Subject: Re: NCFM: False Accusation of Rape (2/2)

From: [email-masked] (Dave Prichard)
Date: 13 Aug 95 16:37:21 GMT

[email-masked] (JYama) wrote:

>The clearest example of compelling motive can be found in
>the Sexual Allegation in Divorce(S.A.I.D) syndrome.  In such
>cases questionable allegations multiply because the accuser
>has far more to gain than to lose.  Simply charging a
>divorcing spouse with child molestation - or wife battering
>or spousal rape - can turn a hot but evenly balanced custody
>battle into a rout.  In many cases, the accused husband must
>vacate what had been the "family" home and submit to
>prolonged alienation from his children.  He also finds
>himself ensnared by both the criminal justice and the social
>service bureaucracies whose conflicting rules of evidence
>can deny him the presumption of innocence.  In a process
>that only a Kafka can describe, he must then devote his
>resources to defending himself rather than pursuing the
>original divorce litigation.  Even then he may find himself
>in jail or in court ordered therapy while his accuser has
>won de facto-custody not only of the children but of the
>house.  Should he eventually win vindication, a process
>which can literally take years, he may enjoy at best a
>hollow victory which leaves him financially and emotionally
>drained, nursing a permanently injured reputation,
>functioning as an "absent" father with a sparse schedule of
>controlled visits.  It is no wonder, then, that commentators
>have sometimes used dramatic language, such as "the ultimate
>weapon" or the "atom bomb," to express the reality.
> 
>The impressive results that are so often easily achieved
>with false allegations in custody disputes suggest the kind
>of temptations women may feel in other situations.  Among
>those found to have lied about rape or sexual harassment,
>for example, a number of motivations have been identified.
>The McDowell report listed those they uncovered in declining
>order of appearance.  "Spite or revenge" and"to compensate
>for feelings of guilt or shame" accounted for forty percent
>of such allegations.[31]  A small percentage were attributed
>to mental/emotional disorder or attempted extortion."  In
>all cases, then, the falsely alleging woman had any of
>several strong motives to lie.  But, as with the S.A.I.D.
>syndrome, the most common motive was anger, an emotion which
>prompts more than a few embattled woman to reach for "the
>ultimate weapon."
> 
>Although money gained through extortion ranked low among the
>motives for false rape allegations, it appears to rank
>higher when sexual harassment claims prove to be unfounded.
>A casual survey of some of the suits that have been filed
>suggests why.  In the eighties, successful claims often
>brought damages in the $50,000 to $100,000 range.  After the
>explosion ignited by the Hill/Thomas case, not only the
>number of claims but damage awards have skyrocketed. A
>clothing store cashier successfully sued her employer for
>$500,000.  Employees of Stroh's Brewery claimed that the
>company's commercials, which showed the "Swedish Bikini
>Team," constituted harassment and sued for damages ranging
>between $350,000 and $550,000.   In the famous locker room
>harassment case, Lisa Olson was reported to have received a
>settlement ranging between $250,00 and $700,000.  Damage
>claims - and awards - in the millions are becoming more
>common.
> 
>In some cases which were later proved to be false, the
>financial stakes were particularly high.  One lawyer was
>charged with coaching six of his clients to "embellish or
>lie" about some of the incidents on which they based a
>sexual harassment case.  They had asked for $487,000.[32]
>Eleven women from the Miss Black America Pageant, after
>claiming that Mike Tyson had touched them on their rears,
>filed a $607 million lawsuit against him.  Several of the
>contestants later admitted they had lied in the hope of
>getting publicity and cashing in on the award money which
>would have given them around $20 million a piece.[33]
> 
>But where extortion does appear, the motivation may be
>political as well as monetary not only in particular cases
>but in the growth of the entire sexual misconduct crisis.
>Whether it is rape or sexual harassment or divorce-related
>child molestation or recovered incest memory, many of the
>investigators eventually mention the influence of
>ideological feminism.   Katie Roiphe, for example, found
>feminist politics at work in the phony rape story invented
>by Mindy, the imaginative Princeton co-ed.  Norman
