The purpose of this post is to make the case that claims of rape and sexual assault should be made to the police, investigated by the police, and then proceed to trial. We should not punish men for charges that are made outside of the criminal justice system. Let’s take a look at some previous cases and studies to see why not.
Here’s one reported by the far-left Newsweek:
Rolling Stone‘s disastrous and discredited campus rape story now has a price tag.
The magazine has settled a defamation lawsuit filed by the University of Virginia fraternity at the center of the 2014 blockbuster feature by Sabrina Erdely, which was retracted after key details in the story were called into question. According to reports, Rolling Stone will pay a settlement amounting to $1.65 million.
The article, which was published in late fall 2014, described an alleged brutal gang rape of a student named “Jackie” at a UVA fraternity. The story drew wide attention and triggered a police investigation, but it was officially retracted in April 2015 after Jackie’s claims were called into question.
Why did she lie?
The Washington Examiner reports:
Documents have shown that Jackie likely made up the gang rape to try and win the affection of fellow student Ryan Duffin. She had tried other lies to get his sympathy, including pretending to have a terminal illness. When that didn’t work, she tried to make him jealous by inventing an attractive man who would constantly say she had a crush on someone else and he didn’t understand why.
When that didn’t work, she went on a fake date with the fake man, and then claimed she had been gang raped. That didn’t win his affection either, and the two eventually stopped talking.
She lied, because she wanted to get affection and sympathy from a boy she liked.
Here’s another featuring a student at Hofstra University, reported by the NY Post:
The Hofstra freshman who had a raunchy restroom romp and then cried rape made up the twisted tale because she didn’t want her schoolmates — particularly her new boyfriend — to think she was easy, the beau told The Post yesterday.
“I think she needs a psychologist. She probably felt like, ‘They’ll think I’m a slut,’ ” her boyfriend, who asked not to be identified, told The Post.
Danmell Ndonye, 18, who had accused five men of gang rape, admitted the truth only when prosecutors confronted her after learning of a cellphone video that captured the whole sordid episode and showed she had willingly participated, officials said.
She lied because she didn’t want her boyfriend (and others) to think that she was a slut.
Although she made a false rape accusation, she never received any jail time. In fact, she was never even charged.
Another, reported by the Associated Press:
Nikki Yovino, 20, of South Setauket, New York, was sentenced Thursday in Bridgeport Superior Court. She agreed to serve the jail time when she pleaded guilty in June, just before jury selection was to begin, to misdemeanor charges of falsely reporting an incident and interfering with police.
Yovino was attending Sacred Heart University in Fairfield when she reported being raped by two school football players at an off-campus party in Bridgeport in October 2016. But police said she later admitted making up the allegations so she wouldn’t ruin a relationship with another student.
[…]Both players remained unidentified until Thursday, when Malik St. Hilaire came forward to speak at the sentencing and confront Yovino. The Connecticut Post reported Yovino rolled her eyes and smirked as St. Hilaire talked about how the allegations affected his life.
She lied, because she didn’t want to ruin a relationship with her boyfriend. And of course there are cases where the woman just wants to get revenge on men for sex she consented to, but that later made her feel bad, as in the Duke University lacrosse case. False accusations of rape or sexual assault are used by people to get attention and sympathy, or to get an alibi when they’ve done something wrong, etc.
Clearly, there are cases where people lie about rape and sexual assault. That’s why we need to get the police involved, and not punish anyone except in the ordinary way that laws and courts punish. Let’s take a look at some studies to see how often false charges are made.
What do the studies show?
A Fox News article from a prominent equity feminist, Wendy McElroy cites several studies, here’s one:
[…][The] study conducted by Eugene J. Kanin of Purdue University… examined 109 rape complaints registered in a Midwestern city from 1978 to 1987.
Of these, 45 were ultimately classified by the police as “false.” Also based on police records, Kanin determined that 50 percent of the rapes reported at two major universities were “false.”
[…][E]ven a skeptic like me must credit a DNA exclusion rate of 20 percent that remained constant over several years when conducted by FBI labs. This is especially true when 20 percent more were found to be questionable.
False accusations are not rare. They are common.
So, there’s only a 41 percent conviction rate. DNA testing exonerates 20% of men, and makes the guilt another 20% of men “questionable”. A total of 59 percent of cases didn’t result in a conviction.
In false rape cases, men can spend years in jail, until the women finally admits she made the whole thing up. There are campus cases where only the accused’s witnesses are consulted, only evidence confirming guilt is considered, the charges and evidence are hidden from the accused, the accused is denied legal representation, the accused is denied cross-examined of the accuser, etc.
A double standard
So, that’s how men accused of sexual assault and rape are treated, but what about women?
Consider this case where a female teacher got zero jail time for sexually assaulting an underage male student. Or this case from the UK where a married mother of two was convicted of producing child pornography, but also received no jail time. It’s not just that men are being denied due process when they are accused of something. It’s that women ARE NOT being punished when they ARE found guilty of something. There just seems to be a widespread view that women are never responsible for their bad choices, and that men are always to blame for everything. What are women learning from this about how they should treat men in their own lives? Should we expect men to have friendships with women and pursue relationships with women in this cultural climate?
