Rape often has less concrete evidence that other severe crimes. Murder convictions have been overturned because the alleged victim turned up alive, which has led to stricter standards for murder convictions. If we applied the same standard to rape, the already low conviction rates would drop to nearly zero.
There are also socially-acceptable reasons to commit many crimes, much more so than for rape (and for good reason). If you believe an allegation of murder, you may well have some doubt in your mind about whether it was understandable; people who murder their children’s murderers are an easy example. Objectively criminal, but fairly difficult to condemn. Not so with rape; either the crime didn’t occur or it was despicable, no in between.
As such, people can be more angry based on less evidence (neither one necessarily for bad reasons) about rape accusations compared to accusations of other heinous acts. This gives the accusations, including false ones, more power.
So, as opposed to other ways a false accusation can ruin a person’s life, what - exactly - justifies treating false accusations of rape differently?
In other words, what’s your fucking point?
Rape often has less concrete evidence that other severe crimes. Murder convictions have been overturned because the alleged victim turned up alive, which has led to stricter standards for murder convictions. If we applied the same standard to rape, the already low conviction rates would drop to nearly zero.
There are also socially-acceptable reasons to commit many crimes, much more so than for rape (and for good reason). If you believe an allegation of murder, you may well have some doubt in your mind about whether it was understandable; people who murder their children’s murderers are an easy example. Objectively criminal, but fairly difficult to condemn. Not so with rape; either the crime didn’t occur or it was despicable, no in between.
As such, people can be more angry based on less evidence (neither one necessarily for bad reasons) about rape accusations compared to accusations of other heinous acts. This gives the accusations, including false ones, more power.
When the conviction rate for rape and sexual assault is sitting around 8%, real and false reports of rape have very little power.
The power I was talking about is completely separate from conviction rates. Ask Emmett Till how much consolation it is that he wasn’t convicted.