These two links were juxtaposed at Instapundit today:
Insight into how campus sexual assault panels are being 'trained' (for those for whom this is important, note the author is a woman), and
New Mexico officer cleared of sexual assault by body camera.
From the first link:
K.C. Johnson — co-author of a book about the Duke Lacrosse rape case — recently discovered a guide for training college administrators in how to handle complaints of sexual assault. The guide was developed in 2012 by women at the University of Pennsylvania — the university’s general counsel, the director of the Office of Student Conduct and a consultant. The document also specifically thanks the input of the university’s Women’s Center.From the second link:
The guide is meant to be copied and pasted for other schools to use when “training” members of student discipline panels. It flat out says to just replace certain portions of text with information relevant to the school.
The guide includes 17 “tips” for adjudicators. As Johnson notes, ten of these are neutral, but six seem to pressure panelists to vote guilty. The remaining “tip” could be read either way.
Of course, the very first tip is a restatement of the myth that one in five women will experience sexual assault during college.
The most harmful tip, though, is the one claiming that “False allegations of rape are not common.”
“Arrested for drunk driving, an Albuquerque woman tried to flip the script on an Albuquerque Police officer, accusing him of sexual assault. Cops say when 23-year-old Deanna Griego was placed under arrest for DWI she tried to hatch a false sexual assault accusation against the cop who arrested her. The officer was wearing a lapel cam and the video contradicted her claims.”People will lie if it serves their interests enough.
Instapundit added the following:
Plus: “Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Tanner Tixier told TheBlaze on Monday evening that police were not pursuing additional charges against Griego because, despite the apparent falsehood of her sexual assault claim, police did not want to set a precedent that could discourage other potential victims of sexual assault from coming forward.”One would think.
Don’t we want to discourage liars from lying?
6 comments:
I'm not doubting that false rape reports are more common than most other crimes. A problem is, though, it also tends to be underreported, due to the stigma unfortunately attached. I can see the need to walk a fine line … but the one I would walk is to make it as easy as possible to report the crime (which we've taken steps towards) but to harshly enforce perjury charges against those found to have lied … not every accused rapist found not guilty is the result of a lie, but when the lie is provable? Jail time for the liar.
The obvious problem is that the sorts of decisions that would lead to the prosecution of false rape charges don't occur in a vacuum. They occur in a politically-charged atmosphere that's liable to make those bringing the charges distinctly uncomfortable. Better to let someone who makes false accusations escape justice then for a prosecuting attorney to suffer criticism.
As these things often do, over time the situation will right itself but that's scant comfort to someone who's had their life ruined only to see the liar who precipitated the ruination escape without a scratch.
Dang. Hit "Publish Your Comment" a trifle too quick. "a" is me.
"...Don’t we want to discourage liars from lying"
Yes...yes we should!
allen … you're right, of course … ideally you would not be. Civil defamation suits are really the only other alternative … as I believe the Duke lacrosse players did successfully. I do tend towards idealism at times … oh, okay, always...
Oh heck, I'm a frickin' Pollyanna. Unfortunately, it's the big things and the long time frames over which I'm a cockeyed optimist. On the shorter time scale and more locally all kinds of nasty stuff will continue to happen although with gradually decreasing frequency/intensity.
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