|
The Evening Standard
January 23, 2004
Tracking down the sexually violent
Editorial
The issue of rape complaints and whether or not they
are genuine is an especially vexed one because it touches on matters that go
to the heart of social relationships and who exercises power between people.
The police, for their part, say a complaint of rape pretty much invariably
sparks a major investigation which can consume the resources of as many as
six staff at a time.
So they are understandably riled when after all this they find the complaint
is a false one. Palmerston North detective sergeant Dave Clifford put it well
when he noted that while some degree of cynicism is useful in police work,
too much of it does a disservice to genuine victims.
But there is another side to this issue, and there are those who regard such
public comment from the police as extremely damaging to women.Investigating
what turn out to be false complaints in any field of alleged criminal
offending surely goes with the territory, they argue, and it is not the role
of the police to publicly bemoan this aspect of their job, no matter how
exasperated some individuals might be feeling.
There is also another serious aspect to the problem, and that is the
long-held contention that the incidence of rape is vastly under-reported so
that anything which discourages women from telling about it only makes the
matter worse.
Certainly what the police have had to say has provoked plenty of debate from
both sides of the fence, indicating that nerves have been hit. It has even
been claimed that misandry (hatred of men) could be at the bottom of some
complaints. The police haven't gone this far, speculating only that from
their experience there are all sorts of reasons why false complaints of
sexual assault are made.
Such speculation, while perhaps interesting, is in the final analysis
probably fruitless unless there is a more sinister and planned intent behind
a complaint. The police say they can usually figure whether a complaint is
genuine pretty early on in the piece, but that isn't to say innocent people
haven't been put in serious jeopardy -- they have, and in such cases the full
weight of the law should be brought to bear on the offender.
But even in a comparatively enlightened society such as ours, rape and sexual
assault in general remains an area fraught with difficulty, for the victim
particularly, in the first instance, and law enforcement agencies as well. It
would be a great pity if some women were deterred from what is already a hard
step for fear of not being believed. It should be borne in mind that telling
the police about it is usually only the first step in what can be a long and
emotionally-harrowing process, especially if it culminates in a trial in
which the woman has to give evidence of what was done to her.
But there are still many men for whom women are playthings and for whom the
notion of consent seems to be a trifle. The possibility of some complaints
turning out to be false is surely a small price to pay for ensuring that the
sexually violent among us are detected and put behind bars.
One more thing: Whether it's global warming or global freezing, we're not
sure. But whatever the case, the weather's gone nuts again just when it
looked like we were going to have a summer. Still, there is February to come
yet, so once more, hope springs eternal.
|