>Podhoretz, who wrote about "Rape in Feminist Eyes,"
>attributes the current over-publicized obsession with rape
>to "the influence of man_hating elements within the
>[woman's] movement [which] has grown so powerful as to have
>swept all before it.[34]    As far back as 1985 John
>Sullivan attributed the over-heated denial of false
>accusation to attempts to defend the "feminist theory of
>rape."[35]   And Philip Jenkins, who reported the trend
>toward automatically-assumed female credibility, stated that
>it was part of a larger campaign to establish "feminist
>jurisprudence."
> 
>Whatever their motivations in particular cases, there is
>little doubt that ideological feminists have achieved
>significant political gains from publicizing the sexual
>misconduct crisis.  Lisa Olson's feelings of harassment may
>for example have been genuine, but as the focus for a
>prolonged media event it established for female reporters an
>access to locker rooms the was as unpopular with the general
>public as it was with male athletes.   The real Anita Hill
>may or may not have been lying, but the Hill/Thomas affair
>propelled sexual harassment into a hot issue that rapidly
>generated a sub industry of scholars, consultants, and
>bureaucrats, prompted a "Year of the Woman" campaign that
>helped several women into congress, and revived a flagging
>woman's movement.
> 
>The same spectacular results may follow from the Tailhook
>Scandal, which, like Hill/Thomas, is raising serious
>questions about motive and credibility.  Whether Paula
>Coughlin's testimony will become as clouded as Anita Hill's,
>her whistle-blowing has already scuttled the careers of a
>still growing number of naval officers, not to mention the
>Secretary of the Navy himself, intensified in-service anti-
>sexual harassment campaigns, reinforced an already strong
>feminist presence in the armed forces, and helped soften the
>military's granitic opposition to women in combat. These
>incidents also helped to power a "Violence Against Women"
>bill through congress which will channel still more millions
>of government money into women's programs, not to mention
>winning congressional validation of feminist jurisprudence.
>That's a lot of political gain achieved by the words of a
>few women who suffered little more than an affront to their
>sensibilities.
> 
>This growing gap - between the anguish suffered by the
>victims of traditionally - defined sex crimes and what is
>suffered by victims of ideologically-defined crimes -
>suggests that the crisis we face is not the result of a
>sexual misconduct epidemic but of the crisis mentality
>itself, an ever more hysterical vision of a "rape culture."
>It has a foundation in reality.  In what has become a ritual
>disclaimer, those who have exposed the surprising number of
>false allegations of sexual misconduct have also admitted
>the appalling number of genuine accusations.   And those who
>have attacked the incompetence,  self-interest, and zealotry
>that has denied the extent of false allegation have also
>recognized the courage and energy that has exposed the
>problem of honest allegation begging vainly for belief.
> 
>They have therefore applauded the effort to seek for this
>long ignored injustice both social and legal remediation.
>But that effort, carried too far and exploited too often,
>has generated another gap: between our awareness of the now
>highly visible victims of sexual misconduct and the almost
>invisible victims of false allegation.  The lesser known
>victims have their own stories to tell, enough to reveal
>another long ignored injustice that demands remediation.
>False allegations of sexual misconduct have deprived a
>rapidly growing number of men and women of their
>reputations, their fortunes, their livelihood, and their
>freedom;  have diverted the time and money of countless tax-
>supported agencies; have destroyed not only individuals but
>entire families and communities; and have left some so
>desperate that they have taken their lives.
> 
>For that reason, in the current revision of our sexual
>misconduct code, we must retain as a guiding premise the
>realization that women can lie because, for several reasons,
>more than a few women have lied, more often than researchers
>into false allegation had expected, far more often than
>"rape culture" ideologues have admitted...too often, in any
>event, to be ignored by our jurisprudence, feminist or
>otherwise.
> 
>THE REFERENCES TO THIS ARTICLE WILL FOLLOW, BUT FIRST:
> 
> 
> 
>ANOTHER INNOCENT MAN - On January 29, 1992 the Fox
