(no subject)

[naath]

Dammit, distracted by maths yesterday.

Maths is better than the news, on which Lord McAlpine was claiming that being accused of being a rapist is the WORST THING EVAR; apparently missing the obviously juxtaposition with BEING RAPED which is almost certainly much much worse, especially if you are 11.

OK, he didn't do it (wasn't even in the location of the crime), yes, I get that. And yes - the BBC and other reputable news outlets ought to have done some basic fact-checking beyond simply taking an accusers' word at face value; but in general I would much prefer it if people were quicker to believe people who say "I was raped" than slower. Not quicker to the point of throwing people in prison, courts must obviously look in detail at the evidence, but to the point of not calling the victim a liar and a slut.

Comments

[squid314.livejournal.com]

"apparently missing the obviously juxtaposition with BEING RAPED which is almost certainly much much worse, especially if you are 11."


I thankfully have no experience with either, but my feeling is that the former is worse if uncorrected. It comes with a jail term of several years to life, during which you are pretty likely to get raped yourself (and also pick up a drug habit and a mental disorder, given our prison system and the relative position rapists hold therein), followed by never being able to get a job because you have to admit to being convicted of a sex crime, plus being on the sex offender list which means you can never live near other people, plus no decent person ever being willing to talk to you, plus being abandoned by your own family and friends as a monster.

People recover from being raped, albeit slowly and painfully. I'm not sure anyone recovers from being accused and convicted of being a rapist, unless maybe their name gets cleared later by DNA testing (which happens painfully often).

Although I sympathize with not wanting to be called a liar, I'd rather be called a liar than a rapist by a factor of about ten million times.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Well, McAlpine has had his name thoroughly cleared by the clear evidence that he wasn't anywhere near the location at the time of the alleged rapes... he won't be being sent to prison to endure any of the bad things that happen there.

I don't think people should be sent to prison just because someone accused them - of course the courts should apply a higher standard of proof than "this accuser looks trustworthy". But if my best friend comes to me and says "Bob raped me", well, I can't really do a forensic analysis; I might be able to say "what, but Bob was with me in Aberdeen that night; don't you mean Adam his twin brother" but that's about it for my detection skills.

Rape victims don't just want not to be called a liar - they want SOMETHING DONE about the fact that they were raped; for instance they want to warn other people about Bob being a rapist.

I don't understand why you think people can recover from some serious trauma but not other serious trauma. Being raped is serious; being thrown in prison and tortured (by your guards, or by your fellow inmates) is also serious - but surely either both or neither of these things is in principal recoverable from.

Simply being called nasty names in public is much less serious than any physical trauma.

[hatter.livejournal.com]

The mob rule that brought his name out to begin with can all too often lead to pitchfork waving that either directly leads to severe outcomes before justice can prevail, and that all happens in a very public arena where retractions and apologies often happen much later, much more quietly. I won't claim one is worse than the other for any particular individual but a rape victim is more often the one who can mend their own life through their own actions, those falsely accused have to fix everyone else's minds, people they knew well, people they may know in future and people they may never even have direct contact with because others reject you for opportunities that you may otherwise have been offered.


the hatter

[pavanne.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. A great many more people will learn of 'accused of rape' than are likely to learn of 'oh, and then completely cleared'.

Either is likely to be horrible, obviously, and thank goodness I have no experience of either, but if I had to choose I probably would pick the physical trauma.