# Alleged Duke Rape - Your take **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 13, 2006, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alleged-duke-rape-your-take/352499 "2006-04-13T09:35:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![marymargaret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@marymargaret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marymargaret)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alleged-duke-rape-your-take/352499/61 "2006-04-20T21:37:35Z")
Have they ever determined if the e-mail (in which a player said they would kill some strippers) was real? ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alleged-duke-rape-your-take/352499/62 "2006-04-21T04:20:35Z")
> [@marymargaret](#): > > Have they ever determined if the e-mail (in which a player said they would kill some strippers) was real? Oh, it was “real” in the sense that as far as anyone can tell, he did write and send it. I did not read it as being “real” in the sense of his actually planning to, IRL, flay strippers. I read it that he was being an OTT fratboy ass. His lawyers seemed to agree, and cited it as **exculpatory** because someone who really had been aware of/participated in a rape would not be so stupid as to record violent sentiments against the strippers thusly raped. The defense theory seems at this early stage to be centering around the notion that the strippers and the players got into some sort of beef and the current accusation is payback for that (Kanin, the researcher who found that of the rape allegations he studied on a number of college campuses, 50%(!) were false) identified “revenge” as one of the three chief motivating factors in false rape allegations). So: my best guess (all any of us have) is that there was **some** kind of unpleasantness at the party – either a gang rape (really “unpleasant,” but which I’ve wondered about sort of dubiously in another thread) or a beef about payment, about the complainant being wasted, about what the strippers said/did, about what the players said/did. If there was not a rape, I am assuming e-mail boy was writing his pissy OTT e-mail as a slam against what he saw as bitchy unsatisfactory strippers in view of whatever beef they’d had. ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alleged-duke-rape-your-take/352499/63 "2006-04-21T04:42:20Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > (Kanin, the researcher who found that of the rape allegations he studied on a number of college campuses, 50%(!) were false) identified “revenge” as one of the three chief motivating factors in false rape allegations). As far as I know, Kanin’s study was of a single small midwestern town of under 100,000 people, over a decade or so in the 70s and 80s, and the numbers he got back were 41%, not 50%. The government uses a different methodology, but comes up with a figure of 8% for false rape accusations. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alleged-duke-rape-your-take/352499/64 "2006-04-21T04:48:42Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > As far as I know, Kanin’s study was of a single small midwestern town of under 100,000 people, over a decade or so in the 70s and 80s, and the numbers he got back were 41%, not 50%. The government uses a different methodology, but comes up with a figure of 8% for false rape accusations. Kanin did a follow-up study on several university campuses and came up with a figure of 50% false. I cited that study only because this accusation took place amongst college students. Also, regardless of the rate, I would think (no cite, obviously) that when false allegations do take place (at whatever rate), the reasons for them (including revenge) may be rather similar. Your number for the FBI’s reported estimate is correct. I suspect it is low because I do not think they were as inquisitive as Kanin (rather, I suspect they just reported whenever a PD reported an allegation to be false, i.e., spontaneous recantation), but that’s speculation. The FBI reports that include that “8% false report” figure note that it is the highest false-report number for any tracked felony – the general rate of false reports is 2%. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alleged-duke-rape-your-take/352499/65 "2006-04-21T20:53:07Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I don’t know enough about this case to make an informed judgment, but the fact that one of the students (Colin Finnerty) and one of his buddies [assaulted a gay man](http://wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=48540) in D.C. last year is probably going to get a lot of press in the next few days. (Finnerty received probation and community service [the latter he has yet to perform as it’s in D.C.].) The assault is a fact. The gay thing–not so much. [Cite.](http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usfinn214710722apr21,0,7022825.story) > [@](#): > > In the early morning of Nov. 5, Finnerty and two friends started hurling homosexual epithets at Jeffrey Bloxsom, leading to a fight in which Bloxsom suffered a cut lip and bruised chin, according to the police report. Bloxsom’s lawyer said he is not gay. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alleged-duke-rape-your-take/352499/66 "2006-04-22T00:57:25Z")
Hmm… It appears she may be looking for a way out. The pressure may force her to “drop the charges”. She drops the charges before the trial shows she may have made it up. Blame the media/Duke/etc. > [@](#): > > Threats from Duke supporters have forced the woman, who is black, to stay with different friends almost every night after she accused white lacrosse players of raping her at a wild party. > > She even considered pulling the plug after the case turned into a racial pressure cooker, her cousin said. > > “At one point, she wanted to just drop the charges,” said the cousin, who gave her name as Jackie. “But as a family, we told her to stand her ground.” > **[Breaking News, World News, US and Local News - NY Daily News - New York Daily...](https://www.nydailynews.com/)** > > Find breaking US news, local New York news coverage, sports, entertainment news, celebrity gossip, autos, videos and photos at nydailynews.com. ---
**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alleged-duke-rape-your-take/352499/67 "2006-04-23T18:13:02Z")
Yes, and you can bet all the attention will then be focused on how evil the system is that imposed all that pain and suffering on her. The additional doubt cast on her story will be little mentioned. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alleged-duke-rape-your-take/352499.md?page=3)