Doesn’t all rape involve some sort of force? To suggest otherwise is to move us backward 100 years (or more).

“Daniel,

I mention the statistical likelihood of false accusations as a counterpoint to the rhetoric espoused by the men’s rights movement and other people who put forth the argument that false rape accusations are exceedingly common as a means to completely dismiss completely legitimate and real situations. (See a good deal of the discourse around the recent Assange charges for that kind of speech.) Yes, false accusations happen (I am very sorry that that happened to you). Yes, they are damaging to everyone involved and to the stories of real survivors trying to make our voices heard. Do they happen as often as many people say they do? No, they don’t.

My point in 1) and 4) that you are talking about is simply that someone coming forward with a report of sexual assault should not be immediately dismissed or doubted, a point with which I believe you agree. Support for emotional distress is the first concern, period.

There are a good number of studies and books out there about the ways in which the judicial mechanism fails in certain circumstances, particularly in sexual assault cases. Many people are dubious of even entering their complaints into that system because of the way that it can be weighted against survivors.

Here’s an op/ed piece that goes deeper into that issue: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/opinion/30kristof.html?_r=1

“Innocent until proven guilty” is a wonderful idea, but it doesn’t work out as well in practice as we would like. “

On 4, I can agree with perhaps questioning your support of someones goods or services made by someone who is convicted of any sort of crime involving sexual violence. However, shouldn’t we as a society treat the accused as innocent until proven guilty?

On 1, our society absolutely has to do a better job being supportive of survivors of rape and enabling them to come forward and seek justice. Nobody should dismiss charges of rape, but nobody should be jumping to conclusions that the accused is guilty either. Yes, the number of rape accusations that are false is low. Why does the number matter? It is wrong for one person to falsely accuse another person of sexual violence. It is wrong for 100 people to falsely accuse another person of sexual violence. It is wrong for 10,000 people to falsely accuse another person of sexual violence. And just because one demands that we treat the accused as innocent until proven guilty, it does not make one a “rape apologist” nor does it mean that the person is saying that the woman is a liar. Our society can both demand that the accused be treated as innocent until proven guilty while giving the woman the support she needs to come forward and submit all the necessary evidence so the state can prove its case.

In a perfect world, nobody would make a false accusation of rape. Of course, in a perfect world nobody would be raped either.

For a very short period of time as a teenager, I was at risk of being charged falsely with sexual assault. Fortunately, the story given was so obviously flawed that the state never pursued charges against me. But that didn’t stop the fear of what might happen to me if she was able to get away with her lie and cause me to go to jail for something I did not do. And while I do not blame all women for what she did, and while I do accept that most women who do say that they are raped are being honest about it, the fact that men are falsely accused should not just be brushed off as a statistical anomaly.