Leamick, welcome to the thread.

Do you have any comment on the views put forward so far as someone else who has seen this stuff up close and personal?

What works, what does not work?

R0bert

RObert,
"I'm opposed to penalties for false accusers when the accusation is retracted or overturned based on evidence provided by friends or family of the accuser. I think such penalties are likely to lessen the chances of a retraction occuring."

I’d like to agree with you here but I’d also like to add that another reason for opposing penalties is that real rape victims might be less inclined to report a rape if they think that they might not be able to come up with adequate evidence. Some victims are very young, alone and scared or just very traumatised and they wouldn't risk reporting a rape if they'd think it may mean a penalty.

We should not forget that sometimes judges take into account a woman’s behaviour (provocative) or profession (stripper).
Rape is probably the only crime where the victim is judged along with the perpetrator. This is unfair.

While we do not want to lock up innocent men, we also need to keep in mind that a retracted allegation/accusation is not always a sign that the accusation was false. There may as well be other reasons for a rape victim to have retracted the accusation.

This is such a complicated topic to discuss, I am struggling with it! There are so many grey and overlapping area’s! Whatever way we look at rape allegations and rapes, there are always both sides to consider and there's always the risk that one of the perpetrators is getting away unpunished if the system is not accurate and unbiased.

RObert, I believe you may be the one mistaken about ronnie's gender. I have locked horns with this type of mentality before, and it's always, without exception, a lesbian posing as a man. Even the most humane, decent, supportive males on the planet (and I certainly know many, and have raised two) are highly aware that false accusations against males are prevalent. They are also highly aware of the consequences and horrific damage of false accusations, unlike ronnie.

As far as the fear of rape being desensitized, perhaps it NEEDS to be looked at with facts and truth - instead of out of control emotional response.

Here in the states, the families of 3 boys have spent over $5 million dollars defending their son's against a stripper who claimed they raped her. She was trying to avoid jail for drunken driving. Read about the Duke University LaCrosse team rape scandal - the entire university took the stripper's side, the boys were expelled, the prosecutor announced them guilty on national television. Someone's sordid 'background' no longer is questioned when a rape charge is involved.

It's the reason to question emotional response, and pay attention to truth and facts...

To correct your redefining my comments about the withdrawal of a complaint being 'cooerced'-nothing in this world would make me withdraw a true, valid complaint if someone harmed my child. I advised my son's accuser to make a formal complaint with law enforcement, instead of gossiping to family and friends, or *I* would make a complaint FOR her - and include her history of sexually abusing children.

She chose to apologize and withdraw the accusation. It was, in fact, a false accusation, and she was, in fact, a child molester. There was no 'cooercion'involved. Two years later, when she made her next accusation, I told the court of her earlier accusation and withdrawal of it, she denied it happened. The only 'rapist' here was the false accuser.

Robert, my friend I fully understand what you are trying to say, this is not an easy subject, if a man say anything at all he is accused of representing the SHEIK view or he is a women hater.
I am not to discuss the so called revealing clothes any longer as it seems not to be accepted very well. I do remember though that the so called mini skirt wasn’t that MINI when it was introduced, it has become shorter and shorter and shorter with time, to the point that some mini skirts if not wore at all wouldn’t male any difference whatsoever.
Now let me ask a question to all women that participate in this forum. I don’t believe anyone has asked before. The question is;
Why do you wear such short skirts revealing your underpants? Why do you wear blouses that make your breasts wanting to pop out?
If it is not to attract ATTENTION, Why do you wear those clothes? Don’t come up with the answer that we live in a free world, I won’t accept it. I know that this question is going to receive lots of angry responses but I had to ask it, I never asked any woman in real life it’s time to ask in here.

Leamick, I can really and truly tell you that I know what you mean, I don’t believe for a minute that your son will ever be the same, I am not sure if he will ever trust a woman again either. He is very young though and maybe in time he will eventually put all the happening behind him and find some happiness, as we’ve been saying in here not all women are the same. Let me tell you that at times (and at my age) it feels like that the only thing to do is just hate all women, but that won’t be right though, rest assured that I had to fight that feeling badly enough so as not to fall victim of hatred towards another human being.

Celivia, when you make comments about the issue, and although I don’t necessarily agree with it, you’re a great contributor to the forum, but your comments are very much open to discussions. I appreciate all you said in your last post. You say that if a person that falsely accused of rape someone else’s, then if not proven it was rape she is then made accountable and forced to pay restitution to the accused then many women would find it hard to come forwards and report a rape for fear of having to be made accountable. Celivia; do you understand what you are in fact saying here? You are telling us (me) that the word of a woman should and must be sufficient to send a man in jail for having committed (according to her) rape. It doesn’t matter if she can’t prove it, it doesn’t matter if there are no witnesses, she is saying it; so it must be true. Are you trying to tell us (me) that a woman is now in possession of a WEAPON that she can use any time she wishes to accuse and send a man to jail simply because she doesn’t like him? I truly know that you may hate what I am about to say right now, but MY VIEW is that if a woman does not report a rape it wasn’t a rape to start with. A crime MUST be reported no matter; what with the proper evidence any woman subjected to any form of violence SHOULD have the courage to report the event and have the person committing the violence sent to jail. Continues