Duke Lax Rape Case/Utah Jazz Non-Rape Case
An astute commenter on the Talkleft Duke Discussion Boards, Ernie, came up with some interesting parallels and differences between the handling of Duke rape case and accusations of rape by a stripper against several Utah Jazz players.
The story describes a stripper who accused four Utah Jazz basketball players of raping her in a Portland, Oregon hotel room.
Note that the names of the players are not revealed.
Note that the race of the accuser and the race of the players are not mentioned.Note that no charges will be filed because there is no DNA, there are no injuries consistent with rape, and because the accuser cannot identify the players.
Note that the players were very cooperative and denied any wrongdoing, but they were not accused by the DA of forming a purple "wall of silence".
Because of the discrete way that this case was handled by the Portland DA, I am guessing that nobody will be interested in t in investigating the past of either the accuser or the players. Nobody will decide to play any race/gender/class cards. Nobody will bang pots. No racial divisions will be created (or revealed).
Finally, few will bother to blog about this incident.
The story describes a stripper who accused four Utah Jazz basketball players of raping her in a Portland, Oregon hotel room.
Note that the names of the players are not revealed.
Note that the race of the accuser and the race of the players are not mentioned.Note that no charges will be filed because there is no DNA, there are no injuries consistent with rape, and because the accuser cannot identify the players.
Note that the players were very cooperative and denied any wrongdoing, but they were not accused by the DA of forming a purple "wall of silence".
Because of the discrete way that this case was handled by the Portland DA, I am guessing that nobody will be interested in t in investigating the past of either the accuser or the players. Nobody will decide to play any race/gender/class cards. Nobody will bang pots. No racial divisions will be created (or revealed).
Finally, few will bother to blog about this incident.
Background on the Utah incident here (same link referenced in Ernie's post).
posted by Myra Langerhas at
8:13 PM
3 Comments:
These women should be charged with making these false claims of rape. BEing intoxicated during the crime shouldn't absolve them from any responsibility.
I was surprise of how many false rape accusations have been made by several independent surveys reveal that 42% to approximately half of all accusations made are false. Most cases involve divorce battles involving the custody of children, some for revenge for withdraw of affection, monetary gains, an excuse for infidelity, or misidentification.
• According to the FBI, one of every 12 claims of rape filed in the United States are later deemed 'unfounded,' meaning the case was closed because the alleged victim recanted or because investigators found no evidence of a crime.
• Howard County Police classified one out of every four rape allegations as unfounded in 1990-91.
• The National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers says around 600 teachers a year are falsely accused - a trebling since the 1989 Children's Act.
• Citing a recent USA Today article, discussing the miracle of DNA and FBI studies of sexual assault suspects, DNA testing exonerated about 30% to 35% of the more than 4,000 sexual assault suspects on whom the FBI had conducted DNA testing over the past three years.
• Purdue sociologist Eugene J. Kanin, in over 40% of the cases reviewed, the complainants eventually admitted that no rape had occurred (Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 23, No. 1, 1994).
• 1985 the Air Force conducted a study of 556 rape accusations. Over 25% of the accusers admitted, either just before they took a lie detector test or after they had failed it, that no rape occurred.
• 1996 Department of Justice Report, of the roughly 10,000 sexual assault cases analyzed with DNA evidence over the previous seven years, 2,000 excluded the primary suspect, and another 2,000 were inconclusive.
• Linda Fairstein, who heads the New York County District Attorney's Sex Crimes Unit. Fairstein, the author of Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape, says, "there are about 4,000 reports of rape each year in Manhattan. Of these, about 50% simply did not happen."
• Craig Silverman, a former Colorado prosecutor known for his zealous prosecution of rapists during his 16-year career, says that false rape accusations occur with "scary frequency." As a regular commentator on the Bryant trial for Denver's ABC affiliate, Silverman noted that "any honest veteran sex assault investigator will tell you that rape is one of the most falsely reported crimes." According to Silverman, a Denver sex-assault unit commander estimates that nearly 50% of all reported rape claims are false.
I would never want to create an environment where women are afraid to report a rape, but, by the same token, women who completely fabricate such claims should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home