Rape and politics

[thir]

thir....nice article....I think rape will be one of the very few crimes in today’s society where there will always be reasonable doubt. I know here in the UK we have had our fair share of proven false claims of rape, but I think it is numbered less than 1%. I feel that this is a follow up on your thread about the sentence for rape in Sweden, but it is a crime that is very seldom discussed because of the controversy that surrounds it, IE: - proven guilt.

Indeed. And here it is where I say that before all odds were stacked against the victim, but now a group of fantics wants to go in the opposite direction: to make and accusation equal a conviction, and that does not seem right either. However, the atmosphere of the debate they run is such that you are practically a rapist yourself if you happen to disagree with them or imply that it is, as you say, difficult to prove.

I remember in the late 60s while I was in the army, a case that appeared in the News of the World. A young man just out of his teens was walking home late one night, and was set about by 4 women. They took him behind a hedge and after stripping his clothes off took turns in raping him. Being very naive at the time all the lads in the barracks including me were laughing at the article, not one person said it was a disgrace, all that was said was, “What’s he complaining for.” I don’t think the case was ever taken to court or properly investigated because of the outrageous claim by the man. The macho image strikes again.
Now older and more mature I have often wondered about that young man, and I think of the injustice that he received from his fellow man. I would think also, that to be held captive by 4 women and used in such a way must have changed his life. Even today very few men cry rape, and again it is all to do with the macho image. Even if they did cry rape, who is going to prove it and how?

In those days it was said that men cannot be raped, which is of course not true. I am afraid that that is one area where we have not moved an inch! Same with domestic violence. I was completly taken aback when I saw a poster in my GP's waiting room stating that one man die a day due to domestic violence. I knew it excisted, but had no idea that it was that much.

There is a law in the UK that if a Husband forces himself on his wife after she says no, then that is rape. I know that statistics show that the rape law in that context has been used many times, but I have never heard of the law being used against the woman. Again I ask; is the macho image getting in the way once more?

Hm..I am sad that we have moved so little, but I can see no other explanation. They are not believed, just as there still is a probem with the juries to believe date rape or rape from someone you know, or used to know.

Case 2
He then told me his story about picking a woman hitch hiker up in a service station, and on dropping her off some thirty miles up the motorway she cried rape. He was sentenced to five years, and during his prison sentence his wife divorced him and remarried. About three years into his sentence after another rape case similar to his, a bright policeman, [Yes we do have a few in the UK] decided to look up rape cases to see how they were investigated. To his astonishment this woman had been raped four times, she was a habitual victim. He was released along with the other three drivers an exonerated of all charges, paid compensation and that was the end of it. He had all the documents in his pocket still.

These things do happen, too. Not, as you said, very often, but they do.
I don't know - do these cases get less investigated? Or is it simply that so often it is
word aginst word and nothing else?

“Because they never wrote to me while in prison, and not once did they believe I was innocent. I look at their picture of how I left them and I don’t want to know how they look today. I’ll give you a tip son, don’t pick up hitch hikers whether man or woman, because most have a grudge with life and most are looking for a victim to vent their anger.”

That kind of thing - false accusations - is rape by another means. It is as bad as the other, and sabotages all the progress made over the years to make it easier to report rape and manage the court case.

It takes very clever detection to prove rape, and if it is not there then there will always be an element of doubt. Either way whether real or false it breaks up marriages and ruins lives, both for the victim and the falsely accused. As Ken Clarke in the UK found out this week, rape is a criminal act and politicians should not comment on things they know damn all about. Judges in the UK are also more open minded now and give a fairer verdict.

I believe all he said was that there are grades of rape, and I think there are. Like, youngsters under age having a forbidden sexual relationship, which is officially 'rape', versus someone taken against their will and maybe beaten half to death into the bargain.

He also (I think it was him) suggested shortening the sentence by half if a rapist confesses before the trial.

What do you - and the list - think of that?