Ronnie, "Both are bad, both happen - a comparison of the two is inflammatory and unhelpful." - to a large extent I agree. The part of this you seem to have missed is that the comparison has already been made by those suggesting that the plight of those falsly accused is less the plight of those suffering from violent rape. Seethers original comment and your own comments suggest a willingness to reach a conclusion to the question. From what I can find in the original article the only thing that came close to a comparison before Seether's comment was a comment by aqvarivs which I did not read as a comparison.

"One woman raped is one woman too many. Conversely one man falsely accused is one man too many." http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=5484#70053

I don't believe that we can reach a legitimate across the board answer to the question of which is worse, as I've said elswhere each case will be different.

I'm not aware of any studies which have attempted to do serious work on the impacts of false allegations on the accussed over time.

You may be correct when you say "The carnage from rape is more prevalent in society than false accusations." or it may be that "The carnage from rape is more conspicuous in society than false accusations." - I don't know the answer to that.

I suspect that in most cases for both rape victims and those falsly accussed the real damage is the long term stuff, not the actual act.

"Then the lawyers cometh, the accuser becomes the accused (on top of the physical damage and mental anguish of being raped victims also have the mental anguish of being accused of being a false accuser). "

Thats one of the issues I'm grappling with - how do we avoid adding insult to injury and still protect the rights of the accused to defend themselves? Clearly if a defendant claims not to have committed an offense then the accuser is being accussed of being a false accuser. I don't see any safe way out of that quandry.

R0bert

It's readily apparent you are a man hater, Ronnie. How sad for you to miss out on 1/2 of the world's population.

I have been abused severely by men - I served three years in the military, 30 years ago, when they could say and do pretty much whatever they chose to.

I certainly came away angry and disgusted with many - but certainly not all. For every wrong doer, there were wonderful, protective men.

I came of age in the States, where it was frequently declared the world would be such a better place if women ran it.

Women are in positions of power like never before in the history of this country.,..consequently, there are more men in prison in the USA than ever before in the history of this country, if not the world.

I'm thinking you are so repelled by men you will never become a mother of one. That's probably for the better.

Men have spent years in prison, for false accusations. Lynchings were once common in this country, when neurotic women targeted black men for accusations. Men have been raped, beaten to death, in prison - innocent men, Ronnie. INNOCENT men.

Men are forced to register, leave their wives and children,lose their jobs, live in disgrace, due to false accusations.

No one listens to their cries. They arent' allowed to complain - it 'offends' rape victims for their voices to be heard.

The bottom line is, Ronnie, YOUR chances of being a victim of false accusation -false RAPE accusation - are slim to none. YOU will never have something like that happen, therefore YOU are the blase one.

Women are in mental hospitals because of sexual abuse? Men are sexually abused, as well.

Men aren't in mental hospitals because of false accusations? Of course not, Ronnie. They are in PRISON. They are forced into lives of silent shame to protect themselves -like women once were.

Max,
The thing is, that even though you say that women should be free in their choice of clothes, you come up with ‘buts’ and ‘ifs’ to justify why they should NOT wear what they like. You believe that the clothes women wear influence a man to rape. This is not so.
Again: the clothes women wear have nothing to do with rape. Rape happens in countries where women fully cover themselves.

Rape happens in situations where the rapist sees an opportunity. Most rapes are planned in advance.
The rapist does not choose his victims according to their outfits. Rapists are out to look for available and vulnerable targets to intimidate.
Women are not safer if they stick to a certain dress code.

Not only sheikh al-Hilali blames women for rape and not only Muslim groups set codes of dress and behaviour for women.

Some fringe Christian groups subjugate women in their cult/sect to dress codes as well (e.g. the Exclusive Brethren, the Amish).
Dress codes for women are said to be some kind of protection for women. Dress codes always involve long skirts and this does not make sense at all.
Everyone knows that it’s much harder for a rapist to struggle with tight jeans or shorts than it is to lift up a long skirt.

It’s ironic that the sheikh,like you, also said that he had been misinterpreted, that his comments were read out of context.
Your as well as al-Hilali’s comments convey the message that women are somehow responsible for rape.

In your favour, your comments are not as strong and as obvious as al-Hilali’s and I do belief you have no intention to offend women. I think that you are just misinformed about why rapists rape.

Celivia you STILL got it wrong, how many times I have to SPELL OUT that when women wear revealing clothes DO NOT ASK to be RAPED, read again and this time try to UNDERSTAND.
I said CLEARLY that A RAPIST or sick minded man may believe she WANTS it, not a decent man, a decent man DOES NOT think that way, read again before condemning and AGAIN comparing me to the sheik.
I clearly said that any woman, any day, at any place whether she is wearing revealing clothes OR NOT might be so unfortunate to be meeting a rapist somewhere, what I MAINTAIN is that if that woman was wearing revealing clothes then the rapist wouldn't think twice to commit such an horrific crime. In HIS sick mind he believes that SHE WANTS IT.
DO YOU GET IT NOW? If not probably best for you to go back to school and learn some english.

RObert. That Seether was comparing the violent rape in the article with false accusations is obvious. Did you miss my post above? Seether’s response was to Aqvarivs’ negative politicking where he introduced some doubtful figures from the USA re: false accusations thereby creating a callous comparison.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=5484#70053

Seethers response is understandable given that the rape victim mentioned was murdered and her body mutilated. Aqvarivs insensitivity in light of this suggests a hardening to victims of particular crimes. I see this callousness in society increasing.

RObert said: “ I don't believe that we can reach a legitimate across the board answer to the question of which is worse, as I've said elswhere each case will be different.”

Then why would you even consider the comparison between two obviously painful experiences? It is not healthy for people to be reliving their painful experience on sites like this. Recent research has found that “letting things out” actually increases the anger and pain, especially when it is in an uncontrolled environment . Posting your personal life is very unwise if it is a way of finding peace, resolving some inner conflict or there is an expectation of rescue.

People who’ve experienced some painful experience would be better to share with friends or a professional. Studies have found that people under stress have more right brain activity. They tend to see catastrophe in the slightest misfortune, have higher incidence of depression, and get upset easily and just generally tend to be unhappy. It has been shown that people with a stronger left prefrontal cortex are usually happy. Experiments have shown that when exposed to, for instance, cheerful movies our left frontal cortex becomes more active. So affected posters, rather than trying to convince people that your pain is equal to someone else, best treat yourself as if you are a good person with nothing to be ashamed of. Do an activity that stimulates your left brain. Things like watching good cheerful movie - nourishing life-affirming things. Comparing your pain to others only increases your right brain activity and thus your unhappiness and anguish.