Dr. Bruce Gross, in a recent scholarly piece in the Annals of the American Psychotherapy Associaton, deftly gets his arms around the false rape phenomenon. He ends on this sobering call for rationality that mirrors the goals of this Web site:
"Although it may not be 'politically correct' to question the veracity of a women's complaint of rape, failing to consider the accuser may be intentionally lying effectively eradicates the presumption of innocence. This Constitutional right is especially significant when dealing with allegations of rape as in most jurisdictions, sex offenses are the only crimes that do not require corroborating evidence for conviction. Because there are often no witnesses and no physical evidence (especially if the victim delays in filing a report), the case may come down to the credibility of the accused versus the credibility of the accuser.
"There is a fine line between supporting victims and protecting the rights of the accused. Yet, considering the unique challenges of trying and defending rape cases combined with the potential costs to the falsely accused, being able to assess the credibility of the alleged victim takes on special importance."
Bruce Gross, False Rape Allegations: An Assault on Justice, Annals of the American Psychotherapy Associaton, Dec. 22, 2008.
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7 comments:
Bruce gross is a true academic, that can step out of the "subjective cultural hysteria", and see through the eyes of a classic objective (non hysteric) academic.
False rape accusations are not only a rape of the system but a rape of the accused, who is not only raped by their accuser but also by those who assist the false accuser by aiding them in their false accusation for profit or other benefit
or benefits
This is good, I'm just humored by this one statement of his:
"There is a fine line between supporting victims and protecting the rights of the accused"
It seems pretty cut and dried to me: Innocent Until Proven Guilty.
"Supporting a victim" shouldn't have anything to do with maintaining the integrity of that concept.
I guess in that one statement, he was being P.C. in the way he worded it.
Norm, I understand completely where you are coming from. I think Dr. Gross' statement was appropriate because the constant battle in criminal justice is to maintain that balance between nabbing as many criminals as is possible while not wrongly convicting the innocent. With rape claims, this sometimes becomes difficult because most rapes are of the "he said-she said" variety. As a result, there is often no other evidence to convict aside from the woman's testimony. With conflicting claims the presumed innocent must not be convicted.
The feminist position that insists women don't lie about rape would send any male to jail based solely on a woman's accusation. Or many are advocating lowering the burden of proof for rape claims only and inventing lesser rape penalties for acquaintance sexual assault where no force is alleged in order to encourage judges to punish men and boys more frequently. All of these efforts assume that incredible numbers of men and boys are "getting away" with rape when there is no strong basis to believe that aside from statistics culled from unreliable surveys of women only. The feminist position is objectionable because it does not take into account the the rights of the presumed innocent.
It is for this reason that Dr. Gross' statement about the necessity "to consider the accuser may be intentionally lying" is so incredibly important. And for someone in his position to write that shows an honesty and a courage one usually doesn't find in scholarly writings.
Thanks; what I mean to say is not that no "support" should be offered the victim, but that it should be entirely separate form I.U.P.G. The problem here is that the two are mixed so that "offering support" at least partially or fully precludes the latter.
If the feminists were ethical from day one, they would have said something like, "we think rapes should be more thoroughly investigated", "it should never be assumed the alleged victim is lying", "a close eye should be kept on the alleged rapist" - I can see where they'd tell the guy to stay in town until things are cleared up (but no ankle bracelets - I'm against those anyway. 1984.)
I suspect this guy is not in academia. Even if he had tenure, he'd be in hot water.
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