golden state society: September 2011

Friday, September 30, 2011

Couple tried to divert cops from burglary with rape ruse

A false rape report didn’t divert police from stopping a burglary in progress Monday morning.

Police said they received a 911 call about a rape in progress at the Tri City Plaza on High Street, about three miles outside of downtown.

They figured out, however, that the call came from 99 Main St. - a downtown address - and were en route there when they stumbled upon a burglary in progress at the Somersworth Village Market at 35 Washington St.

Sgt. Matt Duval heard an alarm coming from the store, saw the front door smashed and a man exiting the business, police said. When Duval ordered the man to stopped, he began throwing cartons of cigarettes and bath salts at him.

“A struggle ensued, during which time Sgt Duval was able to subdue and arrest the individual, identified as [Frank] Cunningham,” police said.

Police said Cunningham threw six cigarette cartons and 13 packets of bath salts at Duval.

Cunningham, 50, of 95 Main St., Apt 8, is charged with burglary, simple assault and resisting arrest.

Police said a further investigation revealed the call about the rape was a ruse meant to distract from the break-in.

Christa Pinson, 32, who lives at the same address as Cunningham, was charged with criminal liability for conduct of another.

Cunningham and Pinson live about two blocks from the Somersworth Village Market.

Link:
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110926/NEWS03/709269946

Couple tried to divert cops from burglary with rape ruse

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Alleged high school gang rape apparently didn't happen, prosecutor says

A rape case against five boys, 15 to 17 years old, has been dropped. The boys were accused of gang raping a 13-year-old girl. The initial complaint to police claimed the young alleged victim was dragged kicking and screaming into the side room of a distance learning lab on the lower level of a high school.

A second girl was also involved, but apparently her story was that the sex was consensual, and it wasn't consistent with the story of the alleged victim.

Moreover, the alleged victim's story didn't match the evidence gathered from the surveillance video from the school. The video did not catch the entire incident, it showed the beginning of the incident did not support her version of how things happened

After physical evidence came back from the state police lab, the alleged victim recanted most of the serious accusations. "Before making the decision not to go forward with the case, we actually wanted a few days to make sure there weren't any outside stressors that would have caused her to recant, but after a certain amount of time and she remained with her position that, most, again, most of the serious accusations, that those did not happen," said Assistant Prosecutor, Matt England.

Because the alleged victim recanted only portions of her statement, the prosecutor’s office will not bring charges against her for submitting a false statement to police, he added.

The incident occurred in November 2010, and while the criminal investigation continued, the students involved did not return to school.

SOURCES:
http://www.wvnstv.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=108842

http://www.register-herald.com/local/x1953746759/Fayette-prosecutor-closes-case-of-alleged-rape-at-MHHS

http://wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=95557

Alleged high school gang rape apparently didn't happen, prosecutor says

Feds hand small university hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight rape problem there is no evidence exists

Your federal goverment has just handed a small university in Pennsylvania hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight a rape problem there is no evidence exists.

The money was paid courtesy of a democractic senator whose relationship with women voters is tenuous because he identifies as pro-life. This story is a tiny microcosm of how the sexual grievance industry works.

In Erie, Pennsylvania, Ted Marnen, the director of Gannon University's office of campus police and safety, says there is no evidence that the university has a problem with sexual violence. He said that the university, with an enrollment of about 4,200 students, averages 1.66 rapes on campus per year. (One rape is one rape too many, so it isn't fair to say there is "no" problem. It is fair to say it is not a widespread or significant problem.)

But wouldn't Gannon's figures be underreported? Mr. Marnen isn't ready to buy into that. "It's difficult to tell," he said.

Nevertheless, little Gannon University has just been awarded $298,638 from the U.S. Department of Justice to reduce violence against women on the university's campus. The grant will fund anti-violence programs for students for the next three years. With the money, the school will get a new violence-prevention coordinator, develop a community response to violence, offer mandatory anti-violence programs for students and develop new crime-response policies.

The funding was procured by pro-life Senator Bob Casey. “Every student deserves to study in an environment where they feel physically and emotionally secure. This funding will help Gannon accomplish this goal,” said Senator Casey. Casey provided no support for the premise that Gannon women do not already feel physically and emotionally secure.

