Something like this fills with dread of course. How bad its the logic and argumentation going to be? And La Bindel doesn’t disappoint. Because she never does even coming lose to answering her own question:
The tragic case of Eleanor de Freitas has provided more questions than answers. What should be done about those few cases in which women make false allegations of rape?
It’s not actually that few though, is it?
Home Office-commissioned research on rape attrition from 2005 found that around 3% of reports of rape are false. The impression given by some sections of the media and men’s rights groups paints a very different picture.
From the report.
There are false allegations, and possibly slightly more than some researchers and
support agencies have suggested. However, at maximum they constitute nine per
cent and probably closer to three per cent of all re p o rted cases.
From memory in this field don’t we take “possibly up to” as being the absolute lower bound? But perhaps more importantly:
Twelve per cent of all reported cases, or 14 per cent of those where the outcome
is known, reached the trial stage.
I’ve forgotten what the conviction rate at trial is. But we are getting to the stage where the number of false reports, ones we know are absolutely outright simply made up, is around and about the same as the number of reports that we can and do prove to the standards of criminal justice. Myself I just wouldn’t be calling that “few” but then I’m male, aren’t I?
And as I say, La Bindel doesn’t disappoint in living down to expectations. Because the one thing she doesn’t even manage to broach is, well, what should be the punishment for someone who lies so as to destroy the life of another? I’d think a great deal more of her (and for all the jokes I do admire her tenacity if nothing else) if the answer was something along the lines of, well, come down like a holy terror on those who really do egregiously just flat out lie for some reason or personal gain but be very, very, careful about who we conclude that of. Or summat like that. But we don’t even get that, do we?