~~~ RAPE: The Myth and the Truth ~~~

The conviction rate for rape is 58%. That bears repeating. “The conviction rate for rape is 58%.” The conviction rate for reportable crimes of all types is 57%. I know you will have heard the figure of 6%. Everyone has. That figure is actually an attrition rate, not a conviction rate, and even as an attrition rate it is wrong – the attrition rate for rape is in the region of 12%.

An attrition rate is the amount of convictions resulting from reports of a crime, and is not routinely calculated for any crime other than rape. Therefore without manually undertaking the exercise, it is impossible to compare the (true) attrition figure for rape with other crimes. A conviction rate is the amount of convictions following a trial, and is calculated for all reportable crimes.

Why is this important? Because the rhetoric of rape, which largely propounds myths, puts survivors off reporting the crimes committed against them, making them perceive that the system designed to assist them is actually wholly against them.

A survey of its users as part of its “We Believe You” rape awareness campaign. 68% of respondents said low conviction rates would make them hesitate to report a rape due to low conviction rates – clearly they had heard the 6% figure too.

It isn't just conviction and attrition rates that are an issue and which impact on rape reporting. The whole discourse about rape is mired in myths and half-truths, which leads survivors to believe the system is against them and that they are unlikely to be believed.

In respect of the sentence the court of appeal moved quickly, and victim had her sentence reduced to a community sentence after she had served three weeks in prison. The director of public prosecutions, made it clear he was appalled victim had been prosecuted, and swiftly changed the guidance so that in future prosecutions can only be brought in such cases with his permission.

Sadly, the way victim's case was commonly reported last week can only be described in some instances as hysterical. There were the expected headlines of "rape victim sent to prison for withdrawing allegation" with little explanation that such a thing is highly unlikely to happen again, owing to the change in guidance, and that the court of appeal had very quickly ordered victim's release.

To make it clear that we were unlikely to see this situation repeated because of the change in guidelines, in order to ensure survivors would not fear that what happened to “that victim” would happen to them. Sadly, she responded that I was "optimistic" and that the police would simply use the charge of wasting police time in order to get around the guidelines, and that the Prosecution Service would not change the guidelines for that offence to match the change made to perverting the course of justice. As the law stands, the guidelines on wasting police time are the same as perverting the course of justice.

What I would like to see is openness about rape. The myths, the half-truths, and the nowhere near the truths do not help survivors come forward, never mind helping them come forward with any confidence. I would like to see the full picture being presented. I accept there is still huge scope for improvement in the criminal justice system in the way victims are treated. But change has happened, and will continue to happen, and we need to get that message out there, too.

~~~ Victim ~~~

“She asked for it.
It's all about money.
They have made it a business.
It is consensual most of the time.”

How long will it take for the society to grow up and behave like sane and sensible? How long will woman be sacrificed just in the name of dowry, tortured mentally, emotionally and physically? RAPE….does the word just flashes on your mind when a girl is pulled in the car by a bunch of drunk boys belonging to some ministers or as we can say “socially repute, respectable and honorable” people. C’mon people WAKE UP…..

Have you not heard of gang rape of a woman by her own in laws? Sometimes coz she is unable to fulfill the greed of in-laws, sometimes coz she could not bear a boy child and sometimes just coz her outlook towards life didn’t match that of her in- laws. Have you not heard of female infanticide? And if a wife is pregnant she is taken to doctor not to see how healthily the baby is growing but to determine the sex of the child. If the unborn is a male, he is allowed to live through the trimesters…..but if it’s a girl, she is forcibly aborted…don’t you think this is a deformed kind of RAPE itself….mentally and emotionally shattered woman? And how about female infanticide practiced in most of the parts of India even today by dropping the newborn female child in an urn of milk? And how about child abuse, girl child being physically molested and raped repeatedly by her known relatives and to the horror by her male siblings and father? My rage questions me, which century are these people living in….its 21st century for God sakes…..Do they still think of women to be ”Sex machines” or “slaves”?

And what about Indian Government, most states being ruled by women? Isn’t their duty to make some amendment to change the whole scenario, to bring up the dignity of women? What happened to worship of mother goddess? How many more zillions of sacrifices will it take to resurrect the long lost pride, dignity and self-esteem of women?

Here we see the image of a woman's legs sprawled on what appears to be a bathroom floor. Her underwear is pulled down to her ankles. The ad reads, "Date Rape: She didn't want to, but she couldn't say no." A similar companion ad seems to imply that friends who were a part of heavy drinking are also to blame.

"Sexual Assault," the ad reads, "That's what Anne's attorney will call it a month from now. She said no, but he kept going. And now, your friend is on his bathroom floor, bruised and victimized. See how you could have prevented this."

It just makes me go bonkers about this episode. This is more a culture thing in India. I have spoken to many people and I have found that even women hold this view that only loose women get raped and they are responsible to bring it upon them. These cops are just the reflection of our society as a whole. A woman, once raped is “ostracized “by her family, she loses her job, she is humiliated everywhere. There are even saying that a woman once raped, actually starts loving being raped. So let us try to change our mindset about this issue and for that matter many other issues, like what a woman should wear, whether she should drink and smoke in public, or whether to get to live a life of dignity and chose to live with a person she wills to….etc.

Coutesy : In and around Delhi, cops blame rapes on women: Tehelka investigation with NDTV (www.ndtv.com)

~~~ Perspective ~~~

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman watched her neighbor hanging wash outside.

“That laundry is not very clean”, she said. “She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps, she needs better laundry soup.”
Her husband looked on but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband “Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this.”
The husband said, “I got up early in this morning and cleaned our windows.”
And so it is with life. What we see when watching others may depend on the purity window (eye) through which we look.

As Mark Twain said, “You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus.” Often, if we take the time to be introspective, we will see that our perspective is colored by the experiences of our life which we project onto others and the world.