<p>There is so much here in this link. I hate to bring up a quote…but I will.</p>
<p>"So let’s start off with a quote from law enforcement. This is a very seasoned detective, 15 years in a sex crimes unit. When I asked him sort of what happens when victims come in to report an assault to the criminal justice system, this is what he said. He said: “The stuff they say makes no sense” — referring to victims — “So no I don’t always believe them and yeah I let them know that. And then they say ‘Nevermind. I don’t want to do this.’ Okay, then. Complainant refused to prosecute; case closed.”
So now let’s loop in the rape victim advocate perspective: “It’s hard trying to stop what police do to victims. They don’t believe them and they treat them so bad that the victims give up. It happens over and over again.”</p>
<p>In many rape cases, LE tells the victims that they do not have case. Because they do not. A DA is NOT going to take on a case without sufficient evidence to convict. Many of the cases do not have evidence to even charge the perp. How on earth can Jackie’s case be prosecuted now? There isn’t even any evidence that there was sex involved. In some cases, where there was sex, and proof thereof, if one says it was consensual, and the other says it’s rape, the system is such that the innocence is presumed. If injuries were suffered, if the victim ran out screaming rape right after it happened, other such proof, yes, there might be a case. In the one case, where the alleged rapist wrote a letter of apology for what happened, no where in the letter was there mention of coercion. The apology could have referred to anything that happened. Maybe a declination to bring the relationship to the next level. Lack of courtesies. All kinds of things. I remember some women crying at how they were treated after sex. Consensual sex, but followed by disinterest afterwards when there were expectations of more. That isn’t rape. A lot of rancor when that happens, I assure you.</p>
<p>OK? The women go to the police, and in the overwhelming majority (86%) of cases, the police do not even refer the case to a prosecutor. Got that? Do you guys now understand why women don’t report rape? Because when they report it, the police don’t believe them.</p>
<p>Really worth the read. Fascinating. Thank you dstark for posting. It does confirm my thought that it needs to start at with the police departments, at the point that a woman files a criminal complaint. </p>
<p>Cross-posted, but yes I can see what Consolation is saying and there is sex is that regret sex and retaliation even though it’s repugnant to think that a person would do that to another person and I’m not going to repost old stories but my son was involved in a regret sex incident a few years ago - not him but he was questioned by the police several times and the girl finally recanted… but confidence in better criminal investigation might be a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>CF, it’s not that the police don’t believe them. There is no evidence. There are guidelines as to when one can charge a person with a crime. Rape’s a very serious one. So you are a cop, and a girl says she was raped a few days ago. Rape kit is useless. Turns out it is a date rape. All is well until the actual sex, and the victim says “no”, but the other person denies the story. Other person says, he did not call, no further interest in woman after the sex, but it was entered upon on that basis, no commitment, and now the woman wants more. </p>
<p>Police well know that the DA won’t take the case. Frankly, I wojuld not vote to convict in such cases… There has to be evidence just as there has to be in any such cases. Just like if someone claims to have been assaulted, but no injuries to show, no witnesses, nothing. It’s just not a case.</p>
<p>The latest news from Dartmouth, which is aggressively going after the drinking/assault nexus:</p>
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<p>Yes, that is precisely what I think. </p>
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<p>Uh no, they have no obligation to punish anyone for anything based on a “fraction of a chance” that they are guilty. That would mean expelling people on a minute chance that they may be guilty. I doubt that’s what you meant to say.</p>
<p>Regarding proof required in civil cases: in fact, clear and convincing is the standard in some civil cases, preponderance of the evidence in others. There is no specific percentage, unlike with preponderance of the evidence.</p>
<p>Oh, and in the two cases at D of which I am aware where police actually charged someone with sexual assault/rape, the male student never reappeared at the school. (The charges were actually dropped against one of them.) The school did not, as far as I can tell, make a public announcement of expulsion.</p>
No, I am not a guy. I am a female and I don’t understand why I wouldn’t report it. Those statistics wouldn’t stop me. Probably, there is a reason why 85% is thrown out but I’d do my best to make sure my case is one of the successful 15%. If I’m a victim of an investment fraud, I couldn’t care less how many fraudsters are actually apprehended even if it’s a measly 0.9%. No, I’m on the phone contacting CFTC providing all the evidence I can give. It took years for him to get captured but I’d like to think that I was one of those who helped make that happen.</p>
<p>No, it IS that the police don’t believe them. Read dstark’s transcript. The police officers interviewed by Campbell told the researcher that rape accusers don’t like the police thought they should act if their accusations are true, so the police don’t believe their stories. Campbell then goes on to explain some neurobiology of sexual trauma, and how the victims’ brains being slammed with the hormones that respond to trauma will make the victim have fragmented memories that she (or he) can’t quickly piece together. </p>
<p>Consolation, thank you, I stand corrected I should have say "may punish’ and not “must punish” although i think the DOE letter was an attempt to prod/threaten them to adjudicate guilt and punish (not necessarily expulsion, the DOE did not go that far) in cases of sexual complaints.</p>
<p>Cardinal, I think there are two kinds of people, those that fight tooth and nail when they feel they are right and not being heard and those that turn away. We need to help police forces establish interrogative protocol for criminal sexual behavior complaints and we need to have the resources in place to assist and advocate for women who are not the type to fight and give up if they feel people are not understanding their story. </p>
<p>“So he did 15 years of experience. Fifteen years of research comes to the same conclusion: memory consolidation — it is a slow, fragmented process. It’s a documented neurobiological phenomenon. When he slowed down, slowed the pacing of the questions, gave her a chance to sort of find the post-it notes, put them together, the story started being much more coherent.
