Shakespeare’s Sister let me know about this case.
In brief, a 17 year old files charges of rape against three adult men, including her boyfriend.
After reviewing all the information and statements, prosecutors decided they didn’t think they could prove a rape allegation, and so declined to prosecute the case.
Instead, they prosecuted the victim for filing a false police report. Yesterday, she was found guilty.
I think Sis writes a better story about this than I could. I just want to point out some important quotes from her long, and extremely worthwhile, write-up.
The assistant city attorney who prosecuted the case said “This case should not deter legitimate victims from reporting crimes.”
Sis responds:
Something tells me it just might, particularly when a judge admits he found inconsistencies in the stories of both the woman and her attackers, but decided nonetheless that the attackers were “legitimate? victims and the woman was not. As it is, only 10% of victims of sex crimes in Oregon file reports with police.
…
Heather J. Huhtanen, Sexual Assault Training Institute director for the Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force, reports that Portland police have found that 1.6% of sexual assault cases were falsely reported. By way of comparison, 2.6% of auto theft cases were falsely reported.
I hate to say “men say this, men say that” as if the male gender were a monolithic group with a single agenda. I’m told some of them sometimes skip the club meetings. Let’s just say the media, and certain factions supporting certain patriarchal interests, are quick to say that it is very, very, super, ultra-important that men be protected from the heinous experience of being falsely accused of rape. I have no doubt that such an experience is a frickin nightmare. Nonetheless, the statistics cited suggest that there is no big problem such as those voices would have us believe.
Some years ago, at Starwood, I co-taught a workshop that included material on child sexual abuse and incest. We were talking about a wide range of topics and some people were talking about false memories, false accusations, all that. A man raised his hand to say that he’d been falsely accused of molesting a young girl, and then exonerated. We invited him to share his experience. What he said was striking. He said it damaged his reputation for a while, but not forever. He said in his opinion it was worth it for a small number of people to go through what he went through, in order to protect children. He said that there was no way of ever prosecuting real child abusers without the risk of false accusations such as fell on him, and it was a small price to pay for protecting our children.
By and large, I think his argument, his heartfelt and compelling argument, arising from a deep and personal place, applies equally to adult victims. There is never, and can never be, safety to come forward if we make it dangerous. For fuxake, if this isn’t making it dangerous, what is?
