as they are becoming an epidemic in the US
An epidemic? Really now?
You don't seem to understand what the word "epidemic" means. So let me help you out a bit here
adjective
1.
Also, epidemical. (of a disease) affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent.
2.
extremely prevalent; widespread.
noun
3.
a temporary prevalence of a disease.
4.
a rapid spread or increase in the occurrence of something
--
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/epidemicHow many men get accused of rape? The vast majority of men live their lives without ever being accused so a bit of common sense should tell you that it's only a very small minority that get accused of rape in the first place.
Then when you take into consideration the fact that out of those who are accused not all (in fact most won't be, but I'll get back to that later) will have been accused falsely then that leaves an even smaller number of false accusations. Hardly an "epidemic" like you're claiming.
There are people who automatically class any accusation that doesn't result in a conviction as a false accusation (and judging from your OP I get the feeling that you're one of those people however feel free to correct me if my instinct is incorrect) but even if you are one of those people who do that then that still doesn't equal enough accusations being made overall in order to qualify as an epidemic.
On the subject of how many rape accusations are false, there is actually no evidence to suggest that false rape accusations are more common than false accusations of other crime.
In fact the stats clearly state that the number of false rape accusations are in line with the number of false accusations of other crimes, i.e low and rare.
Sadly, there are never any consequences for these liars
People always trot this out but nobody is ever able to provide any evidence that there is no consequences for false accusers.
So what evidence do you have that women who have been
proven (in case you missed it, the key word there is
proven, but I'll get back to that later) to have made malicious false rape accusations suffer no consequences for it?
I have just quickly Googled "woman jailed for false rape claim" and immediately I have been hit with pages of various news articles about, wait for it...women being jailed for making false rape accusations.
This whole "false accusers are never punished" argument that people trot out on a regular basis is a big steaming pile of BS quite frankly. A quick look on Google will show that women who have been
proven to have lied about being raped are punished for their actions.
However here's the thing -- in order to punish someone for making a false accusation you have to
prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accusation was a false one. You can't just jail people just because you think they might be lying or because the person they accused was acquitted or some other flimsy reason. You have to
prove that the accusation was definitely a false one.
You can't just start demanding that women be locked up in jail just because the man she accused wasn't convicted and she was unable to prove she was raped.
If you do that then what you're actually doing is demanding that a woman who might have been raped should be punished for being raped and reporting it but not being able to prove it.
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8 years ago
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NewWindow
8 years ago
Any man accused of rape is going to say he was falsely accused. There are convicted rapists in prison who swear blind they are innocent and they have been falsely accused.
My girlfriend was raped a few years ago. One of the rapists moronic friends actually filmed the rape without his knowledge which meant that the process was straight forward and the man who raped her was convicted.
Despite actually being caught on video he still insists that he is innocent and that he was wrongly accused, it was a misunderstanding, he didn't mean it, etc. Because of course pinning someone down whilst they are screaming at you to leave them alone and then pressing a knife against their throat so they will shut up can be a misunderstanding. Right.
In that case there was a conviction so hopefully people with at least a bit of common sense will realise he is guilty. However it gets a bit more tricky when there is no conviction.
To give you a hypothetical scenario, let's just say that Jack and Sophie are friends who have known each other for quite a while. One night Sophie invites Jack over to her house for some drinks and to watch some movies. About halfway through the night Jack makes a move on Sophie but she declines and pushes him away. However Jack doesn't want to take no for an answer and he keeps pushing her despite her protests and he ends up raping her.
Perhaps Sophie tells him no and tries to scream and does her best to fight him off but he covers her mouth and pins her down. Or perhaps she tells him no but because she is in shock about what is happening she does what a lot of people do when they are being raped and that is she freezes. She wants to scream and to fight but she physically can't. It doesn't really matter. Either way Jack has raped Sophie.
Sophie goes to the police after to report it but of course Jack denies it. So there are no witnesses and it is one persons word against another's. The police are unable to prove that Sophie was raped. They can prove that sex took place however they can't prove that it wasn't consensual. As a result charges are dropped and Jack is acquitted.
What do you think Jack is going to tell people about that night? Do you think he's going to tell people how he raped a woman and then got away with it? Of course not. He's going to say he was falsely accused and because there was no conviction people will believe him. Jack then goes on to be a "I know a man who was falsely accused but his accuser got away scot free..." story.
I'm not saying that false rape accusations don't happen. Of course they do. However I am very skeptical about what people seem to class as a false accusation. The vast majority of the time all that has happened is that there wasn't enough evidence to prove that that he did rape her.
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LikeMusicToMyEars
8 years ago
What do you think Jack is going to tell people about that night? Do you think he's going to tell people how he raped a woman and then got away with it? Of course not. He's going to say he was falsely accused and because there was no conviction people will believe him. Jack then goes on to be a "I know a man who was falsely accused but his accuser got away scot free..." story.
Good point.
Just because a man says he was falsely accused doesn't make it so.
Funnily enough people who commit crimes also tend to deny committing them so he's hardly going to jump up and down and shout "yup, I raped her but the police couldn't prove it so I got away with it, yay me!" is he?
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