From the Washington Post:
After Linda Davies reported to police that her 15-year-old daughter had been raped, it took three months — plus two dozen phone calls and a threat of legal action — before police questioned the suspect, a 28-year-old neighbor.
“I gave police his name, address, mobile phone number, car registration — everything but his passport,” said Davies, 44, a strong-minded mother of two daughters. “I was basically begging them. He lived five minutes away from us.”
The suspect was finally arrested but acquitted at a trial in which the judge told the jury that he was “in a way a man of good character” because his previous criminal convictions, for possession of stolen goods and marijuana, did not involve violence.
Davies was furious at the judge, who also instructed the jurors to ignore the victim’s young age, and at police, who lost cellphone records that contradicted the defendant’s account.
Davies said she was stunned to learn that her daughter’s case was the rule, not the exception. According to government statistics, only 5.7 percent of rapes officially recorded by police in England and Wales end in a conviction.
“What are they saying?” Davies asked. “That 95 percent of women that come forward are telling lies?”
In Britain, a nation whose justice system has been used as a model around the globe, government officials and women’s rights activists agree that rape goes largely unpunished.
Even some cases that do end in a guilty verdict stir outrage. Last year, a judge sentenced a 24-year-old man to two years in prison for having sex with a 10-year-old after concluding that the girl had “dressed provocatively.”
It is illegal in Britain to interview jurors — even after a verdict. But public opinion polls show that a sizable proportion — a quarter to a third — of Britons say a rape victim is responsible for the attack if she is drunk or wearing “sexy” clothes.
Around the world, rapists are rarely punished. In the United States, 13 percent of rape reports end in a conviction. In many developing and Muslim countries, women’s activists say many victims don’t even report gang or stranger rapes because it is so difficult to win convictions. Reporting has even led to victims being charged with adultery or sentenced to public lashings for “mingling” with men.
OK, let’s get a few things out of the way. Some women do dress very sexy. They dress this way because they want to feel and appear sexy to the world. But the fact that a woman is wearing a tight skirt has nothing to do with whether I have enough self-control to prevent myself from assaulting her. Somehow I doubt when a woman puts on something sexy she’s saying to herself, “Gee, I hope I get raped today.”
Also there is the existence of false accusations by women. Some women do get angry at a man for whatever reason and dream up a false charge of rape. When this is discovered the woman should do as much hard time in prison as the man would have done if he were actually guilty.
Rape is terrorism. It is aggravated assault. It is a crime with lingering effects to the victim. It deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. And in this article we see how the court systems around the world are failing women.
At the end of the day each and every woman must come to the realization that she, and she alone, is responsible for their personal safety. What good are the cops going to do if you cannot contact them until after the rape is over? Women need to legally own a handgun and become trained with it. They also require the survival mindset to use the gun if necessary and have the ability to put several bullets between the aggressor’s eyes.
The majority of us men are fine upstanding people. But there are a few men that are predators, and if you don’t deal with them today they will survive to prey on another woman tomorrow. Civilized people around the globe need to draw a line in the sand and exclaim, “No more.” And it makes me happy that my daughter and my wife both have their handgun licenses and both carry a handgun.
rape, criminal, victim, handgun
