# Should the privacy of those accused of sexual crimes be protected?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-privacy-of-those-accused-of-sexual-crimes-be-protected/773078
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [November 26, 2016, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-privacy-of-those-accused-of-sexual-crimes-be-protected/773078 "2016-11-26T20:07:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Mnemnosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mnemnosyne)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-privacy-of-those-accused-of-sexual-crimes-be-protected/773078/41 "2016-12-03T14:24:35Z")
All crimes have a tendency of damaging a person’s life if they’re merely publicly accused of them, but there is a definite impression that accusations of rape are more readily believed by large swaths of the public and can be more damaging than most. If you hear of someone accused of murder and he’s then found not guilty, in **most** situations, people seem to accept that (exceptions exist, such as OJ Simpson where a rather sizable amount of people remain convinced he was guilty, whether rightly or wrongly).
With rape and other sexual crimes including pedophilia and molestation, there appears to be a very distinct split between people who will absolutely believe any halfway credible-sounding accusation and even if the person is found not guilty or not even prosecuted, simply attribute that to sexism and other ‘rapists are rarely convicted’ explanations…and the people who refuse to believe rape took place under almost any but the most egregiously provable circumstances. An accusation of these sorts of crimes without evidence does, therefore, appear to be more damaging than an accusation of murder or armed robbery, etc, both in the short and long term.
Of course, I’m only talking about how it _seems_. I don’t know of any actual studies that try to determine whether someone accused but not convicted of a sexual crime actually finds their life more damaged than someone accused but not convicted of other ‘types’ of crime.
That said, I’m not sure what the solution is. I’ve thought about this in the context of all crime, but it’s especially applicable if sexual crimes indeed do harm a person’s life to a greater degree to have the accusation happen. We can’t very well make all criminal and court proceedings secret, because that would require that we place absolute trust in the justice system, and it never have the oversight of public knowledge. If we permit publication of the accused at any point before conviction, then what have we accomplished, really?
Plus, at least in the US, we have the problem that the first amendment makes it very difficult to restrict the media’s ability to publicize an accusation of this sort. It is perhaps plausible that making libel and slander cases easier to win in such a situation might help, but it’s hard to say if that wouldn’t make other things worse.
I do, however, think that if someone is going to be accused of something, their accuser should be named. The media really shouldn’t announce that someone has been accused without naming their accuser. It just feels like a step too far in making it impossible to defend oneself in the court of public opinion.
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### Author:  [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-privacy-of-those-accused-of-sexual-crimes-be-protected/773078/42 "2016-12-03T16:47:49Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> Today, rape shield laws make that kind of inquiry into a victim’s past legally irrelevant and impermissible.
Can the fact that the alleged victim is a prostitute be raised by the defense? I should think that highly material in that a sex worker is far more likely than other women to have sex with someone she just met.
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### Author:  [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2016, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-privacy-of-those-accused-of-sexual-crimes-be-protected/773078/43 "2016-12-10T22:33:11Z")
The UK police have stated that (particularly) in the case of a celebrity (actor, politician, musician) sex offender it is likely they are a repeat offender. The police therefore deliberately release the accused identity, before even formally arresting them or charging them, with the specific hope that once it is well known they have been accused of such crimes, other victims will come forward and the weight of accusations will make it far easier to build a case and more likely to secure a conviction.
As in America the opposite side of the coin: Gathering a sexual history of the alleged victim to make them appear promiscuous and discredit them is not (usually) permissible.
TCMF-2L
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### Author:  [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2016, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-privacy-of-those-accused-of-sexual-crimes-be-protected/773078/44 "2016-12-11T06:46:10Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> I’m still not seeing the difference between information being released about any of the following before Bob Smith is actually convicted of anything:
>
> [ul]
> [li]“Bob Smith is accused of raping woman X”[/li][li]“Bob Smith is accused of beating his wife”[/li][li]“Bob Smith is accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from company Y”[/li][li]“Bob Smith is accused of robbing old ladies at gunpoint”[/li][li]“Bob Smith is accused of pedophilia.”[/li][/ul]
>
> Being accused of any of those, even if not guilty, could easily cost Bob his job, his community standing, his professional reputation and his social circle, as well as make things much harder for him.
>
> Considering the often murky nature of sex crimes, I’d say Bob’s privacy should probably be more protected in that case, than something where the cops caught someone like say… armed robbery.
Shouldn’t that be a relatively easy thing to prove one way or the other - and shouldn’t that be what guides the decision?
Are there studies comparing
“adverse effects of being accused but not convicted of rape” to “adverse effects of being accused but not convicted of murder”
If being accused of rape is found to be more debilitating than being accused of other crimes, then wouldn’t it make sense to offer some level of protection to the accused?
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