And as if all that wasn’t bad enough, Ann, then we get the women who really do cry wolf - making it all the worse for the rest of us.
That is indeed a problem, Nancy. And such women do exist. A few years ago, when I was in London, such a case had just been discovered and people were upset, of course. I read about it in one of the more serious newspapers, and it was an in-depth article. The girl in question came from a conservative family, and when her brothers found out that she had been having sex they pressured her to report it as rape, because that way the family's honour could be salvaged.
This was, of course, a horrible case. You have to feel very, very bad for the boy who was wrongly accused. At least everybody found out that he was innocent, and if I remember things correctly, he was awarded damages, too.
But let me return to the 5% conviction rate for rape. Is it really probable that
most of all the non-convictions are due to false accusations on the woman's part? Is it even possible that half or a third of them are false accusations? I just can't believe it. In Sweden, at least, rape trials are usually about giving the girl the third degree all the time, about questioning and doubting everything she says, to find out if she couldn't possibly be lying. I can't believe that a lot of women would really want to subject themselves to that.
In Elisabeth's story, Lois said:
Going to the doctor is like being raped all over again.
In Sweden, many women have said that going through a trial so that their rapists could be convicted was like being raped all over again. I just can't believe that
many women would willingly subject themselves to that.
I said that I read that in-depth article about a boy being falsely accused of committing rape when I was in London. I have been in London at least a dozen times, and I don't remember ever buying a newspaper and finding an article about a woman who was actually raped but who got no justice. (Admittedly, the article in the Guardian that I referred to in my previous post is just such an article.)
I've seen a documentary about a gang-rape in Sweden. The girl and the four boys were all sixteen years old. The boys were found not guilty, because it wasn't proved beyond a doubt that the girl had not been willing. The girl had been at a party, dressed in a short skirt, and she had been somewhat drunk. She had had a falling-out with a girlfriend of hers at the party, and she had left the party and tried to find a lift home. A boy whom she considered her friend had offered to drive her home, and she had accepted. Instead of driving her home, he had driven her to his own apartment, but not before he had picked up three of his mates. The four boys had taken turns raping her, but, you know, it wasn't proved beyond a doubt that the girl hadn't been willing. The documentary about this case showed four girls from the same school as the girl talking about the case. Three of the four girls agreed that the alleged rape victim had not been raped at all. She had definitely wanted it, because she really was that kind of a slut. The fourth girl expressed doubts. "If it had only been one guy it wouldn't have been rape," she argued. "But I don't think she wanted to do it with all four of them."
The closing scene from the documentary showed the raped girl sitting all alone at home, twisting her hands. "I just wanted to go home that night," she said. "My friend said he would drive me. When I got out of his car I tried to run away, but they caught up with me. One of them said he had a knife. I think it's unfair that I get all the blame... that everybody say I'm a slut... but... I'll have to live with that."
Ann