Can anyone name a single program that has ever been hailed a success to reduce the rape "epidemic"? There have been billions of dollars spent to wage the war on rape over the past 30 years, and
yet we are told that under-reporting is still 95 percent on campus, higher than ever. The more money spent, the more people hired with it, the worse the problem supposedly gets. Instead of asking what's really going on here, the only "solution" pursued is to keep doing more of the same.

Heather MacDonald once famously wrote: "It’s a lonely job, working the phones at a college rape crisis center. Day after day, you wait for the casualties to show up from the alleged campus rape epidemic—but no one calls." Ms. MacDonald thinks the rape "epidemic" on campus is rubbish.

At Gannon, Mr. Marnen said "it will be hard to judge if" the funding is successful. "If we see an increase in assaults, does that mean more women are reporting, or there is an increase in sexual violence?" Marnen said. "It's very difficult to measure."

Earlier this year, Senator Casey introduced the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (SaVE Act), which, among other things, would do legislatively what the Department of Education has already improperly done by executive branch fiat: mandate that colleges use the "preponderance of the evidence" standard of proof for sexual assault cases.

In other words, if your son is accused of sexual assault at college, Senator Casey thinks its fine to expel him even if the hearing tribunal believes there is a 49.9999% chance he didn't do it.

Sources:
-News story regarding Gannon: http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110929/NEWS02/309289865/-1/newssitemap

-Sexual assault reporting stats are available on line: http://ope.ed.gov/security/InstList.aspx)

-Bob Casey announcement: http://casey.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=aec5071e-1b92-42c8-a3a0-a88c504b451e

Feds hand small university hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight rape problem there is no evidence exists

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Cleared of Rape but Lacking Full Exoneration

RICHMOND, Va. — One Sunday morning in February 1984, Thomas Haynesworth’s mother sent him to the Trio supermarket to pick up some bread and sweet potatoes.

He never got there. Instead, he was stopped and questioned in connection with a recent rape. That began a 27-year odyssey through false accusation, arrest, prison and pain.

Mr. Haynesworth, then 18 and never in trouble with the law, had been mistakenly identified by the victim as her assailant. He was arrested on suspicion of having committed five rapes and assaults in his neighborhood, and was tried for four of them. He was convicted in three and sentenced to 84 years in prison.

DNA has since proved that he did not commit two of the rapes he was tried for. The DNA from those two cases pointed to another man, in prison for having committed multiple rapes in the same neighborhood that occurred after Mr. Haynesworth’s arrest. That man, Leon Davis, who identified himself to victims as “the Black Ninja,” is serving multiple life terms plus 100 years.

Now Mr. Haynesworth, 46, is asking for full exoneration on all of the rape convictions, although DNA from the other two cases is not available. But the circumstantial evidence supporting Mr. Haynesworth’s claims of innocence is so powerful that along with his own lawyers, the prosecutors from both jurisdictions where the rapes occurred support his efforts, as well as the attorney general for the commonwealth, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli.

With no one arguing against exoneration, most judges would be expected to congratulate Mr. Haynesworth on his new life, perhaps with an apology as well, and send him into daylight and freedom. But in July, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia said, in essence, “Not so fast.” The court called for additional briefs in the case, which will be heard again on Tuesday by all of the judges of the court.

It is a move that has left legal experts astonished. “It’s very rare for a court to set a case for argument when all the parties are agreed,” said Stephen J. Schulhofer, an expert in criminal justice at New York University law school, adding that “it’s essentially unheard of” for a court to take matters into its own hands, instead of appointing a special advocate to argue on behalf of the interests that they believe are unrepresented.

It is a case, then, that might seem quirky, even unique. But experts like Professor Schulhofer say the case raises broader questions about the lengths that defendants must sometimes go to clear their names, and even raises fundamental questions about the administration of justice. “What I worry about is, if Haynesworth is having trouble getting his conviction set aside, what kind of judicial relief is available to your run-of-the-mill case where your arguments are not quite so slam dunk?”

Mr. Haynesworth’s fight for freedom began in 2009, when the state’s department of forensic evidence tested the DNA from the first rape as part of a broad review of old case files. The results cleared Mr. Haynesworth of that rape, and he received an exoneration on that charge later that year. Mr. Haynesworth’s lawyers at the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and the Innocence Project in New York, along with private lawyers, filed legal papers for Mr. Haynesworth with the Court of Appeals of Virginia to get a writ of actual innocence on the remaining convictions. Subsequent testing of the DNA from the trial in which Mr. Haynesworth was acquitted eliminated him — and again implicated Mr. Davis.

