Press Release: regarding Duke University "Rape" case
By Press Release: Lee Newman (04/13/07)
Over many years with SAFE-NH I have attended Conferences, Council meetings, media events and other venues where the mainstream battered women’s organizations have treated my observations and my suggestions for review and reform of their protocols with disdain and with no regard.
The NH Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and their member organizations have continuously denied that women have the ability and sometimes the willingness to be untruthful in their accusations against innocent men when it comes to charges of domestic violence and sexual assault.
During a council meeting I attended not to long ago, I was asked why I was offering information about DNA testing along with my other outreach materials. I explained that I felt that paternity fraud was a crime and one that abused both fathers and children, and that in addition DNA testing was also something that could prevent a man from going to prison due to false allegations of sexual
assault/rape.
This last statement caused the Executive Director of one of the largest battered women’s crisis centers in the State of New Hampshire to become very volatile as she stated to me that ”women NEVER lie about either of these crimes, least of all rape!”
This is generally the same response from many who make a living in the mainstream “DV Industry”, as it has come to be known. This is also the theory that drives the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) which, is directly biased against males being treated equally by the programs it funds.
This biased and judgmental attitude is also responsible for the fact that women can go to a Court of Law and Law Enforcement, claiming to be a victim of domestic abuse or sexual assault, later to be found to have perjured herself under oath, and then is not held accountable for the devastating effects on another person’s life.
In effect, when a person is falsely accused of such crimes, they suffer the equivalent of defamation of character and slander but because of the biased laws fueled in part by VAWA, they have no recourse against their attacker. This is because organizations with a vested interest in keeping the status quo have convinced our officials at every level that “women often recant their stories, due to fear” and therefore “arrest and prosecution must take place regardless of recanting of testimony by the “victim.
As a parent and a grandparent I want protection for my daughter, my son and my grandson equally, from domestic abuse or from sexual assault. I also want to know that they are equally protected from false allegations and if this did occur to ANY of them and that they would have recourse to clear themselves and hold their false accuser accountable…legally as well as in civil proceedings.
Men and women, boys and girls are all potential victims of domestic abuse, child abuse, sexual assault and yes, even rape!
Although most of the mainstream calls the sexual assault of a teen girl by an adult male a crime, it’s often called “an affair” when it’s a sexual assault of a teen boy at the hands of an adult female… The media most often “reports” these crimes in such a manner.
However, take a moment and think about your 14 yr old son or grandson, imagine that he has reported to you that his 39 yr old female teacher had been having sex with him, would you reach for the phone to report the crime against him in the same way as if it had been your daughter being molested/raped by her 39 yr. old male teacher?
Would you call your son’s molestation/rape, acceptable, while your daughter’s is not?
If your son was falsely accused of rape, and when he was proven innocent, still was not able to legally hold his accuser accountable, had suffered loss of reputation not to mention the emotional toll on him and the changes in his personality…and yet has no recourse, how would you feel as the parent of this young man?
If you are a man and you are falsely accused of domestic violence or sexual assault under the laws we currently have, you will find yourself exactly where these young men from Duke University are.
Even though they have no case against them, they will carry the stigma of the accusations with them forever. The same goes for those with false allegations of domestic violence and with false restraining orders placed against them.
Not only do they become instantly prohibited from entering their homes, seeing their children and sometimes even lose their jobs but they are also under the threat of arrest, based simply on the “victim” claiming that they called or happened to see them in a public place.’
Ultimately, if the restraining order is dropped by the “victim” , that does not mean that the defendant won’t be tried in a criminal court for having “assaulted” their accuser. Even if they are proven to be innocent, they will suffer the stigma of having been accused and some people will always assume the worst. False accusations and lack of accountability ruin the lives of many and it’s time for a change!
Stop Abuse For Everyone International Board
PO Box 951, Tualatin, OR 97062, USA
http://www.safe4all.org/
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