Whatever her reasons were, she was wrong. I am glad she's been charged, the question is: will they give her a strong enough sentence? My guess is community service or parole. I hope its much more than that. I hope they make an example of her to remind others that it is NOT okay to make up stories or falsely accuse someone of a serious crime.
Rape is the hardest of crimes to report. We all know why. The victim becomes a victim twice - once when the attack occurs then again when she has to go through "the process". She will file a report then be driven to a hospital (there is only one in Orange County that is set up with rape kits, St. Joseph's in Orange). At that time she will be examined in every way imaginable, questioned by a police officer*, and have to relive the incident in detail.
If the rapist is caught and she has to go to trial, the defense will attack her character. As I've also said before - it doesn't matter if you are a nun or a prostitute, rape is when a woman is forced to have sex against her will and it a CRIME. The victim's background should have NOTHING to do with it, but it does.
Not only is her character attacked, but she is forced again to relive the humiliation and trauma of the event, this time in a room full of people that may include family and friends. It takes a very brave woman to do that.
But there are brave and determined women out there that are motivated by catching the rapist before he strikes again AND making him pay for his crime. I applaud them, they are my heroes.
Here is a book, true story, that has the perfect example of this:
Full article here in the OCR
**above when I said a police officer will question the victim, it is most often a male. Surprisingly, from what I've learned through my training, the majority of male officers are more sympathetic toward rape victims than female officers. I don't know what to make of that but its what I've heard.
3 comments:
When I hear about a case where the police say the woman lied about being raped I no longer automatically assume the police got it right.
Shortly after I started blogging I learned about a case in Madison WS where a woman was the victim of a stranger rapist and because the investigator got it into his head that she was lying he coerced her into recanting and she was eventually charged. After a complex struggle with the criminal justice system, her rapist was eventually IDed via DNA and convicted.
If the rapist had managed to rape without leaving any DNA evidence she'd likely still be considered to have filed a fraudulent police report.
Marcella,
Thanks for sharing that, its an excellent reminder that we never truly know unless there is some type of proof. In this incident it was discovered that she fabricated the whole story. I am not sure if she flat out confessed that, but that's what the news said. I hope that's the case.
That is what makes me uneasy about "throwing the book" at a woman who is said to have falsely accused someone of rape, as there is the possibility that they just don't have enough evidence. I suppose then maybe the justice system needs changing so that the accused cannot be named, then there wouldn't be so much damage from any false or unproven claims. I'm not sure really what to say.
What drew my attention here was actually the picture of Alice Sebold's Lucky. A brilliant book, the start of my journey towards healing myself. The quote "you save yourself or you remain unsaved" is something which I say to myself daily. She is an inspiration!
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