Virginia’s parole board released Mr. Haynesworth from prison in March, on his 46th birthday. But he is still pressing for exoneration — “to clear my name, you know what I’m saying?” He is classified as a paroled sex offender, and has to appear on public registries of rapists and other sexual miscreants. He has to inform the authorities in order to move from one home to another, and even had to request permission to visit his nieces.

“I’m out, but still not totally free,” he said. “It puts a cloud over your life.”

Mr. Cuccinelli said in an interview that he and his staff reviewed the evidence in the Haynesworth case in great detail. “It was a complex decision,” he said, “but it wasn’t a hard decision.” The thought of the wrongful conviction haunted him. “It’s hard to describe how painful it is to me that somebody would suffer what he has.”

He explained that the law that allowed writs of actual innocence was crafted with a very high standard of proof in mind. It places a premium on preserving the finality of the judicial process and attempts to avoid endless appeals. “I would say it’s cultural to the state,” he said. “You get your shot, you take your shot, and we’re not going to muck around with it anymore.”

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/us/man-cleared-of-rapes-but-a-court-balks-at-full-exoneration.html?_r=2

Cleared of Rape but Lacking Full Exoneration

Causal-mechanisms theory in Europe

The causal-mechanisms theory of social explanation has been influential throughout an extensive network of European philosophers and social scientists, often with a pretty direct connection to the analytical sociology research programme. Peter Hedstrom and his research network are particularly influential in this spread of ideas. It is worth mentioning a couple of books in the past ten years that have brought this approach to non-English speakers.

Philosopher Michael Schmid published Die Logik mechanismischer Erklärungen (The Logic of Mechanistic Explanation) in 2006. This appears to be the first full-length consideration of the "social mechanisms" theory of social explanation in German, and it is an impressive volume. Schmid also has an extensive chapter in English in Peter Demeulenaere's fine collection, Analytical Sociology and Social Mechanisms.

Schmid's book consists of careful analytical expositions of the theories of a dozen social scientists and philosophers who have advocated for this approach to social explanation, including both current and past proponents. Here is the table of contents, in my own non-expert translation, which gives an idea of the topics and authors Schmid concentrates on.

Michael Schmid, Die Logik Mechanismischer Erklärungen

1. The logic of sociological explanation

2. Philosophical foundations for an explanatory sociology

2.1 Mechanisms and the "Theory of complex phenomena" (Friedrich A. von Hayek)
2.2 Causality, social system, and mechanistic explanation (Mario Bunge)
2.3 Microfoundations and causal mechanisms (Daniel Little)

3. Mechanisms in sociological theory

3.1 Individual decisions and structural selection (Robert Merton)
3.2 Individual rationality and the interdependence of action (James S. Coleman)
3.3 Bridge principles and the transformation problem (Siegwart Lindenberg and Reinhard Wippler)
3.4 Macro-social phenomena and "rationality située" (Raymond Boudon)
3.5 Generative structuralism and generative mechanisms (Thomas J.Fararo)
3.6 Social mechanisms and the theory of rational decision-making (Peter Hedstrom and Richard Swedberg)
3.7 Process mechanisms and causal reconstruction (Renate Mayntz)
3.8 "Generative mechanisms" and "structural models" (Hartmut Esser)

4.0 The research heuristic of mechanismic explanation

Many of these authors considered here are core to the analytical sociology framework, including especially Merton, Coleman, Boudon, Hedstrom, Swedberg, Mayntz, and Esser.

A second relevant book appeared in 2004 in Italian. This is Filippo Barbera's Meccanismi sociali: Elementi di sociologia analitica. As the title indicates, the book provides a programatic introduction to the social mechanisms approach as expressed within the analytical sociology framework. The contents are descriptive of the focus of the book (again, in my non-expert translation).