>television series, "A Current Affair", broadcast the case of
>Wayne Dumond.  Wayne has served seven years in Arkansas for
>raping a distant cousin and friend of Democratic
>presidential candidate, Bill Clinton.  Twice Wayne has
>appeared before the clemency board in Arkansas and Mike
>Gaines, state parole board chairman, has recommended that
>Wayne be granted clemency.  This is in part based on the DNA
>test that concludes that Wayne could not possibly have
>committed the crime.  Gaines' recommendation has been
>denied.  Until the Gennifer Flowers case motivated the press
>to dig up skeletons, the Wayne Dumond case went unnoticed by
>the national press and was ignored by governor Clinton who
>insists on keeping Dumond behind bars.
> 
>There is strong suspicion that Coolege Connley, who was
>Sheriff of Forest City, AR, at the time the crime was
>committed, had Dumond framed.  This is against the
>background of the Sheriff eventually being sentenced to 150
>years for corruption (he died two years later) and the fact
>that the victim of the "supposed" rape named another man as
>her attacker before the arrest of Dumond.  Nevertheless, a
>jury convicted Dumond.  Why Connley did what he did is
>unclear.  Did he have a personal grudge?  Was he acting on
>orders from someone else?
> 
>What makes this case particularly disgusting is that on the
>night of his arrest Sheriff Connley hired thugs to castrate
>Dumond and burn down his house.  The Sheriff then sealed
>Dumond's testicles in formaldehyde and personally took them
>around to various people proclaiming that this is what they
>do to rapists in Forest City.  Dumond is still in prison.
>His wife Duffy and neighbors are fighting for his release.
>Any direct connection with Bill Clinton is still unclear
>(e.g., why did the Sheriff do what he did?), because
>the governor, in this case, as with the Flowers incident
>(Flowers has accused Clinton of having an extramarital
>affair with her), refuses to give any direct answers to the
>media.  Clinton did say on the 29th that he had asked the
>state's Lieutenant Governor to look into the case.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>REFERENCE NOTES:
> 
>1.-  Philip Jenkins, "Hard Cases and Bad Law,"  Chronicles,-
>10/93,  p.19. His emphasis.
> 
>2.-  Wendy Kaminer, "Feminism's Identity Crisis," The
>Atlantic Monthly, 10/93, p.67A
> 
>3.-  John O'Sullivan, "Rape in the New Age," |American
>Spectator, 8/85, p. 22.
> 
>4.-  "Rape and the Law," Newsweek, 5/20/85, p.61.
> 
>5.- Alan Dershowitz, "Sexual Harassment," The Liberator,
>12/93, p.22.
> 
>6.-  As cited by Warren Farrell from the Associated Press,
>"Ruling Favors Victim's Word in Rape Cases," San Diego
>Union-Tribune, 5/8/92 in Warren Farrell, The Myth of Male
>Power (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
> 
>7.-  Alan M. Dershowitz, "Justice," Penthouse, 9/91, p.52.
> 
>8.-  Kevin Krajik, "Genetics in the Courtroom," Newsweek,
>1/11/93, p.64.
> 
>9.-  Issued by Charles P. McDowell, Ph.D., Chief, Special
>Studies Division of Investigative Analysis, Headquarters,
>USAF Office of Special Investigations, Washington, D.C.
> 
>10.- See Warren Farrell, PhD. The Myth of Male Power (New
>York: Simon and Schuster, 1993) pp. 321-329.
> 
>11.- Stephen Buckley, "Unfounded Reports of Rape Confound
>Area Police Investigators," The Washington Post, 6/27/92, p.
>B-1.
> 
>12.- Randy Daniels, "Sexual Harassment," Transitions" (PO
>Box 129, Manhasset, New York, NY 11030) May/June, 1993, p.1.
> 
>13.- Harry Stein, "Presumed Guilty", Playboy, June, 1992,
>p.160.
> 
>14.- Leroy Schultz, "One Hundred Cases of Unfounded Child
>Sexual Abuse: A Survey and Recommendations," AIssuesin
>Child Abuse Accusations, Vol. 1, #1, 1989, pp. 29-38.
> 
>15.- These assertions are themselves widely disputed.
>However, one of the most extensive studies on the subject,
>Murray A. Strauss and Richard J. Gelles, Physical Violence
>in American Families,  (New Brunswick, NJ:  Transaction,
>1990, reports that "for physical abuse, the rate is higher
>for mother than for fathers": 17.7 percent for mothers vs.
>10.1 for fathers.  They found that pre-teen boys are
>slightly more likely to be abused than their sisters but
>that the pattern changes after puberty.  Strauss/Gelles,
>however, immediately refer to some contravening studies that
>show higher rates for fathers.
>      Susan Steinmetz, who has collaborated with Strauss and
>Gelles, reported independently that "mother abused children
>62 percent more often than fathers, and that male children
