Right; the victim “declines to prosecute”. You’re conveniently overlooking the many-times documented police hassles, attempted shaming by society, a court system that far too often allows the accused rapist’s defense attorney to shred her reputation to bits and try to shift the blame to her (clothing, drinking, etc), frequent threats by the accused rapist and/or his friends to get her to recant. From all my reading, it’s apparent that most rape victims don’t “decline to prosecute” — they’re frightened out of / actively discouraged from prosecuting. It takes a strong, STRONG woman to stand up against that, especially when she knows that, statistically, her chances of seeing her rapist convicted are about 5%. In other words, your suggestion is merely another way of trying to shift the blame onto the victims, instead of laying it where it belongs — on the crappy societal attitudes that are evident in police, lawyers, and juries.

Read Why I Didn’t Report My Rape. And remember that we’ve seen (on a number of news reports and feminist blogs) that even videotape of a rape frequently does not get the rapist convicted.

But, of course, it’s all the women’s fault for “declining to prosecute”. I wish there was a way to measure the depth of my disgust at that callous statement.

Besides the fact, the mother concerned for her traumatized child is hardly to blame for how the *authorities* respond to her. If the police are indeed making that assumption, then they are treating the girl’s rape as justifiable/suspect and the boy’s rape as a crime.

Good call. On my ten millionth call to the police (after I was still receiving threatening texts from the guy who had confessed) I got a huge runaround of, “Well, we’ve lost your case number - again; awfully sorry, but we’ve had ten rapes over the weekend…” as though the two might not be related - ignore a confessed rapist and all his information and - surprise! - more rapes happen.

Imagine that.

Funny how - in prosecution, in threads like this, and in everyday conversation on the topic - it’s always the survivor’s fault, either for pushing too hard for prosecution (you know you’re on that track when the heavy sighs from male officers start) or, as stated above, not hard enough. Or, just for being freaking alive after the fact.

Also for good measure, we survivors have been known to do that self-blamery thing to ourselves, too - just a thought.

And yet, it’s never the fault of the rapist (male or female, for good measure), nor the lazy police officers who can’t get their jobs straight. Funny how that always seems works out.

Good call. On my ten millionth call to the police (after I was still receiving threatening texts from the guy who had confessed) I got a huge runaround of, “Well, we’ve lost your case number - again; awfully sorry, but we’ve had ten rapes over the weekend…” as though the two might not be related - ignore a confessed rapist and all his information and - surprise! - more rapes happen.

Imagine that.

Funny how - in prosecution, in threads like this, and in everyday conversation on the topic - it’s always the survivor’s fault, either for pushing too hard for prosecution (you know you’re on that track when the heavy sighs from male officers start) or, as stated above, not hard enough. Or, just for being freaking alive after the fact.

Also for good measure, we survivors have been known to do that self-blamery thing to ourselves, too - just a thought.

And yet, it’s never the fault of the rapist (male or female, for good measure), nor the lazy police officers who can’t get their jobs straight. Funny how that always seems works out.

Good call. On my ten millionth call to the police (after I was still receiving threatening texts from the guy who had confessed) I got a huge runaround of, “Well, we’ve lost your case number - again; awfully sorry, but we’ve had ten rapes over the weekend…” as though the two might not be related - ignore a confessed rapist and all his information and - surprise! - more rapes happen.

Imagine that.

Funny how - in prosecution, in threads like this, and in everyday conversation on the topic - it’s always the survivor’s fault, either for pushing too hard for prosecution (you know you’re on that track when the heavy sighs from male officers start) or, as stated above, not hard enough. Or, just for being freaking alive after the fact.

Also for good measure, we survivors have been known to do that self-blamery thing to ourselves, too - just a thought.

And yet, it’s never the fault of the rapist (male or female, for good measure), nor the lazy police officers who can’t get their jobs straight. Funny how that always seems works out.

In 2002/2003, there were 11,441 reported rapes of females, resulting in just 686 convictions.

This means that, essentially, a rapist in Britain can be nearly 99% certain that he will never be convicted of his crime.

It also shows that around 35,000 rapes go unreported every year, and a total of more than 46,000 go unpunished.

Which is more of a concern: more than 46,000 unpunished rapes per year, or a few false allegations of rape which, on this evidence are extremely unlikely to result in a conviction anyway?

Seems like a no-brainer to me……

Exactly. As well as wankstains who think the phrase “Duke Rape Case” negates the existence of rape.