Filippo Barbera, Meccanismi sociali

Introduction

I. Social mechanisms: history, authors, and objectives

I.1 Introduction
I.2 The Columbia School
I.3 Social mechanisms, theory of action and the crisis of the deterministic paradigm
Summary

II. Analytical sociology in the contemporary scene

II.1 Introduction
II.2 The relation between social theory and empirical research
II.3 Three principles for analytical sociology: causal processes, multi-level schemata, and formal theory
Summary

III. From macro to micro: the logic of the situation

III.1 Introduction
III.2 Interdependence between states: Sour Grapes and Ulysses and the Sirens
III.4 Institutional environments, exchange, and preferences
III.5 Training opportunities
III.6 Effect of social interaction
III.7 Structural effect
Summary

IV. The micro-micro axis: the principle of social action and rationality

IV.1 Introduction
IV.2 The forward-looking model
IV.3 The backward-looking model
IV.4 The cognitive model and framing
Summary

V. From micro to macro: aggregation and emergent effects

V.1 Introduction
V.2 Microfoundations of emergent effects
V.3 Strategic interdependency
V.4 Processual interdependence
V.5 Relational and spatial interdependence
V.6 Dynamic analysis of micro and macro
Summary

VI. Mechanisms in empirical research
VI.1 Introduction
VI.2 The diffusion of pharmacological innovation
VI.3 Individual educational choices
VI.4 Collective violence
Summary

VII. The integration of theory and social research

VII.1 Introduction
VII.2 Building the phenomena to be explained
VII.3 Postulating the generative mechanism
VII.4 Testing the mechanism
Summary

Here is a translation of a few lines from the introduction:

This book presents a theoretical perspective and empirical research that have gained growing acceptance in contemporary sociology. Many terms have been used to identify this perspective: "explanation by social or generative mechanisms", "sociological analysis", "sociology of causal processes", and "analytical sociology". Here we will use each of these expressions interchangeably. The book aims to rebuild from within the core of analytical sociology by isolating the principles and objectives shared, without carrying out a systematic comparison with other trends in contemporary sociology. This systematization had to first try to reduce the heterogeneity that characterizes the internal perspective of the social mechanisms approach, but not completely undo the specificities of the individual authors and the different proposals they put forward. The priority attention given to the objectives of clarification and synthesis of a complex and heterogeneous field has had to overshadow the critical evaluation of analytical sociology. This critical evaluation, incidentally, is not entirely absent, and in any case is made more simple after we have specified the conditions and objectives of the approach. (7)

German philosopher Renate Mayntz also takes up issues on mechanistic explanation in the social sciences. Her 2009 book, Sozialwissenschaftliches Erklären, is a volume of essays on the philosophy of social science and social science methodology that address issues about mechanisms as well as the macro-micro link. Here is a rough translation of the table of contents:

Renate Mayntz, Sozialwissenschaftliches Erklären

1. Social science knowledge interests and cognitive capabilities: An Introduction
2. Research methods and cognitive potential: natural and social sciences in comparison
3. Invitation to shadow boxing: sociology and modern biology

4. Rationality in Social Science Perspective
5. Causal reconstruction: theoretical statements in actor-centered institutionalism
6. Social mechanisms in the analysis of social macro-phenomena
7. Individual action and social events: The micro-macro problem in social science
8. Emergence in Philosophy and Social Theory (in English)
9. Embedded Theorizing: Perspectives on Globalization and Global Governance (in English)

Mayntz's critical review article on the mechanisms literature appeared in 2004 in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences, and is available online here.

Also worth mentioning is recent work by Petri Ylikoski, including his excellent University of Helsinki 2001 dissertation, Understanding Interests and Causal Explanation (link). The dissertation is available online and provides an excellent basis for understanding many of the issues concerning causal explanation as they arise within the analytical sociology framework.

Each of these theorists relates directly or indirectly to the framework of analytical sociology and usually to Peter Hedstrom's group directly. Barbera was a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, where he worked closely with Hedstrom. Schmid demonstrates a close knowledge of Hedstrom's work and of the analytical sociology perspective more generally, and Hedstrom is one of the philosophers he focuses on in his book (3.6). Schmid also has sections on Mayntz, Boudon, and Esser, key figures in the literature of analytical sociology. Ylikoski has published co-authored papers with Hedstrom following the completion of his dissertation.

Causal-mechanisms theory in Europe

This book presents a theoretical perspective and empirical research that have gained growing acceptance in contemporary sociology. Many terms have been used to identify this perspective: "explanation by social or generative mechanisms", "sociological analysis", "sociology of causal processes", and "analytical sociology". Here we will use each of these expressions interchangeably. The book aims to rebuild from within the core of analytical sociology by isolating the principles and objectives shared, without carrying out a systematic comparison with other trends in contemporary sociology. This systematization had to first try to reduce the heterogeneity that characterizes the internal perspective of the social mechanisms approach, but not completely undo the specificities of the individual authors and the different proposals they put forward. The priority attention given to the objectives of clarification and synthesis of a complex and heterogeneous field has had to overshadow the critical evaluation of analytical sociology. This critical evaluation, incidentally, is not entirely absent, and in any case is made more simple after we have specified the conditions and objectives of the approach. (7)

