Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

Re: the Newsday piece on whether the Hostra recantation case will hurt "real" 
victims - 



I teach and write about this issue in my lecture on the language and
reporting on sexual violence.   one of my pet peeves is exactly this
type of story - 



In the section I call "what stories get written" - I note the knee-jerk
and predictable way the media writes about the impact on "real" victims
whenever there's a false claim of rape - and I contrast this story with
the absence of ANY such "news" stories about whether the criminal fraud
of people like Bernie Madoff will have a negative impact on ALL fund
managers, wealthy men, etc.



The fact that this type of story is written is part of the reason the public 
has such skepticism about victims' allegations.



The story itself (iin part because it is never written about OTHER false 
claims) makes the reader think there is a unique problem in
society with women making false reports - even though the data is very
well established that false reports of theft crime - and even false
reports of one's own death - are far more common than false reports of
rape.  This is because false criminal complaints are usually tied to
insurance claims.



Anyway - this became a pet peeve of mine a few years back when there
were a series of sexual assaults at U.Mass. Dartmouth, I believe, and
then one woman reported being attacked by a knife-wielding man who cut
her cheek.  This woman later recanted amid claims of mental health
issues - and then the Boston Globe wrote a story about whether her
recantation would hurt the credibility of "all real rape victims".



I sent a letter straight away - though it was never published - not
only because the story perpetuated an ugly myth - but also because the
woman who recanted DIDN'T EVEN CLAIM RAPE.  so at most, it should have
been a story about whether a recantation re a knife attack will
undermine the claims of REAL knife-attack victims.  Of course, the
Globe never ran that story. And never does.



Years later, I wrote a letter to the Globe about a story involving an
"upstanding businessman" who was on trial for stabbing himself and
falsely accusing his son of committing the act. i asked why there was
no story about whether this man's false allegation would undermine the
credibility of "all welathy white businessmen".



no reply. no story.



Wendy Murphy