Discussion of rape prosecution starting now on NPR's Talk of the Nation program

omegaflux · 2011-06-14T19:03:31+00:00

Thanks for posting. I was in the car on the way to school when it started and was going to put the word out once here but you beat me to it. It didn't take long for an e-mail and then a call about false rape accusations and the presumption of innocence. I'll have to listen to the rest of the program online after getting out of class.

francomaistre · 2011-06-16T02:10:26+00:00

Incidentally, this was my favorite call of the program:

LINDA (Caller): Hi. Yes, I had an experience. This happened several years ago, many years ago, in fact. I was taking a college course and one of the students followed me home. I was quite surprised to see him. And, in any event, there was nobody else home and he attempted to rape me. He did not succeed. I ended up shutting down. I just kind of curled up into a ball and didn't give him the response he wanted. And eventually my family came home, found me, immediately figured out what was going on and called the police. And I was unwilling to give them too much information. I was afraid. I was afraid.

CONAN: Afraid of what?

LINDA: I was afraid of being put on trial and being not believed. I wasn't afraid of, you know, him re-attacking me. I was afraid of the court system. And I didn't want to be put on trial. So what ended up happening, much to my surprise, was the police, you know, they had me come down to the police station. And they were very, very nice. They couldn't have been nicer and they said they knew the individual.

And that individual would be seeing a police officer virtually every day for the next month and he was going to know, under no uncertain terms that the police were going to continue to watch him. They would find reasons to engage him personally on a regular and consistent basis. And that even though he wasn't going to be tried by the court system, they 100 percent believed me.

CONAN: Why not tried by the court system - 'cause you didn't want to press charges?

LINDA: Because I didn't want to go to court. I didn't want to be put on trial. And this happened back in the '70s. And back in the '70s it was just known that the victim was the one who was going on trial. There was no other option.

CONAN: Linda, thank you very much for sharing the story. I know that can't be easy and we're sorry for what happened.

LINDA: But I was delighted with the police. I really was. And I think that women should go forward and even if the courts can't help them, other people can.

CONAN: All right. Thanks very much for the call - appreciate it.

LINDA: Thank you.

CONAN: Joanne Archambault, how common is it that women are afraid to go forward for fear of being put on trial?

ARCHAMBAULT: Well, I think that's a really important statement. And that's sort of what the EMT was also talking about, knowing that they're might be something else going on, knowing that a victim that he might be treating isn't necessarily telling everything. It's not just the criminal justice system, though I think that's really important for your callers to hear.

What happens is people are afraid of the community response. And if we really talk about the criminal justice system, we're talking about the society members, community members that are part of that jury system, who are actually the triers of fact. And there's an incredible fear. And unfortunately it's well grounded in that when victims do come forward, friends and family members and even loved ones sometimes will not necessarily believe the victim, especially if the victim was engaging in some sort of high-risk lifestyle. Maybe they were drinking or they were doing drugs or they were where they were told they weren't supposed to be.

And so it starts as soon as a victim discloses, and at least in the case of the caller from Michigan, her family, it sounds like they were very supportive. But unfortunately that isn't always the case. So a lot of times people think that victims are most afraid of the police and the criminal justice system. But actually what we find is they're really afraid of that whole social response and people dividing and taking sides and creating camps.

...But it's only a problem when it happens to the "victim", so we should place the burden of proof on the accused, and who cares about the community response to the accused, right? (As long as it's a disposable male.)

How I wish I could have called in and turned this argument around on the victim advocate.

Title	Discussion of rape prosecution starting now on NPR's Talk of the Nation program
Author	francomaistre
Upvotes	8
Comments	3
Date	June 14, 2011 6:05 PM UTC (15 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/hzlad/discussion_of_rape_prosecution_starting_now_on/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/discussion-of-rape-prosecution-starting-now-on.1038633 https://theredarchive.com/post/1038633

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