Causal-mechanisms theory in Europe

This book presents a theoretical perspective and empirical research that have gained growing acceptance in contemporary sociology. Many terms have been used to identify this perspective: "explanation by social or generative mechanisms", "sociological analysis", "sociology of causal processes", and "analytical sociology". Here we will use each of these expressions interchangeably. The book aims to rebuild from within the core of analytical sociology by isolating the principles and objectives shared, without carrying out a systematic comparison with other trends in contemporary sociology. This systematization had to first try to reduce the heterogeneity that characterizes the internal perspective of the social mechanisms approach, but not completely undo the specificities of the individual authors and the different proposals they put forward. The priority attention given to the objectives of clarification and synthesis of a complex and heterogeneous field has had to overshadow the critical evaluation of analytical sociology. This critical evaluation, incidentally, is not entirely absent, and in any case is made more simple after we have specified the conditions and objectives of the approach. (7)

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Suspended sentence for false rape accuser whose lie prompted a major police investigation

Follow up to our post HERE. A suspended sentence. Lovely.

A young Deal woman who falsely cried rape has avoided going to jail.

Rebecca Howard told police two men bundled her into a car and drove her to a car park in Walmer before one of the men raped her in the early hours of Sunday, February 6.

The 20-year-old's accusation prompted a major police investigation which proved the offence never happened.

Howard, of Prince of Wales Terrace, pleaded guilty to wasting police time when she appeared before magistrates in Folkestone.

She was given a four month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and told to carry out 200 hours unpaid work. She must pay £1,000 compensation to Kent Police and will be subject to a 12-month supervision order.

Det Insp Matt Banks from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, which investigated the rape allegation, said: "We take all allegations of rape very seriously and our priority is to get justice for genuine victims of rape.

"It takes considerable bravery for a rape victim to come forward to report a crime and we will always sensitively and thoroughly investigate all reported rapes.

"Our priority is always the victim and we would always encourage anyone who is a victim of this type of crime to come forward and report it.

"Howard abused this and her allegation caused heightened concern within the Deal community and involved considerable time and resources to investigate."

Link: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2011-1/september/21/woman_given_suspended_sentence.aspx

Suspended sentence for false rape accuser whose lie prompted a major police investigation

Follow up to our post HERE. A suspended sentence. Lovely.

A young Deal woman who falsely cried rape has avoided going to jail.

Rebecca Howard told police two men bundled her into a car and drove her to a car park in Walmer before one of the men raped her in the early hours of Sunday, February 6.

The 20-year-old's accusation prompted a major police investigation which proved the offence never happened.

Howard, of Prince of Wales Terrace, pleaded guilty to wasting police time when she appeared before magistrates in Folkestone.

"It takes considerable bravery for a rape victim to come forward to report a crime and we will always sensitively and thoroughly investigate all reported rapes.

"Our priority is always the victim and we would always encourage anyone who is a victim of this type of crime to come forward and report it.

"Howard abused this and her allegation caused heightened concern within the Deal community and involved considerable time and resources to investigate."

Link: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/2011-1/september/21/woman_given_suspended_sentence.aspx

DSK seeks diplomatic immunity from civil action; Diallo already has de facto immunity from a counterclaim because she is judgment proof

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has filed a motion claiming diplomatic immunity in the civil suit filed against him filed by Nafissatou Diallo, the hotel maid who accused him of raping her in Room 2806 of the Sofitel Hotel on May 14, 2011.

The legal merits of DSK's motion are beyond the scope of this post. Regardless of its merit, those who have already assumed his guilt will, undoubtedly, find this legal maneuver to be an outrageous attempt by a privileged white male to further deny a wronged minority woman of justice.

Even though this blog gives voice to the wrongly accused, we have been careful not to pretend or assume we know what happened in Room 2806. When feminist icon Susan Brownmiller bizarrely declared that she "believe[d]" Ms. Diallo (because, she exclaimed, "[r]ape victims remember some facts vividly, but often get confused about exact timelines" -- as if that furnishes sufficient basis to reach that conclusion), we expressed our dismay about rushing to judgment.

