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http://reason.com/blog/2010/03/02/what-this-crime-problem-needs
Once again, the knee-jerk reaction of punishing people way above and beyond the scope of the crime comes to bite us in the ass. First, it was making post-incarceration rights so limited that thousands of registered sex offenders became homeless, thereby making them less easy to keep track of and less accountable for their actions and more likely to commit other acts of crime just to survive.
Now, it's no recourse for the falsely accused.
These parents were accused, ACCUSED - not convicted - of abusing their child. They have since been cleared of those charges, but the law mandates that they go on the list as soon as they're accused, without waiting for a conviction of guilt, and now they can't get off the list.
So these people whom the law has determined are innocent of any crime are subject to punishment for a crime they did not commit FOR LIFE, including housing and job restrictions UNTIL THEY DIE.
Great move people. I hope those who make these unnecessary and unjust laws find themselves charged with the same crime. Not convicted, mind you, because I don't want anyone to actually suffer abuse at their hands, and being falsely accused better serves the point I want to make. And to that effect, let's hope they're accused of something totally ridiculous, like public exposure where they face the threat of the same punishment as a child rapist before they're dismissed. I want them to experience, first hand, the injustice they have created since they are incapable of feeling empathy for other humans without actually experiencing the same thing.
I get the pain and rage that comes from being a victim or loved one of a victim of a horrible crime. I think they are totally justified and should be allowed to feel those emotions. But policy should not be written based on emotions, it should be based on evidence and careful evaluation of the facts. And the fact is that there is an entire suite of crimes with a HUGE range of severity that are all lumped together, and people who have served their time continue to be punished for life when other crimes of equal or greater severity do not.
There was also the case of the guy who was convicted of rape, falsely accused by a woman who got drunk, ditched her girlfriends to take a ride home with this guy, saw her friends later who promptly got pissed at her for ditching them, and claimed she was raped to gain sympathy and avoid their anger. She stuck to her story through the trial and 4 whole years of incarceration before she confessed to her priest, who then badgered her into telling the cops. She actually backed out of her promise to confess after she found out she was pregnant, but the priest watched her make and complete the phone call to the cops so she couldn't back out again.
What recourse or compensation does this guy get? He lost 4 years of his life, horrible experiences in jail that he will never be able to erase, and a charge of violent sex offender on his criminal record. His life is ruined. The court system can't give him those years back, will we, as taxpayers who are responsible for footing the legal system's bill, or the girl pay for the years of therapy he might need to recover from his experiences as a convicted rapist in the prison system? Will he be given housing equivalent to whatever housing he lost while in jail? Will he be provided with a job of equal type and pay to make up for the one he lost? Will his clothing and possessions be returned or replaced? Will he be given back all the money he spent on his court battle, and any money lost while in prison and unable to access his funds? Will his criminal record be wiped clean of this incident completely or will he be on the Sex Offender Registry for life like the poor couple in the story above? Will that woman go personally to every one who ever knew of this man and explain to him that he is not a rapist, but that she is a selfish liar, to repair his reputation and the damage the belief in this lie caused to any relationships he had?
And what does the girl get for stealing this man's life? She'll get a year in jail for perjury, to be erased from her record when she completes her sentence & any probation she might be assigned. Even if it stays on her record for a while, she is not subject to housing limitations, and employers won't see her with the same sort of prejudice they will see a man convicted of rape. She destroyed a man's life & gets a fraction of the penalty the man she falsely accused suffered. She stole his LIFE from him. And our current justice system says "you naughty girl" while continuing to punish a man for something he didn't do.
Believe me, I totally get that women have a lot of injustices that we still need to make up for. Men still make more money than women in the same job position, women are still shamed and intimidated from standing up for themselves and demanding justice. A woman who does demand justice is often subjugated to further injustice in the pursuit of her own justice. We still have a long way to go before true equality is met.
But we cannot be equal while continuing to demand special privileges. Falsely accusing a man of a crime does not make up for the injustices that men perpetuate against women, and having fewer consequences does not level the playing field, it tries to turn the tables around to an equally unlevel field, just in the other direction.
I am not trivializing rape here for pointing out the injustice of a man accused of rape getting a harsher punishment than the woman who falsely accused him. Crying "rape" in order to avoid having her friends mad at her is trivializing rape, and she is contributing to the overall imbalance of gender power in our society by using the few handholds we've been given for something other than their intended purpose. It fosters the resentment of the category of people who are being forced to give up their seat of power already, and it contributes to the impression that the very real protection this legal entity was designed to provide is not necessary, or worse, used as a weapon.
We need a system of prevention and punishment for crimes like rape. It's a very real and horrible threat. What we do not need is to trivialize that threat by classifying actions that have nothing to do with rape under the same umbrella, to condone the misuse of that system by looking the other way or issuing lesser penalties for the misuse of the system, or to continue to punish people after they have served the established time and/or penalty that all other criminals are afforded. Rape is an assault. But I happen to think falsely accusing someone of a crime as serious as rape is an assault too, only we're not going to do anything for the person who was "assaulted" in this case. We're going to set him free and say "oh, sorry 'bout that ol' chap, no hard feelings, eh?"
Once again, the knee-jerk reaction of punishing people way above and beyond the scope of the crime comes to bite us in the ass. First, it was making post-incarceration rights so limited that thousands of registered sex offenders became homeless, thereby making them less easy to keep track of and less accountable for their actions and more likely to commit other acts of crime just to survive.
