rape. One cross sectional study found 41% of rape claims were false- not acquitted, but not real at all. In the military, of 500 rape charges, 130 were recanted before a polygraph was administered, and in another study 60% of charges were untrue. Of 4000 rapes reported in New York City, 2000 were false.
False charges of rape are made for many reasons- discomfort with the sexual act or partner, guilt, rage, revenge, psychiatric illness, financial gain. What strikes me in the above data is not that we should not protect rape accusers' names, but that we should do the same for the accused. Given that about half the time the charges are false, I see no reason why special treatment should be given to the accuser, as opposed to the accused. The accused's life is grossly disrupted, all over a falsehood. It is the accused who must hire an attorney at his own expense, it is the accused who is labelled a monster and vilified, all for nothing. Why not keep the accused's name secret as well?
Besides damaging the accused, a false charge of rape profoundly damages women in a couple of ways. First, and most obviously, when half of rape charges are false, the veracity of all accusers is questioned. This hurts those who have been horribly violated, and accounts for the very hard time defense attorneys give victims of rape. Second, it wastes the time and money of society, which could be spent preventing or prosecuting real crimes. Third, it devalues women in the eyes of society. False accusers of rape perpetuate stereotypical images of women as manipulative liars, damaging all women, not only the men they seek to hurt.
In hearing the terrible trial my acquaintance had to endure, where her behavior was torched by the defense attorney, I was outraged. In seeing data on rape claims, I sadly understand why women victims of rape are so harshly treated by the legal system. In medical care, if we had a test that was right only half the time in predicting an important disease, we would look very hard at each case to make a decision. It is a terrible shame there are so many false claims about a hideous and violent crime.
Ted
I have never personally seen the appeal of every sexual act, but I could not understand my unwillingness to accept bestiality or necrophilia. I questioned whether I truly did not care what someone's source of gratification was, or if I was only fooling myself, tolerating what was at least imaginable for me, and not tolerating what repelled me.
I finally understood my feelings when I met socially a woman who had been raped. The crime, described by her, was horrifying- a violent crime performed with the genitalia, where the worst damage is emotional, not necessarily physical. I realized that the acts I found unacceptable all involved a partner incapable of providing consent- children, dead bodies, animals, rape.
Society protects the identity of rape victims, and we typically judge rape as a horrible, violent crime, which it is. A very troubling aspect of rape, however, is the proportion of claims that are false. I am not even referring to those cases where a man is accused of rape, tried and acquitted. There are many more cases where the charge is simply made up.
There have been several large studies of rape. One cross sectional study found 41% of rape claims were false- not acquitted, but not real at all. In the military, of 500 rape charges, 130 were recanted before a polygraph was administered, and in another study 60% of charges were untrue. Of 4000 rapes reported in New York City, 2000 were false.
False charges of rape are made for many reasons- discomfort with the sexual act or partner, guilt, rage, revenge, psychiatric illness, financial gain. What strikes me in the above data is not that we should not protect rape accusers' names, but that we should do the same for the accused. Given that about half the time the charges are false, I see no reason why special treatment should be given to the accuser, as opposed to the accused. The accused's life is grossly disrupted, all over a falsehood. It is the accused who must hire an attorney at his own expense, it is the accused who is labelled a monster and vilified, all for nothing. Why not keep the accused's name secret as well?
Besides damaging the accused, a false charge of rape profoundly damages women in a couple of ways. First, and most obviously, when half of rape charges are false, the veracity of all accusers is questioned. This hurts those who have been horribly violated, and accounts for the very hard time defense attorneys give victims of rape. Second, it wastes the time and money of society, which could be spent preventing or prosecuting real crimes. Third, it devalues women in the eyes of society. False accusers of rape perpetuate stereotypical images of women as manipulative liars, damaging all women, not only the men they seek to hurt.
In hearing the terrible trial my acquaintance had to endure, where her behavior was torched by the defense attorney, I was outraged. In seeing data on rape claims, I sadly understand why women victims of rape are so harshly treated by the legal system. In medical care, if we had a test that was right only half the time in predicting an important disease, we would look very hard at each case to make a decision. It is a terrible shame there are so many false claims about a hideous and violent crime.
Ted
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