Subsequently, the most compelling, and credible, assessment of the case was posited by the Manhattan district attorney's recommendation to dismiss the charges against Diallo. That recommendation noted that Diallo was "persistently" and "inexplicably" untruthful to prosecutors about important matters. Prosecutors initially found Diallo to be a perfect witness, sympathetic in every way. Over time, her repeated lies eventually had prosecutors questioning her credibility on a very fundamental level. We detailed the DA's recommendation here.

While the district attorney's evaluation was made in the context of charges that had to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, a fair-minded assessment of the information released by the district attorney suggests the very real possibility, if not likelihood, that Diallo's claim was a lie. Credibility is important not just in criminal matters, but in civil matters, too. "Liars lose," a sage attorney once told me many years ago. While it is impossible to assign a percentage to express the likelihood that the claim was either true or false, in light of Diallo's credibility problems, a civil case filed by either Diallo or DSK could go either way.

While DSK is seeking diplomatic immunity from suit, Diallo has achieved de facto immunity from a civil suit (e.g., a counterclaim) because she is judgment proof, and because DSK has far more to lose by filing suit.

Just as most rapists come from lower socioeconomic classes and are under-educated, under-employed, and under-skilled, the typical false rape accuser is not a woman of wealth.

DSK seeks diplomatic immunity from civil action; Diallo already has de facto immunity from a counterclaim because she is judgment proof

College paper takes college to task for sexual assault training video that presents males as crass, offensive caricatures

Email to Maria Tsikalas
Maria Tsikalas
Marquette University

Dear Ms. Tsikalas,

I founded the Web site devoted to giving voice to persons wrongly accused of sex crimes, False Rape Society. I am forwarding a copy of this email to FIRE because it is the authority on the issues raised in this note, and the matters referenced here might be of interest to it.

I write regarding your thoughtful editorial titled "Sexual violence videos make mistakes, but don’t give up on them," found here: http://marquettetribune.org/2011/09/27/viewpoints/editorial-sexual-assault-videos-make-mistakes-but-dont-give-up-on-them-kc1-sb2-td3/.

In your editorial, you explain that Marquette is sponsoring online videos to train student leaders and incoming students on sexual assault. A previous article in the Marquette Tribune noted: "All first-year students and many student leaders are partaking in a sexual assault awareness program as part of a new initiative against sexual violence on campus." http://marquettetribune.org/2011/09/20/news/assault-bg1-sb2-td3/

I am assuming that the program referenced in that previous article is the same one you discuss in your editorial, but I am not sure that this assumption is correct. I am also assuming that the program you discuss is mandatory for first year students. Would you be able to verify?

In your editorial, you state the following:

"While the videos provide a lot of good information addressing what sexual assault actually is and how to recognize and prevent it, the valuable parts are juxtaposed with off-putting moments and absurd ideas.

"The 'typical male college student' played by an actor is offensive and completely unaware of the issues and why they are important, which seems unfair to males in general. One has to wonder why the videos could not have portrayed the character as a normal college student looking to learn more about sexual assault instead of a crass and willfully ignorant male needing to be set straight.

"Do we need such an overtly negative image of college guys? The clips describing different ways men try to pressure college women into potential assault situations, while fair and comprehensive, seem to do the job.

"If we want college men to take these videos seriously and realize the immensity of the issues, it is questionable whether this caricature is the best way to depict them."

You are to be commended for highlighting the "overtly negative" and "offensive" portrayal of the "typical male college student," as "crass and willfully ignorant," which, if your description is accurate, clearly is "unfair to males in general." I am not able to find the program in order to view it, and would very much appreciate that opportunity. Could you be able to assist in that, or to advise who might be able to help?

Your editorial raises a concern that this video presentation may constitute an impermissible invasion of students' conscience. Last year, FIRE challenged a college for making attendance mandatory at a sexual assault program that was overtly offensive to males and that sought to reengineer student thinking to conform to an ideology of the college's preference. See here: http://thefire.org/public/pdfs/ec98c2707e17186e96211e9aa553e699.pdf?direct The college backed down and make attendance at the program discretionary.

___________________

Your editorial also references "clips describing different ways men try to pressure college women into potential assault situations." I am also interested in seeing those. I note that Marquette's sexual assualt policy, found here http://www.marquette.edu/osd/policies/sexual_policy.shtml, says that a person may not consent to sex if s/he is "psychologically pressured." The clips you reference seem speak to such psychological pressure. Is that correct?

