You can’t be serious here. Yeah, someone gets raped, it’s a “one and done” deal, right? If the person wants to, they can “dwell” on it or be psychologically damaged but they can also but it behind them, the choice is theirs. I am amazed at the lack of empathy in this post.
And any way you frame it, the two situations are not comparable. Period.
Being falsely accused though doesn’t include the risk of STDs or pregnancy. Rape does.
Not if it’s legitimate rape.
I’m disappointed that this thread doesn’t include some ridiculous hypothetical giving you exactly this choice. Something like, I dunno, “…if you flee the scene you’ll be assumed to be the rapist, but if you stay you’ll get raped”.
Standards really are falling at the Dope.
Not every country has looser abortion laws for rape victims and not everyone would abort a foetus because of the sins of its father.
It’s a horrid situation that has faced female rape victims in the past.
I think he went seriously over the top, but there is nothing legally restricting actual rape victims from putting it behind them (emotionally, yes). There is for the falsely accused, who shares the pain of betrayal with raped people.
Sorry I didn’t make that clearer; my “legitimate rape” comment was a Todd Aikin quote. I was being facetious.
Rape month seems to come round earlier every year.
If you’re falsely accused you can clear up the issue and move on. Harder to do that if you’re raped.
If you’re falsely accused of rape, you have to go through a legal nightmare to get everything set right, have people you know turn on you and call you a liar, have your life completely upended, etc.
If you’re raped, you have to go through all that, and also, you get raped.
True - but being falsely accused carries with it the risk of actually being convicted and doing time in jail - presumably, hard time, as rape is of course a serious criminal offence.
For my answer I’ll go with ‘too many variables in both cases to compare as generalizations’.
Yeah, but we do do that here now and then. Plus this could turn into a really interesting read.
I went equally. Falsely accused you almost have to prove your innocence; a tough thing to do. Actually victimized and the defense is probably going to make it all look like your fault; a tough thing to live with. I just don’t see an “up side” to either situation to rank it above or below the other.
I somehow highly doubt that.
This wins the thread.
I think the thing missing from this witty analysis is that being accused of rape carries with it a risk of actually being convicted. If that happens, depending on your jurisdiction, you could be looking at doing some very hard time.
Being raped also carries with it the risk of STD transmission, pregnancy, and trauma to one’s genitalia. Plus psychological trauma. This would be “hard time” of another kind.
This thread is the most bizarre thing I’ve read in a long time.
Just read back on the first page and noticed the pregnancy/STD thing has already been mentioned.
Being raped, depending on your jurisdiction, carries with it a very real risk of being executed for adultery, honor-killed, developing permanent physical complicationsor dying of HIV. Hard time is nothing in comparison.
Absolutely. Already acknowledged upthread.
Thing is, I believe that the better argument is that the risk of being sentenced for rape is, in the cold light of reason, worse that the risk of the purely physical trauma of STDs, pregnancy, or damage to one’s genitals.
The risk isn’t merely losing some years of your life to imprisionment, but also of being categorized as a sex offender and a felon.
The mental trauma of either situation would of course vary by individual. I have no doubt that, for some, one would clearly be worse than the other.
True.
If you were raped in some third-world countries, your situation would undoubtedly be worse by any account than if you were accused of rape, due to a malfunctioning or non-functioning system of criminal law and medical care, and by customs that strongly favour aggressors over victims.
However, I don’t live in such a place, and I am perhaps wrongly assuming that the question is directed at where you happen to live.
Not all the countries like that are “third world”, and not all Western rapes are cosy date rapes.
I took the global view.