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Child sex
abuse hysteria and the Ellis case |
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The wisdom of
Gordon Waugh - Index |
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Sandra Coney writes
much nonsense but excelled herself with her absurd remarks about rape and Justice
Thomas' opinion (December 8). They appear to believe that making false
allegations is an "enduring and pernicious myth". Of course women make
false allegations of rape. And when they do, they are rightly accused of
"lying, scheming and manipulating". Remember Nick Wills and many
others in similar predicaments? The "recent
complaint" rule is a fair one. Complaints promptly made allow forensic
evidence, if it exists, to be gathered. Significant delays can limit its
value and accuracy. If the delay is weeks, months or years, how, in the
absence of valid collaboration, can a woman expect to be believed? Like
everyone else, she has to demonstrate her credibility. In the 1986 to '95
decade, 52% of rape trials failed to convict the accused. Evidence was either
unreliable, inadequate or false. The Chief Justice recently said of rape
cases that an uneasy feeling remains that innocent men may have been
convicted. If rape allegations
were investigated like other criminal cases, there would be fewer rape trials.
"Balanced, objective analysis" would serve society better than
Coney's Claptrap or Thomas' Tirade. Sunday Star Times Justice Thomas recently
criticised the courts for a "complaint rule" which says that if
women delay reporting rapes, some evidence may be inadmissable. The rule, he
said, was based on the assumption that a rape victim's natural reaction would
be to complain promptly and that women are prone to making false allegations
of rape. He described the latter as "one of the more enduring and
pernicious of the myths which has surrounded rape". As Justice Thomas says
in his attack on the courts, women -- because they are women -- are thought
to be unreliable when it comes to telling the truth. A man's word is his
word, but the word of a woman who accuses a man is suspect until verified by
a court presided over by men. This brings me to a
media custom which is similarly reprehensible. Reports of rape are almost
always prefaced by the word "alleged". By contrast, reports of
theft, abductions or beatings are generally accepted by the media on their
face value. They are believed. This double standard is
founded on ancient prejudice. Historically men have been viewed as having a monopoly
on objectivity and dispassionate reportage of facts, while women stereotyped
as subjective, emotional, and more easily swayed. Mythology and popular
history provide many examples of women who stand accused of lying, scheming
and manipulating. Devious Delilah emasculated the too-trusting Samson by
cutting off his hair. Eve tempted Adam with the apple, bringing sin and shame
into the world. Spurned by John the Baptist, Salome beguiled Herod into
giving her the priest's head on a platter. Cleopatra lured her lover Anthony
to his ignominious downfall. Mata Hari seduced men to discover their secrets.
The untrustworthiness
of women is usually intertwined with sex. Women use the lure of sex to gain
power over men. Men fear this, so demonise the architects of their downfall.
The only noble women in history are virgins or dead, and preferably both,
like Joan of Arc. This belief that only
virgins possess integrity was reflected in the common rape trial strategy of
raising a woman's prior sexual history as a defence, a practice outlawed only
a few years ago. Until recently a married woman could not accuse her husband
of rape. Even now, only very elderly women are automatically believed. Age
earns sexual disqualification but allows the virtue of truth-telling. Even the medical
examination of the rape victim is not just aimed at identifying the attacker,
but at providing corroboration that she has in fact suffered an assault.
After all, before the days of DNA, there was not much to be gained from
inspecting the vaginas of victims in terms of pin-pointing who the culprit
was. But evidence of tears or bruises made it more likely she would be
believed. It is not surprising that many rape victims experience the medical
inspection as another rape. Compare this situation
with that of theft. When the police attend to inspect the scene of the crime,
they come to take fingerprints so they can identify the offender, not to
check that you actually ever possessed the stolen goods by demanding receipts
or bank statements. Yet Justice Thomas says
that false complaints of sexual attack occur at no higher rate than false
claims for other offences. The Insurance Council says up to 20% of claims are
false. The recent case of
Brent Garner shows that lying is far from being a feminine prerogative.
Garner's elaborate fabrications went far beyond anything I can recall any
woman having done. His devious plot involved frightening his wife and
children to get them out of the home, self-mutulation, and even an intention
to execute the family dog. Interestingly, for
speaking out about rape myths, Justice Thomas was relegated to the status of
honorary woman. His fellow Court of Appeal judges said that while they
commended him for raising the topic, it called more for "a balanced
objective analysis than polemics". In other words, for accepting the
woman's viewpoint, Judge Thomas was treated as if he were one. |
