Should men who are accused then cleared of rape charges be able to file for damages?

[Hiatussin]

FUCK FUCK FUCK yes. Honestly, I think it should be an offense that is punishable to the maximum extent of the law. I had this happen to a friend in college and he lost EVERYTHING because of it. It disgusts me to the point that I saw the little whore that accused him in a bar and people had to hold me back from breaking her pretty little face.

If I´d get away with it, I´d slam her in the head with whatever I could find until it was pulp, until the biggest part of her skull left was 1/10 inch big. I´d get a damn good workout out of it, I´d just forget all about time.

I don´t know if I think you can do anything juridically though. The whole rape thing is rediculous. It´s always he said she said.

 

[Vicious cycle]

Yes.

 

[Raina]

This happened to a good friend of mine and it ruined his life. It was utter nonsense too. He wound up having to transfer colleges and go through hell because some bitch made accusations. That's about the worst thing a guy can get accused of and even once they go through the whole process people still look at them different. It's not fair.

 

[velvett]

Unlike you, I couldn't identify someone successfully. I was robbed and had my life threatened (he claimed he had a gun). The guy was 6 inches away from me. My chain was snatched, I ran home, called the cops, and had to immediately identify someone. I went through every book, I couldn't identify him because I was so traumatized.

That's very unfortunate - all of it - the trauma, the identification, the frustration and fear.

And I'm not going to say it makes you a stronger person because that's just a general bullshit blanket response. It does change you - some good some bad and the only important thing is that you always fight for you because no one else will to do for you that only you can do for you.

 

[MattTheSkywalker]

In college, I was accused of a sexual misdeed. The complaint stayed on the campus. The VP of student life was asking me all kinds of questions, being a real dickhead. He kept threatening to "bring in the cops".

When he finally let me talk I explained that while "Jen" and I had been drinking, the sex was completely consensual.

The VP student life kept saying "that's NOT what she said". At this point we were at a virtual impasse...word against word. We went back and forth a few times.


Finally, the RA for my dorm said "Matt, did she say or do anything that indicated her consent?"

I told him, "when she got on top".

I compressed the story - it actually took two days to get to this point.


Absolutely and without a doubt civil litigation, even criminal charges, should be brought against deceitful accusers.

 

[Dial_tone]

Either conceal the identities of BOTH parties until there's a verdict OR allow the defendant to sue if wrongly accused. He/she is f*cked from then on.

 

[manny78]

Btw false reports/accusations is punishable by death in China.

 

[musclemom]

A couple of the other posters brought up a very valid point, misidentification is VERY easy in a high stress situation.

Malicious accusations are a different situation entirely, but the accused would need to have convincing evidence that the accusation really was a pure act of calculated maliciousness on behalf of the woman. The odds of a woman maliciously accusing a total stranger of a crime are pretty slim. Granted, if it's a case of mistaken identity it's terrible, but to turn that case of mistaken identity into a situation where you pass go and collect hundreds of thousands of dollars is going to scare even more women off of reporting the crime and it could become a situation where the woman is essentially raped twice, once in violence and once in court ...

You have to think of the woman who is raped, maybe she gets a glimpse of the man, but he's moving, the light is bad, she can still provide the police with a general description, she saw his height, clothing, hair color, build ... say she picks a man out of a lineup who LOOKS a little like the guy who did the deed but isn't? Our minds can play some very twisted tricks on us (like trying to create an identifiable picture out of seemingly unrelated images). If the evidence doesn't back it up, then he's released. He won't go to trial if there's no evidence to create a solid case.

Unfortunately, business that goes on in our courts is too damn public anymore, and it has no business being so. So blame journalists, blame accessibility of public records ... but no good can come of suing the female victims who have made honest mistakes.

The fact of the matter is, nobody's life should be ruined because they were accused of a crime they didn't commi; but the problem lies with society, not the victim of a crime, two wrongs don't make a right.

 

[big4life]

The one being sued here should be the police dept.. They had dna evidence to check before making anything public. Instead they made it public before checking, not very smart.