So then I pushed a little farther in the interview and asked the question that I know many folks from law enforcement want to know about. “Well, were you worried that if you gave her some time, she’d just make something up?” Here’s his response: “Nah, not really. I mean, some victims lie, but most don’t. Besides, if they’re lying, we’ll catch them at it eventually. I think it’s just hard for victims to talk about and we just need to have a little patience.”
So, seasoned detective, has the experience and the confidence to know, “Yeah, some victims do lie. Most don’t. I’m a good enough detective — I can catch her later. If this is truly a BS case, I will figure it out. But not right now.” Memory fragmentation, documented neurobiological condition. A little space, a little room to breathe, and the story started to make sense. And he didn’t approach it with the assumption that this is wrong, that this is incorrect, that she’s lying and she’s making it up.”</p>
<p>I work with women who have PTSD from rape all the time. It’s really my area of interest as an addictions specialist.</p>
<p>Nothing more reliably produces PTSD than being in a hot combat zone with deaths.</p>
<p>The response of these women is the start of PTSD, something they will battle for many years, if they are lucky, the rest of their lives if they are not. It takes years of hard work to get over PTSD, and a lot of times you actually can’t get over it, just learn to live with it. Gang rape at that age is awful. The people who have the easiest time talking about what happened are those who had stranger rape. Acquaintance rape isn’t just a physical attack, it attacks the psyche in ways that are incredibly harmful.</p>
<p>The brain shuts down from it. Does not want to know.</p>
<p>Women say all the time that they forget childbirth, a joyful trauma.</p>
<p>That these girls, in this state, go to these people in authority and receive this treatment is so compounding that we can all sit here for as long as we want talking about what we would or would not do. Fact is, none of us know unless it happened to us, at that age, in those circumstances, at the start of what they expected to be “the best years of their lives.”</p>
<p>The cognitive dissonance and violation is incomprehensible to any of us who have not been through it. And I don’t care what you say you would do in combat, or what you say you would do after a gang rape at 18 in a fraternity house, you do not know what you would do.</p>
<p>“Tonic immobility is often referred to as “rape-induced paralysis.”
It is an autonomic response, meaning that it’s uncontrollable. This is not something a victim decides to do. It is a mammalian response. It is evolutionarily wired into us to protect the survival of the organism. Because sometimes the safest thing to do to protect the safety is to fight back. Sometimes the safest thing to do is to flee. Sometimes the stupidest thing to do is to flee because it will incite chase. Therefore, our bodies have been wired for a freeze response too — to play dead, to look dead, because that may be the safest thing for the survival of the organism. So it is a mammalian response that is in all of us — we can’t control it. And it happens in extremely fearful situations.”</p>
<p>absolutely. And I encourage anybody in law enforcement to learn how to talk to a rape survivor, and anybody in any position of authority to learn to guide an 18 or 19 year old girl away from home for the first time on how to get the rape kit, how to talk to law enforcement. I encourage all rape survivors to hire an attorney, or go to your law school and get assistance. You will need an advocate.</p>
<p>“Members of the jury stated in later press appearances that they felt that Peterson’s demeanor – specifically, his lack of emotion and the phone calls to Frey in the days following Laci’s disappearance – indicated he was guilty. They based their verdict on “hundreds of small ‘puzzle pieces’ of circumstantial evidence that came out during the trial, from the location of Laci’s body to the myriad lies her husband told after her disappearance.” They also decided on the death penalty because they felt he betrayed his responsibility to protect his wife and son.[25]”</p>
<p>I think it is a little premature to say Jackie doesn’t have a case. </p>
<p>I am not a lawyer. I have seen and heard sime weird stuff.</p>
<p>In addition, many of us watched the OJ trial.</p>
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