False rape complaints annoy police
Hamilton police will decide this week whether to charge two women who made separate false rape complaints at the weekend.
Detective Sergeant Nigel Keall said police spent time and resources investigating the women’s complaints.
“It’s just a waste of resources that could have been used elsewhere.”
…
Senior investigators estimate that between 60 and 80 per cent of rape complaints made by women are false.
Mr Keall said false complaints tainted the community’s perception of sexual offending and the genuine victims who needed support.
He said there was also a difference between people making complaints of stranger rapes and making allegations against a specific person, which could sometimes be malicious.
Dear readers,
Holy shit!!
Am I reading this correctly!
Someone wake me up please.
I’m having this dreadful nightmare about how men in NZ can be charged with rape without
ANY CORROBORATING EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER!!! yet women found to be wasting precious police time with false allegations of rape are ONLY CONSIDERED for charging with an offense!!!
Does the sexist double standard stink to high heaven to you too?
Oh
My
God.
In stark contrast to this stupid misplaced chivalry in NZ copdom by virtue of being a bloke I’d fully expect the cops to deal to me quickly, harshly and WITHOUT UNDUE CONSIDERATION.
Then to have the courts hammer me.
Then that the community at large would give me untold shit as well.
The vultures could pick on the scraps of me left over.
What jolly CONSIDERATE misandric cops you have over there!
Safely ex-pat.
Yours with consideration
Stephen
Comment by Stephen — Mon 8th August 2005 @ 11:58 pm
I was shocked to read that ‘senior investigators’ believe that up to 8/10 women who report a rape are lying. I would be interested to know by what they make these estimations as if it’s simply a lack of convictions they should be ashamed of themselves.
Due to the two pronged fork of the charge of rape it’s not just a simple matter of whether there was consent or not (difficult enough to prove in cases of acquaintence rape) but also whether or not the accused believed that there was consent!
Now, in some specific circumstances that makes sense – you can’t reasonably expect a woman you’ve forced off the street to consent to sex. But in the face of the fact that most rapes occur where the rapist is known to the victim, how are you supposed to ‘prove’ a state of belief?
How can a woman “prove” she said no, particularly when there may have been no force used? I was perhaps naieve in the belief that “no, stop” means just that. When it’s revealed that the police may disbelieve up to 8/10 women who then go on to report the ordeal… it’s no wonder that many women try to surpress it instead.
Coincidentally, this article (http://teenadvice.about.com/od/daterape/a/daterapeguysfyi.htm) gives some good advice for men relating to potential date rape situations.
Comment by Cami — Sat 28th January 2006 @ 8:13 pm
Interestingly if you go to the same online edition of The Herald you’ll see another headline – ‘5 rapes a night not unusual’. Blatantly giving the impression that such a stat is a fact. Reading into the article it turns out that there are only 5 ALLEGATIONS of rape every Friday night in Auckland. A pretty low number in a culture that’s been malebashing for 30 odd years I would have thought.
I suppose it depends how you define rape too. I’ve hears some frighteningly over-inclusive and plain ludicrous definitions in my time. From ‘We were both drunk/stoned and now I regret having sex with him’ (immature female’s failure to take responsibility) through to Neville Robert’s feminist grandstanding ‘All men are rapists’ (misguided chivalric bullshit).
As for the 8 out of 10 cops believing rape charges are false – Yet another misandric attempt to paint the cops as part of some big bad ‘patriarchy’by spreading a mere urban myth.
Some folks really need to get over themselves bigtime IMO.
Comment by Stephen — Sun 29th January 2006 @ 2:17 pm