>were more than twice as likely to suffer physical injury.
>[S.K.Steinmetz, "The Battered Husband Syndrome, Victimology,
>2 (1977/8). p. 499.]
>      David C. Morrow "Toward Gynology," Alladins's Window
>(Afterglow Publications, P.O.Box 399, Shingletown, CA
>96088)] reports the following: "Drawing upon reports of the
>American Humane Association, the Association of Juvenile
>Courts, the National Center for the Prevention of Child
>Abuse, and the FBI's 1978 crime report, John Rossler of
>Equal Rights for Fathers of New York State estimated that
>mothers commit over two-thirds of all child abuse, 80
>percent of it in sole custody and none in joint custody
>situations, while boy friends and new husbands perpetrate
>most of the rest.  A similar study conduct a few years
>earlier in Utah by Ken Pangborn showed abuse 37 percent
>higher among single mothers than the general population and
>67 percent of all abuse in the doing of women of whom 80
>percent are single mothers."
>       In the data sheet supplied by VOCAL several of the
>cited studies report the hazards to children in single
>mother households.  For example, "Russel...reported that of
>970 adult women in San Francisco [whose household's had been
>involved in father/child incest] 17 percent stated that a
>stepfather was the principal father figure.  Only two
>percent were biological fathers.'
>       Thomas Fleming ["Uncommon Properties," Chronicles"]
>cites a Canadian study that concluded that children were 40
>times as likely to be molested in broken and illegitimate
>families as compared to those in intact two parent families.
>       The consensus thus appears to support the assertion
>that child abuse is much more common in single parent
>families, that women are more often the abusers, and that
>male children are more often the victims.
> 
> 
> 
>16.- Douglas J. Besharov, a former prosecutor of child abuse
>cases in New York and founding Director of the U.S. National
>Center on Child Abuse, as quoted by Harry Stein.
> 
>17.- As quoted by Eric Felten, "Divorce's Atom Bomb: Child
>Sex Abuse," Insight,  11/25/91,p.10.
> 
>18.- Felten, p.10.
>,
>19.- Robert Dvorchak, "Sex Abuse Charge, 'Ultimate Weapon'
>in Custody Cases, Houston Chronicle, 8/22/92.
> 
>20.- Eleanor Goldstein, Confabulations (Boca Raton, FL: SIRS
>Books, 1992), p.3.
> 
>21.- Goldstein, p.2.
> 
>22.- AFMS Newsletter - 7/3/93.
> 
>23.- Lawrence Wright, "Remembering Satan," The New Yorker,
>5/17/93 and 5/24/93.
> 
>24.- As quoted by Darrell Sifford, "A Special Tribute,"
>Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/15/92.
> 
>25.- As quoted by Richard Brzustowicz, jr. and George Paul
>Csicsery, "The Remembrance of Crimes Past," Heterodoxy, 1/93
>p.8.
> 
>26.- Dr. Ralph Underwanger, as reported by Robert Dvorchak,
>"Sex abuse charge 'ultimate weapon' in custody cases,"
>Houston Chronicle, 8/22/92
> 
>27.- Barbara Amiel, "Feminism Hits Middle Age," The National
>Review, 11/24/89, p. 25.
> 
>28.- Katie Roiphe, The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism
>on Campus, (Boston: Little, Brownand Company, 1993), pp.
>40/41.
> 
>29.- S.L.Wykes, "'Plot' target says daughter changed," San
>Jose Mercury, 12/9/92,  1-B.
> 
>30.- Wright, New Yorker, 5/24/93, p. 69.
> 
>31.- As reported by Warren Farrell, The Myth of Male Power,
>(New York: Simon and Schuster,1993), p.325.
> 
>32.- San Jose Mercury, 10/14/93.
> 
>33.- As reported by Warren Farrell, p. 328.
> 
>34.- Norman Podhoretz, "Rape in Feminist Eyes," Commentary,
>10/9, p.29.
> 
>35.- John O'Sullivan, "Rape in the New Age," American
>Spectator, 8/85.

 The above article has been reposted from alt.mens_rights. If, as it
suggests, Canada is about to enact legislation denying the assumption
of innocence until proven guilty it will be a travesty. It would
appear that the government would like you to carry a legal document to
be signed and notarized should you get lucky or conceivably even have
sex with your wife.

  Having had more than a dozen friends and  acquaintances falsely
charged or extorted for money in the last few years, one of whom lost
a good position without compensation though the charge was proved to
be false, such legislation  frightens me as it may open a floodgate
for false charges.

 More importantly, the legitimate victim may have their claim doubted
if there is a great deal of false charges.

 Such legislation is contrary to our system of innocent till proven
guilty and will only serve to harm both men and women. Write your M.P.
and the Minister of Justice and voice your strongest opposition to
this legislation. 

Dave