There seems to be a lot of angst in the world regarding Julian Assange. There seems to be an expectation that everyone take an extreme stance about him. Either he is a courageous freedom fighter incapable of wrongdoing, or he is complete scum. I don't get it.
It looks like Assange, like everyone else in the world, is a really complicated person. On the one hand, Wikileaks has been, in my opinion at least, a more or less good thing. Most of the leaks regarding the US haven't been all that surprising, although it sure has shown everyone how important it is that government reevaluate the procedures surrounding classified information. Some of what Wikileaks has shown needed to be exposed, such as that video of soldiers shooting reporters from a helicopter. On the other hand, he is almost certainly a rapist.
There is not really such a thing as "sex by surprise," as some of insisted is the charge against him. He is charged with not using a condom when he said he would in one case and not stopping after the condom broke, despite the woman's insistence that he do, in the other case. That means that, at some point, he was having sex with a woman without her consent. That is rape. He should stand trial and, if convicted, go to jail for a long time. But the reason he should go to jail is not because published documents given to him by a source. The reason he should go to jail is because he's a rapist.
I am perfectly capable of applauding his actions regarding Wikileaks while deploring his treatment of women.
considering i know nothing of the case (sorry i'm a busy gal) i would say i agree with you all around. a sensible stance.
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts Robby. But it's possible the rape charge is a lie. If he is a rapist - Fuck him rot in Jail Wikileaks can go on and thrive. But if he ISN'T a rapist, then the US/Britain/EVERYOTHERASSHOLECOUNTRY are trying to put an innocent person in prison. Which to my thinking is an absolute abortion of justice.
ReplyDeleteAndy
I love the blog, its like last Saturday morning on the internet.
I'm not generally a fan of doubting women who claim to have been raped. Are there instances where women lie about it? Sure, but its pretty rare.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, it is far more common for women not to report it at all than for women to lie about having been raped. Rape victims are regularly made out to look like sluts in courtrooms, and women know that. The women who have accused Assange have gotten that treatment on a global scale. They surely knew that would happen before they filed a complaint.
That said, an accusation does not a conviction make. Everyone has (or should have) the right to a trial.
Actually false rape accusations are not as rare as you think, especially in the military. Granted, there are most likely many more that go unreported, and I am not discrediting that at all.
ReplyDelete"A study of rape allegations in Indiana over a nine-year period revealed that over 40% were shown to be false — not merely unproven. According to the author, “These false allegations appear to serve three major functions for the complainants: providing an alibi, seeking revenge, and obtaining sympathy and attention. False rape allegations are not the consequence of a gender-linked aberration, as frequently claimed, but reflect impulsive and desperate efforts to cope with personal and social stress situations.” ( Kanin EJ. Arch Sex Behav. 1994 Feb;23(1):81-92 False rape allegations. )"
"In 1985, a study of 556 rape allegations found that 27% accusers recanted when faced with a polygraph (which can be ordered in the military), and independent evaluation showed a false accusation rate of 60%. (McDowell, Charles P., Ph.D. “False Allegations.” Forensic Science Digest, (publication of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations), Vol. 11, No. 4 (December 1985), p. 64.)"
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The research on the rate of false rape accusations is not, it turns out, particularly well developed. There haven't been a very large number of studies, and many of those studies have pretty serious problems associated with them. (The one you mention only looked at 109 cases, for instance, and was based entirely in one mid-western county.) This article from Slate gives a pretty good breakdown. The various studies cited in that article seem to point to a false accusation rate at or below 10%, not all that different from the rates for other crimes.
ReplyDeleteBe that as it may, I think the fact that 27% of rape accusers recanted when confronted with a polygraph is quite telling. I mean, that is just a fact that cannot be disputed. I think it should be mandatory for rape accusers to take a poly as all it can do is help them by validating the cause.
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