Not for the first time we find ourselves diving into the world of David Thiessen and his viewpoints, this time on the recent release of Bill Cosby from prison.
For those who are unaware, back in 2018 Cosby was convicted and jailed for aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand. He has been the subject of numerous civil lawsuits, as all but Constand’s case fell outside the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution. A few weeks ago he was released from prison on the grounds that his conviction violated his Constitutional rights.
This caused an uproar, given that at least 60 women accused Cosby of drugging and raping them over a span of many years, from 1965 onwards. The key issue would be around the evidence, which appears to be somewhat hard to pin down, but that aside, there are a few ideas David explores that are worth some comments…
Through the efforts of Project Innocence and similar Christian organizations, many women cry rape when none took place. Men are and were imprisoned for a crime they did not commit based solely on a woman’s word.
Getting them out of prison is justice and these women with their false accusations make it very hard for real rape victims to be heard. Then people will point to the earlier fact that there were 60 women making their accusations.
The sheer number of women saying the same thing must make their testimony and accusations true. Not so, as we again point to Jesus’ trial. The sheer number accusing Jesus of a crime did not make him guilty or a sinner.
This notion that ‘many’ women say they’ve been raped when they haven’t is a bogus one. Men are rarely, if ever imprisoned based on one woman’s word (if that were the case, Donald Trump would have been imprisoned a long time ago, and yet he became President of the United States).
In England and Wales, it is believed approximately 3-4% of all rape accusations are false. The flipside is that 96-97% of rape claims are genuine. Studies in the US don’t support the idea that lots of men go to prison on the back of false allegations. Some do, but hardly ‘many’.
And yes, false accusations of any crime, put forward with a malicious intent, is wrong, and there should be consequences for making false allegations – but all too often, the overriding narrative is that women are not believed, coerced/threatened into silence, or rape cases are not investigated to any meaningful degree. Many cases that are investigated in the UK don’t result in a conviction. In the US it is believed the vast majority of rapes are not even reported to the police, for the reasons mentioned earlier.
This idea there is balance between false accusations and the many cases that go unreported is false. The theory that there is equivalence between men jailed over misleading allegations and women receiving justice against their attackers is completely incorrect.
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“This notion that ‘many’ women say they’ve been raped when they haven’t is a bogus one”
You obviously do not read the news nor know about the different organizations that are getting men out of prison after being falsely accused.
You obviously didn’t read any of the links I provided that show your position to be wrong.
You obviously like spinning the topic to fit a narrative you want to talk about. Your post avoids the heart of the matter and just tries to find ways to disagree with my content.
So much irony, as always.
” but all too often, the overriding narrative is that women are not believed”
They are not believed because #1 they do not have any evidence; #2 women lie; #3 they wait for years before making an accusation
It is not because they are women, it is because they do not follow the rules.
No, women are not believed because a woman’s voice is not considered to be as important as a man’s. Yes, women lie, but so do men. Men bully women into silence too.
Again, as I pointed out in my article, women are not believed because of all the ones who make false claims. Also, they are not believed by the way they treat men.
Women aren’t believed because it’s convenient. Because a woman’s word matters less than a man’s, even today. Your narrative is that women lie. You’re spinning that repeatedly. Do you believe all women lie about rape? Half? A third? As established elsewhere in this thread, at most 12 percent of accusations could be false, and the percentage could be even lower, yet your article presents the idea that it’s widespread and that women are untrustworthy.
I looked at your link and here is what you left out of your quote:
#1. There’s no way to know the true figure, and it depends which types of case you include in your definition. Evidence from England and Wales suggests
#2. And I think also that
#3. “I think that although
Don’t forget that the word many apply to the numerals above 3-4
#4. Research by the Ministry of Justice in 2012 estimated that around 12% of reported rape cases in England and Wales may be based on a false allegation if you take a broad definition that might cover these kinds of cases.
That is still many
If the percentage goes up to 12 percent there’s still 88 percent that are genuine, and yet so few actually end up with a conviction.
Maybe so but that does not make the rules null and void. I was talking about the rules to find justice not how many convictions there are.
Leave it to you to avoid the issues mentioned
Trust you to be disingenuous David. I am replying to the arguments you make, nothing more. You’re arguing that women lie and trying to create an equivalence between false accusations ruining a man’s life and actual rape cases – but there is no equivalence. At *most*, 12 percent of accusations of rape might be false. Yet there are far more cases that go unreported, out of fear of not being believed or out of intimidation. Where’s the justice there David?
I can always count on you to take the wrong opposite side of any point or topic I write
I can count on you to be increasingly vague.