The "psychologically pressured" definition is problematic for at least two reasons:

First, Marquette's prohibition is worded so broadly that it could be applied to punish conduct that that is, by any lawful measure, consensual. A college's sexual misconduct policy cannot be a clearinghouse to redress every less than ideal sexual encounter. Marquette's policy could be applied to punish students for engaging in what is nothing more than immature and boorish sexual nagging, even though the "nagged" student had a reasonable alternative other than to engage in the sex act. By no recognized legal standard does sexual nagging or anything similar negate consent.*

Second, the language of the policy is so vague that it does not pass Constitutional muster. "The test is whether the language conveys sufficiently definite warning as to the proscribed conduct when measured by common understanding and practices." Jordan v. DeGeorge, 341 U.S. 223 (1951). A college's sexual misconduct policy cannot be a guessing game. It is entirely uncertain what "psychologically pressured" means, and it could be applied to all manner of situations that, by any reasonable measure, should not be prohibitted. Therefore, it does not adequately put the student body on notice as to what is prohibited.

I also note that, apparently, the clip shows only guys pressuring women. That, too, is problematic, and offensive, because studies show that men experience alleged sexual coercion almost as much as women. http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/ID45-PR45.pdf

These are issues of serious concern to the community of the wrongfully accused. We promote respect for the critical balance between (1) punishing sexual wrongdoing, and (2) insuring that the innocent are not punished with the guilty. The matters referenced in this note and promoted by your university do not adequately respect the latter part of that balance.

Thank you.

False Rape Society
http://goldenstatesociety.blogspot.com/

*The concept of consent has its roots in the common law equitable doctrine of assumpsit, based on contract. A contract is voidable for duress if a victim's manifestation of assent has been induced by an improper threat, and if the victim has no reasonable alternative but to agree. At the very least, that last part -- the "no reasonable alternative" -- is missing from Marquette's "psychologically pressured" definition.

College paper takes college to task for sexual assault training video that presents males as crass, offensive caricatures

___________________

Monday, September 26, 2011

Sex assault claim teenager fined for wasting police time

A TEENAGER has been fined after making a false report that she had been sexually assaulted. The 19-year-old, from Bolton, told police she had been sexually assaulted while on a night out in the town centre.

An area on Bradshawgate, near to the junction of Princess Street, was cordoned off for several hours while detectives investigated the allegation in the early hours of Sunday.

After a thorough search by police it was discovered the sexual assault claim was not true, and the woman was given a £60 fixed penalty notice for wasting police time.

Det Sgt Tony Lunt, from Bolton CID, said: “On this occasion, the sexual assault that was alleged to have taken place has proved to be a false account. We take all reports of assault and rape seriously and investigate thoroughly and without prejudice.

“Greater Manchester Police encourages anyone who has been a victim of rape or any sort of sexual abuse to come forward.

“But I must also stress the importance of providing police with genuine reports due to the time we invest in investigating these cases.

“I hope this incident does not deter genuine victims from coming forward to police.

“We have speciallytrained officers who give a tremendous amount of time and support to anyone who has been a victim of rape and we work extremely closely with the St Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre.”

Link: http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/9265679.Sex_assault_claim_teenager_fined_for_wasting_police_time/

Sex assault claim teenager fined for wasting police time

U.S. Military, D.C. and Washington state now put the burden on the accused to show consent

There is a gradual, but indisputable and disturbing, trend to engorge the definitions of rape and sexual assault in order to snag more convictions. All of these changes, which typically occur beneath the radar, are initiated at the behest of victims' advocates, and there is rarely ever more than cursory and superficial consideration given to insuring that innocent men and boys are not punished with the guilty. While everyone with a passing interest in this area knows about this trend, few are able to articulate exactly what is happening.

One of the most important, and startling, efforts to engorge the definition of rape has been to shift the burden of proving consent from the state to the accused. This is both important and starting because the very essence of rape law is the absence of consent, and shifting the burden of proof to the accused about a matter that goes to the essence of a criminal offense raises a host of due process concerns. To put it in plain English, shifting the burden of proof enhances the risk that the innocent will be punished with the guilty.

Few readers probably know that the U.S. military, the District of Columbia, and the state of Washington have already shifted the burden of proving consent to the accused. More about each below.

Bourque, Valenti, Alexandre, and Caringella

The shifting the burden of consent is an idea being pushed by extremist victims' advocates. Linda Brookover Bourque's Defining Rape said in 1989 that the ultimate objective of rape reform is shifting the burden of proof from "the victim" to "the offender."

