The above is the title of the letter below the screengrab. It was written by Robert F. Hoeg and appeared on page 9A of the Wisconsin State Journal, April 23, 1997.
In the actual NewsBank database it is titled FALSE ACCUSERS SHOULD -
Although it has the appearance of an article, it is clearly a letter, otherwise I would not have republished it in its entirety. This guy really knows what he is talking about.
I cannot find the article to which he alludes: How much do you really know about sexual assault? It is possible this wasn’t the actual title.
Note the specific cases to which he alludes:
The 15 year old boy from Sun Prairie arrested on November 18, 1996 for first-degree sexual assault - in Wisconsin, this means rape.
In 1995, at least four alleged rape victims in Madison, Wisconsin recanted. These are not official statistics, but this guy was in the know. Note he said at least four alleged victims recanted, ie there may have been more.
Note too the penultimate paragraph re false allegations of child sexual abuse. In that connection, see this classic 1993 documentary.
After reading a recent news story in your newspaper, How much do you really know about sexual assault? I must correct some obvious flaws in the public’s perception.
As the owner of a private investigative firm handling sexual assault cases, I have assisted in prosecuting perpetrators and defending those charged. I am also a former board member for a center specializing in helping child victims of sexual abuse, and the father of two boys and a girl.
We seem to focus all discussion of sexual assault and the abuse on the alleged victims, prior to checking into their stories. How quick we are to judge and how slow to correct!
The news story overlooked three key elements: the falsely accused, the destruction of their families and professional lives, and the lack of prosecution of those bringing false charges.
Those who use the system, intended to protect true victims, for their own malicious purposes, should be pursued and prosecuted, including a mandatory minimum sentence, with the same vigor as those who perpetrate true assaults.
Sexual assault is one of the only crimes in this country that does not require some type of corroboration. An alleged victim need only say it’s so and an arrest is made. This charge doesn’t even require that the alleged perpetrator be interviewed prior to arrest.
Last year, in Madison alone, at least four alleged rape victims recanted their accusations. What happened to those criminals who made the false accusations? What happened to those men who were falsely accused? On Nov. 18, 1996, a 15-year-old Sun Prairie boy was falsely accused of first-degree sexual assault, arrested and spent eight days in jail. The alleged victim had a history of lying to police, but they were forced to arrest the young man anyway. Will she be charged? What happened to this young man?
While working as an advocate for children who were sexually abused, I saw an enormous volume of false accusations (about 25 percent of all cases brought), brought on by vindictive mothers and/or coached children for a wide range of reasons, mostly to influence the courts in custody cases. These individuals were never prosecuted for their false accusations.
We need to change the system and the reporting on these types of cases to protect all the potential victims. Only after an individual is found guilty of this type of crime should you publish their name, not before. How can you justify publishing the name of an alleged perpetrator and not the name of the accuser? Isn’t that what happened in Salem some time ago? Because of the serious problem of false accusations, the public has become less likely to believe true victims. This is a real problem and does affect a true victim’s willingness to press charges.
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