I’m sorry if I sound like a broken record here, but, given the laws of rape in the majority of the states, this is just not true right now. A woman saying no, in the absence of force, does not constitute rape in the majority of jurisdictions. And force is defined as phsyical force. I think the law is wrong on this. But as I am discovering, the Villa seal of approval is not constitutionally necessary for criminal laws. More’s the pity, I might add.
Rape is a damn serious charge and there is, as far as I am aware, no evidence that women (or men) allege rape falsely any more frequently than other serious crimes are alleged falsely. The difference is we do not rewrite the evidentiary standards of the law of theft because of an unfounded fear of a rash of false allegations. And no one is saying that a woman has the right to change her mind after the end of the sex and claim rape. That just isn’t the case, nor should it be.
Nope, it was just in my head because of the odd topic turn to sharks, and having watched too many “Nova” episodes lately. Although actually I don’t think people use bang sticks much anymore because they do hurt the sharks.
“[M]ost law enforcement officials equate the amount of false reporting of sex offenses with that of every other category of crime…” Linda A. Farstein, Sexual Violence, Our War Against Rape, p.299 (Berkley Books, 1993)(Ms. Farstein was an Assistant Manhattan DA and Director of the Sex Crime s Prosecution Unit).
Of course, I can’t find the actual stats, only different people commenting on those stats. I see people stating that the rate is as high as 9%, and as low as less than 2%.
My issues with this would be in the first place that have not seen it cited to in any of the literature on the subject ( that I have read - no claim to have read it all) including the literature hostile to the claim at stake. That could of course be because it is relatively new, and so has not filtered into the secondary material yet.
Also, I am not sure what the Feds are reporting on here. First, the definition of false report may be different. Further, if it is only dealing with crimes within the Federal system, I am not sure of its relevance to rape, which is overwhelmingly a state offense.
There seem to be way too many rapes the Feds have jusrisdiction over, but they are still a small minority. Actually, my assumption there are disproportionately many federal rapes is totally falsely founded. I just realized I am simply looking at a case book that is based on the federal rules of evidence so is skewed towards those cases. D’Oh!
On a serious note, the fact it is the feds gathering stats on states makes me nervous. It does provide at least the possibility of a pissing match going on. The 2% figure is the one I see cited most, but I tend to have more respect for the 5% number that I cited from Farstein, as she was in the trenches on this. I also think the two numbers may actually be the same (as may the 9%) and simply be the result of differneces in calculation methods. For example, does it refer to reports in the sense of an official report to the police, or a call to the cops that a person’s boyfriend has attacked her. The two may not of course be the same.
Not actually what I meant, at all. I meant to say that there seems to be a disproportionate number of Federal Rape cases given their lack of jurisdiction over such offenses outside of Reservations, Military Bases, DC, etc. Of course, the reason I thought that was the unbelievably self-selecting data set I was looking at (a case book on the application of the Federal Rules of Evidence). 'Twas me being an idiot. Given that the book is also written by west coast based scholars, I am suprised I didn’t also assume that crimes are more common in Western states.