WINTERY KNIGHT 
I bet plenty are… Many aren’t lying, but it’s more than plausible that a scared teenager would lie about rape not knowing the true gravity of her accusation to avoid angry parents and a grounding, or a woman wants to get back at a guy or even lie to get money or sympathy….
https://aladyofreason.wordpress.com/
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Show me the police report.
Lacking that, no rape claim should be taken seriously, because the “victim” clearly did not take it seriously.
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Due to the metoo nonsense I’m inclined to side with the guy unless there’s overwhelming evidence he did it….
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“Believe The Woman!!!”
War-cry of 21st century feminism run amok.
What if other women say The Woman is lying?
I think they mean Believe the Liberal Woman.
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But not the woman assulted by someone on the left….
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Nah, textbook case: Bill Clinton and Juanita Broaddrick. And Paula Jones. And Kathleen Willey. And _____. And._____. And_____.
And you fill in the blanks. And he’s only ONE example.
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Just a quick clarification: I don’t think we should automatically BELIEVE accusations of rape, but we should always take them SERIOUSLY, investigate, and punish whoever is found guilty, either of rape, or lying about being raped.
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Good distinction you made there, Mark. Gullibility in believing all claims and having a serious mindset are mutually exclusive ways for looking at cases of victimization. I don’t think anyone on the Right is without seriousness though, *unless* you are Alt-Right and resemble Alex Jones. Wintery Knight’s primary claim in this post stands true: if there is an issue of rape, it should fall within due process of the criminal justice system.
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I was careful to phrase it that way!
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Thanks, A.J! Just as an aside, according to OT law, what do murder, rape AND KIDNAPPING all have in common?
Answer: They all carry the death penalty.
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Very true!
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I would hope all would agree to take them serious. We just commonly here have a problem with tossing aside constitutional rights for all involved, and due process of the courts.
It is the meeto attempt to circumvent the courts that is of issue.
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“There just seems to be a widespread view that women are never responsible for their bad choices, and that men are always to blame for everything.”
I cringe every time I hear a pastor insinuate from the pulpit that the reason why wives/women may say or do bad things is because of husbands/men.
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This is one of the big three reasons o don’t like church, with the others being left wing policies (that will destroy religious liberty in the long run) and fideism / presuppositionalist “apologetics”.
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I’m a member of an independent Baptist church that supports a young earth creationist missionary (his mission message is promoting YEC). I am an active member of that church because I am called to love and serve the body of Christ in spite of our differences on YEC or whether or not natural theology is the best route for defending the faith.
There are pastors (we have more than one) who are sympathetic to my cause. One pastor has an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Marquette University in Wisconsin. The way I see it is the body of Christ is at least a somewhat dysfunctional family. As a part of that family, I am dysfunctional too and need other people to minister to me as I minister to others. I cannot expect the church to get it’s act together on all the issues before I will love and serve them in the community.
I have a friend whose main issue is used to be Calvinism. For him, you are either a Calvinist or you are filthy Armenian. Everything was judged through that lens. The result of that was isolationism from every church that wasn’t on board with all five points. Things did not turn our well in his walk with Christ for taking such a stance. He’s better now that he has lessened his iron grip on that.
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Have you considered going to a local conservative Evangelical church?
Usually these churches fall in line within SBC, PCA, UPC or AVC organizations. None of these churches seem to support any left-wing policies (maybe SBC one day since their church government can allow it if the majority view of Southern Baptists drastically leans left). I guess some of these organizations will go against your problem with fideism (PCA and UPC in particular).
On a side note, my pastor *kinda* seems to be a fideist, its just that some Pentecostals from intellectual health in their faith. I am an anomaly as a Pentecostal, since I would describe myself between the worlds of Classical and Evidentialist apologetics.
P.S. don’t take my question as probing into your life, I just wanted to create an icebreaker. 🙂
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21st-century feminism rearing its ugly head again and poisoning the Body of Christ (see my comments above).
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All humans are created in the image of God, and are therefore worthy of our love and respect. Also, all humans (other than the pre-fall Adam and Eve and the incarnate God-man Jesus Christ) are fallen sinners. Hence, we should not be surprised when humans lie, including about sex. Police and courts are supposed to get to the truth about such allegations. Hopefully, they get it right most of the time. No maxim can settle this issue.
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It’s often a way to make a sexual encounter “not count” if they don’t like the outcome, or change their mind or it makes them experience negative emotions later.
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Goes to show ‘consent’ doesn’t make immoral sex, moral. It’s closer to a legal term…but often if her feelings change because fornication always goes wrong…it can suddenly become rape in the court of law.
Another important point I just discovered reading the book ‘Libido Dominandi’ by E Michael Jones….which is about the societal collapse after the French Revolution…lust darkens the mind.
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Sad in a way, because obviously rape does happen but many men are starting to doubt rape claims by default.
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Men are being raped too at an increasing rate.
They are very often too ashamed to bring it up with law enforcement.
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