Mainstream feminist guru Jessica Valenti (best known for the "Feministing" blog) advocates that America look to Swedish law as its legislative model for rape. "In fact," she notes without objection, "some activists and legal experts in Sweden want to change the law there so that the burden of proof is on the accused; the alleged rapist would have to show that he got consent, instead of the victim having to prove that she didn't give it."

Valenti's suggestion is backed by serious feminist scholars. Criminal law professor and feminist Michele Alexandre would make the sex act a presumed crime whenever a woman cries rape. The burden would be on the defendant to prove “that express and present consent was explicitly obtained at the time of the actual sexual interaction, not before or after . . . .” Only if the defendant is able to establish “express, present, and uncontroverted consent to the sexual interaction at issue” does the burden shift to the prosecution to prove withdrawal of consent . . . ."

In Addressing Rape Reform in Law and Practice (2008), Professor Susan Caringella of Western Michigan University's Sociology Department, not only refuses to pay lip service to insuring that the innocent aren't punished with the guilty, she goes so far as to declare that men accused of rape are "overprotect[ed]." She writes: "It is high time to give victims a fair shake, to dismantle the zealous overprotections for men accused of this crime, which have been buoyed up by the myths about false accusations, ulterior motives, and so on, commonly embraced when rape charges are levied." Prof. Caringella advocates "a shift in the burden of proof to the defense [that] would entail that the defense establish, with a preponderance of the evidence, that it was more likely than not that the woman alleging the rape did give clear indications of freely chosen agreement to engage in the sex acts. Affirmative consent constitutes the kind of consent that would be . . . necessary to overcome the presumptive or implied nonagreement in the law. . . . . What the defense would be required to do would be to introduce adequate evidence to show that the alleged victim did openly and affirmatively express a yes of her own free accord."

These egregious notions have already been given statutory articulation in three jurisdictions.

U.S. Military

Article 120 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, revised in 2006, removed "consent" as an element of rape and other forms of sexual assault and required the accused to raise "consent" as an affirmative defense and to prove it by a preponderance of the evidence. If an accused proves the affirmative defense, the burden shifts to the government to disprove the affirmative defense beyond a reasonable doubt.

It is a source of confusion how the prosecution could ever prove non-consent by a reasonable doubt after the accused has already proven consent by a preponderance of the evidence. But the more important problem is that a cry of rape literally turns the sex act into a presumptive crime.

In United States v. Neal, 68 M.J. 289 (2010), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces explained why shifting the burden of proof was proper in words that are as chilling as they are peculiar: "When sexual abuse by members of the armed forces occurs within a military organization, it can have a devastating impact on the good order and discipline essential to the conduct of military operations. When sexual abuse by deployed military personnel involves civilians, it can undermine relationships with the local population critical to our Nation's military and foreign policy objectives. These factors illustrate the importance of recognizing the broad authority of Congress to regulate the conduct of military personnel. That authority includes the power to define rape and its related offenses in a manner that does not require proof on the subject of consent, notwithstanding the traditional requirement in military and civilian law for such proof."

(Recently, there was a rare moment of sanity when a military court ruled that forcing the accused to prove consent in a case of aggravated sexual assault where the alleged victim was supposedly "substantially incapacitated" was unconstitutional because the absence of consent is implicit in the nature of substantial incapacitation. United States v. Prather, 69 M.J. 338 (2011).)

District of Columbia

In the District of Columbia, a sexual abuse statute, which encompasses any sex act committed by force or which places a victim in fear ob bodily injury, puts the burden on the accused to show consent. D.C. CODE § 22-3007 (2007). A court explained that the statute "was intended . . . to change the focus of the criminal process away from an inquiry into the state of mind or acts of the victim to an inquiry into the conduct of the accused." Russell v. United States, 698 A.2d 1007, 1009 (D.C. App. 1997).

Washington State

Moreover, as Prof. Richard Klein explains here, in Washington state, courts typically include the following instruction to juries in rape cases: "A person is not guilty if the sexual intercourse is consensual. “Consent” means that at the time of the act of sexual intercourse, there are actual words or conduct indicating a freely given agreement to have sexual intercourse. The burden is on the defendant to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the sexual intercourse was consensual." Prof. Klein explains that this instruction was challenged in 2006, but the court allowed it to stand.