When someone is acquitted of rape, it does not mean the accuser is lying

an article by Sonia Sodha for the Guardian

Rape is more difficult to prosecute than other crimes, and it is ludicrous to think the scales have tipped too far in favour of those reporting it

“Really?” John Humphrys pressed Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, on the BBC’s Today programme when she was explaining that an acquittal doesn’t imply a woman reporting a rape has made a false or malicious allegation. Hopefully, his sceptical intonation was an interviewing technique. But it came across as an indication that he (like many others) labours under the misapprehension that if someone isn’t found guilty beyond reasonable doubt in a court of law, that’s a sign that their alleged victim was lying.

Humphrys was interviewing Saunders about the Crown Prosecution Service’s annual crime report on violence against women and girls. He chose to focus a good chunk of the interview on the issue of false allegations, which leaves the utterly misleading impression that this is the main issue in the prosecution of rape, rather than levels of under-reporting (although reporting of rape has increased in recent years, only around 15% of sexual violence is reported to the police); or the lack of specialist support for women coming forward to report rape; or the way that some women reporting rape have been met with active disbelief by the police. None of these issues surfaced in the interview. Neither did it explore why conviction and prosecution rates for domestic violence offences are declining, which was also highlighted in the CPS report.

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Makes me feel sick. But, whilst the report focuses on women and girls we must not forget that men and boys also suffer.

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