Now, it's no recourse for the falsely accused.
These parents were accused, ACCUSED - not convicted - of abusing their child. They have since been cleared of those charges, but the law mandates that they go on the list as soon as they're accused, without waiting for a conviction of guilt, and now they can't get off the list.
So these people whom the law has determined are innocent of any crime are subject to punishment for a crime they did not commit FOR LIFE, including housing and job restrictions UNTIL THEY DIE.
Great move people. I hope those who make these unnecessary and unjust laws find themselves charged with the same crime. Not convicted, mind you, because I don't want anyone to actually suffer abuse at their hands, and being falsely accused better serves the point I want to make. And to that effect, let's hope they're accused of something totally ridiculous, like public exposure where they face the threat of the same punishment as a child rapist before they're dismissed. I want them to experience, first hand, the injustice they have created since they are incapable of feeling empathy for other humans without actually experiencing the same thing.
I get the pain and rage that comes from being a victim or loved one of a victim of a horrible crime. I think they are totally justified and should be allowed to feel those emotions. But policy should not be written based on emotions, it should be based on evidence and careful evaluation of the facts. And the fact is that there is an entire suite of crimes with a HUGE range of severity that are all lumped together, and people who have served their time continue to be punished for life when other crimes of equal or greater severity do not.
There was also the case of the guy who was convicted of rape, falsely accused by a woman who got drunk, ditched her girlfriends to take a ride home with this guy, saw her friends later who promptly got pissed at her for ditching them, and claimed she was raped to gain sympathy and avoid their anger. She stuck to her story through the trial and 4 whole years of incarceration before she confessed to her priest, who then badgered her into telling the cops. She actually backed out of her promise to confess after she found out she was pregnant, but the priest watched her make and complete the phone call to the cops so she couldn't back out again.
What recourse or compensation does this guy get? He lost 4 years of his life, horrible experiences in jail that he will never be able to erase, and a charge of violent sex offender on his criminal record. His life is ruined. The court system can't give him those years back, will we, as taxpayers who are responsible for footing the legal system's bill, or the girl pay for the years of therapy he might need to recover from his experiences as a convicted rapist in the prison system? Will he be given housing equivalent to whatever housing he lost while in jail? Will he be provided with a job of equal type and pay to make up for the one he lost? Will his clothing and possessions be returned or replaced? Will he be given back all the money he spent on his court battle, and any money lost while in prison and unable to access his funds? Will his criminal record be wiped clean of this incident completely or will he be on the Sex Offender Registry for life like the poor couple in the story above? Will that woman go personally to every one who ever knew of this man and explain to him that he is not a rapist, but that she is a selfish liar, to repair his reputation and the damage the belief in this lie caused to any relationships he had?
And what does the girl get for stealing this man's life? She'll get a year in jail for perjury, to be erased from her record when she completes her sentence & any probation she might be assigned. Even if it stays on her record for a while, she is not subject to housing limitations, and employers won't see her with the same sort of prejudice they will see a man convicted of rape. She destroyed a man's life & gets a fraction of the penalty the man she falsely accused suffered. She stole his LIFE from him. And our current justice system says "you naughty girl" while continuing to punish a man for something he didn't do.
Believe me, I totally get that women have a lot of injustices that we still need to make up for. Men still make more money than women in the same job position, women are still shamed and intimidated from standing up for themselves and demanding justice. A woman who does demand justice is often subjugated to further injustice in the pursuit of her own justice. We still have a long way to go before true equality is met.
But we cannot be equal while continuing to demand special privileges. Falsely accusing a man of a crime does not make up for the injustices that men perpetuate against women, and having fewer consequences does not level the playing field, it tries to turn the tables around to an equally unlevel field, just in the other direction.
I am not trivializing rape here for pointing out the injustice of a man accused of rape getting a harsher punishment than the woman who falsely accused him. Crying "rape" in order to avoid having her friends mad at her is trivializing rape, and she is contributing to the overall imbalance of gender power in our society by using the few handholds we've been given for something other than their intended purpose. It fosters the resentment of the category of people who are being forced to give up their seat of power already, and it contributes to the impression that the very real protection this legal entity was designed to provide is not necessary, or worse, used as a weapon.
We need a system of prevention and punishment for crimes like rape. It's a very real and horrible threat. What we do not need is to trivialize that threat by classifying actions that have nothing to do with rape under the same umbrella, to condone the misuse of that system by looking the other way or issuing lesser penalties for the misuse of the system, or to continue to punish people after they have served the established time and/or penalty that all other criminals are afforded. Rape is an assault. But I happen to think falsely accusing someone of a crime as serious as rape is an assault too, only we're not going to do anything for the person who was "assaulted" in this case. We're going to set him free and say "oh, sorry 'bout that ol' chap, no hard feelings, eh?"
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no subject
Date: 3/5/10 08:36 am (UTC)From:Also, I thought it's really sad that you feel the need to include so many reservations and explanations. I trust your experience, it just means that you know that otherwise many people would accuse you of trivializing rape and abuse, of being insensitive to the victims, of promoting disempowering women, etc. etc... While everything you say is so, you know, OBVIOUS! Like, it's not cool to punish people for what they haven't done. Or to equate public urination to child rape. These are supposed to be a no brainer...
no subject
Date: 3/5/10 06:39 pm (UTC)From: