RObert you put it superbly as usual. Women wearing burkas have been raped, Christian nuns have been raped and I don't think it had anything to do with dress sense. It is worrying when people who profess a Christian faith think style of dress is relevant in rape cases. Uncovered meat indeed. Are men wearing stubbies and tank tops asking for it?

Judgements are often made enmasse and based on generalisations and prejudices, regardless of the individual circumstances and the nature of the people involved.

I have been guilty of it myself in regard to footballers but have reassessed those prejudices (thanks Cornflower) which are largely media driven. The lack of morality in a few footballers does not excuse the fact that footballers tend to be judged as a group rather than individuals. Justice has to be blinkered to those external pressures and stick with the facts as they present themselves.

The Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) are the problem as usual. This is a closed shop organisation, brimming with hidden agendas, itching for high profile events to propel careers by “all means and foul”.

Police are powerless against its might, and often wrongly accused as the purveyors of such nonsense.

a597 maybe it's not the women of today that are the problem, it's the type of women that some men prefer to associate with.

Just as I get very tired of most men being blamed for the consequences of some women's preference for "bad boys" it's a annoying for most women to be blamed for the actions of a some women.

All in all a very unpleasant post.

R0bert

some of these comments and parts of the article are ridiculous and reinforce stereotypes of men and women. It is never ok, regardless of what a woman is wearing (dark age comments), to assault a woman or to have sex without her consent. For many men the idea of this is repulsive. Unfortunately while some of the attitudes represented here prevail women will continue to be assaulted more often.

The article says that Leslie Cannold 'eagerly told us about her own experiences'. This is just a disgusting comment. Any women who has been raped is not eager to make that public and she (or he) should be supported in speaking out about it. Too many assaults are hidden and this article reinforces that women should not speak.

There are always issues around false accusations that are made public and how these should be handled. The reality is that people lie about all sorts of things and we have courts to tests these claims. But there is a much larger problem in that women are not coming forward to report most violent sexual crimes and articles like this one and the comments following, unfortunately, will provide further deterrence.

Let's encourage women and men who are raped or assaulted to speak up but let's also make sure the claims are tested fairly and without a trial by media.

Elizabeth Lakey, I really look forward to your PHD and hopefully you will have a high-profile and controversial career ahead of you.

There is so much hypocrisy and simple feminist hatred maskerading as 'research' which is well funded and published each year. Yet, somewhere there are academics, journalists and media commentators who will peer-review and publish the other side... and certainly you will receive an adoring audience of children who lost their dads to the "Feminist Court" (Family Court) and others who respect truth and ntegrety over zealotry.

Please keep working in this field. Please get published. Please get tenure. Please keep going.

Men are not allowed to even suggest what you can write as a woman... and even you are surely receiving tremendous flak... Be strong, respect the truth, realise that thousands of lives are lost through suicide and tens of thousands of children's futures are destroyed each year because of the idealogy of vengance that is modern feminism.

Please save lives and protect children by telling the truth.

PartTimeParent@pobox.com

Macky, your words tell of a critical lack of information. Take the case of a close friend of mine.

He was accused of rape, arrested and given bail. There were no witnesses, there was no evidence, nothing but her word. One night a couple of months later she was out drinking with her mates when while drunk she let slip how she had the power to get any man into trouble. All she had to do was go to the cop shop and say that that guy had raped her a few weeks before. There would be no evidence left over - it would just be her word against his. Of course the cops would never believe him, it was the perfect plan. And the best part was that she had already done it to one guy. Under an extreme attack of conscience her friend fronted the cops and told them everything.

Now for the lack of information I talked of, you say that the courts will fairly handle cases weeding out the malicious from the genuine. In which court will this occur? My friend was being instructed by everyone that he should plead guilty because it may help to lessen his sentence. His own lawyer was pleading with him to do it, the court would never side with him. If her friend hadn't told the story he would have been sent to jail for a crime he didn't commit - why? Because he is a man! And a man is always guilty in these cases! The media response to the story speaks of this truth.

The story was stating, quite correctly I might add, that an accusation is not proof. When Leslie Canold 'eagerly' told of her experiences she had already convicted them in her own mind and was playing executioner. If they are innocent what does her story have to do with it, other than attempting to cast doubt, if they are guilty how does her story being plastered across the news help the victim or others, both victims and victims of false accusations? The answer it doesn't!