January 25, 2008: Debunking rape myths by David Wolchover and Anthony Heaton-Armstrong is published.
The above is an excellent article from the New Law Journal; it exposes inter alia the oft’ parroted mantra that the conviction rate for rape in the UK is only 6%. Interestingly it points out that in 1977 there were around 1,000 allegations of rape made to the police while in 1999 there were over 8,000. This is mostly due to the rise of allegations of acquaintance rape/date rape. Around 80% of all reported cases in the UK are said to fall into that category. The usual explanation for this is that women are now more willing to report violations by men they know, but the reality is very different.
With anonymity for false accusers as well as genuine victims, this is a win-win situation for any malicious tart who for whatever reason seeks to destroy a man’s life, tarnish his reputation or simply angle for financial compensation. On top of that, (especially young) women are being brainwashed into reinterpreting their unpleasant or simply unsatisfying sexual encounters as rape. The reader will find numerous such examples in this database.
In spite of this being an excellent article about rape myths, the authors have subscribed to a couple themselves: false allegations do not comprise a small minority, indeed the aforementioned increase between 1977 and 1999 is probably all made up of false allegations, even if many of those women reporting believe sincerely they have been raped. As for stereotypes about rape victims, all stereotypes are grounded in fact, even if not all swans are white.
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