Antidote NZ

Making 0 accusations, lying and exaggerating are legal.If the penalty for rape is 10yrs, then the penalty for 0ly accusing someone of rape should be 10yrs.They are trying to destroy someones life so destroy theirs.Then I would believe a lot more accusers.

My wife ran off with someone from her work. When news of our marriage break up got around friends and family, to save face she said I raped and beat her and mentally abused her.I ended up having to leave the city I grew up in and start a new life elsewhere. I also lost most of our shared friends who immediately believed her tears and stories and didnt even bother to ask me about it at all. I just got cut off. When I confronted her about it she kept saying she didnt know why people were saying that. Her brother showed up at my house and threatened me over it. My family also found out about it too.Thankfully Ive been able to build a great life in my new city, and funnily enough karma has had its way with her situation in life.

No one can know the numbers of 0 sexual accusations, but they are much more common than usually assumed - and more than this writer suggests. Heres a parallel. Years ago police and most of the general public said rape was very uncommon. Why did they say that? Because few men were ever prosecuted for rape, and people judged the frequency from the number of convictions. That is exactly what happens now with 0 sexual allegations. The liars are almost never prosecuted, and conviction numbers are therefore low. In 2013 I was accused of historical rape by a woman I had never met - though she is the daughter of a friend. My lawyer told me not to be confident of an acquittal, because these days you are, in effect, assumed to be guilty unless you can prove otherwise, which is difficult when the alleged event occurred decades ago. I was lucky because my accuser was such a terrible liar that even the police finally saw through her. I was facing jail, financial ruin and a destroyed reputation. The consequences for my accuser were...precisely zero. The system is an outrage, and something just has to change.

A relation of mine was dragged through 18 months of pure hell because the police, and the crown chose to just believe all women. The accusing girl did all the work required for the police and crown to see that the whole case was a farce. But the police and crown were just too dead set on believing that they just ignored the facts (from the very first recorded interview) that the initial complainant described the accused in her forgotten but now recovered memory as being a 6 Ft, dark skinned Polynesian man Tongan I think. Trouble is that the relation of mine she named was white and short. As in completely British European in ancestry ... But, that didnt matter. Because she used his name and believe all women. So it wasnt until 18 months later, a reputation and $100,000 down that the judge finally dismissed the case when the alleged victim officially repeated her grossly inaccurate description of my relation for yet a third time that the judge threw the case out. This is what happens when people, police, lawyers or otherwise, just believe without engaging their brains. People are declared guilty and punished merely by accusation.

#MeToo is nothing but a glorified vigilante movement and are regressing justice back 200 years.If Lena Dunham is the level of debate we are doomed to mob justice by mediocrity.

Would that be the same Lena Dunham who said women dont lie about rape, until it was one of her male mates who was accused of it?

Its even worse when the female 0ly accuses the ex of sexually abusing the children. How do you defend yourself?Mud sticks even if there is no truth in the allegation.Nasty vindictive females.

What makes my blood boil is that anyone who makes a 0 accusation about something so vile, makes a mockery of real sexual asssult/rape victims and it makes it that much harder for them to be taken seriously. I believe anyone proven to have lied about such a thing needs to do the same jail time the accused would have to have done, had they been found guilty. I wont hold my breath on that though.

Agreed - innocent until proven guilty, and no publicity until the case is proven. If there are problems with how police treat rape complaints, fix them. The media have a responsibility here to not throw mud.

Good god! What a sick thing to do, sorry to hear your ex did that to you. I sincerely hope the people who automatically believed her have now apologised for doubting you.

Thesedays there is also the danger of what third parties might say. For example, if a boss has a consensual sexual relationship with a subordinate, you still may get someone making a formal complaint about it being inappropriate. Same with any innocuous comment, joke or touch. Nowadays its fashionable to get offended on behalf of other people; even when the victim isnt offended.

At what point did we stop asking for evidence and start believing anyone who makes an allegation?Probably about the time the me too movement came to prominence and insisted that woman must be believed no matter what the evidence or lack there of. After all, if three woman have made the same allegations, then it must be 1 right?

Thank you for this article/opinion piece.I havent read any comments relating to boys/men who are raped/sexually assaulted by men and women. Cultural norms mean these crimes are rarely reported, never mind followed up on by police, taken to court and result in convictions. Why do so many people believe an unfounded accusation? Its because humans are lazy thinkers; psychologists use the term, cognitive misers. It explains why we use schemas and heuristics and emotional thinking rather than careful reasoning, which takes more time and energy. Its the reason why we make snap judgements, pre-judge situations and it may even have an evolutionary basis. Lets not forget the role of gullibility (sometimes called stupidity). Why are educated people so ready to believe a claim that has no evidence? I dont just mean 0 accusations of sexual assault, I also mean reports that measles vaccinations cause autism, that Mozart music will make a child smarter, that eating carrots will help you see in the dark, and that homeopathic remedies are efficacious (I broke my leg recently, smeared Manuka honey on it and guess what? The fracture repaired. Even more amazing was that the honey was on the outside of the plaster cast.)Seriously though, the media must take some responsibility. Reporting incidents without supporting evidence is not journalism; it is gossip, for example, the recent case of the deceased Bay of Plenty man whose wife accused him of sex with children was readily reported despite there being no evidence to support the accusations. The accuser ought to have been punished for such a despicable act, and various media that reported it should have been reprimanded by the Broadcasting Complaints Authority.

The thing is - well believe survivors, theres never been a problem with that. The problem is ascertaining that they actually are survivors.

Good article and well written.The current climate of gender relations is at an all time low. I know several men who no longer associate with female co workers outside of business hours (we used to routinely drink at the bars on a Friday night) due to the potential danger that might be caused by a vindictive or drunk female colleague. Furthermore a Manager in my office recently declined a new employee to join his team as he didnt want to manage any female workers for the time being, especially as the team makes a lot of jokes.There is real underlying fear of 0 accusations and men of status are already subtly responding to stamp out any possibility of being victims of a 0 allegation.

the reason nike is concerned is NOT because they think it might be 1, but because they KNOW how social media and the news media in general work. They realise that people dont need evidence or proof any more.. they actively WANT to believe the worst of what they read, they want agenda politics to be 1, to reinforce their beliefs of the evils of men, the evils of race, the evils of wealth... the accusation is already enough, no one cares about the validity any more... it almost seems irrelevant in these cases nowadays..

The penalty for rape in its most vile form is 3yrs with good behaviour. The penalty for a 0 accusation is discharge without conviction and name suppression (even tho those they accused have been shamed publicly)Our justice system is broken. Fundamentally broken.

On a similar case, we had a male school teacher in the early 1990s who was 0ly accused of sexually assaulting a young boy, he was cast aside like a demon before any investigation began, however, the boy had admitted making it up as he was upset about a recent family death and felt like he wasnt getting attention at home. The male teacher attempted to return to work but the gossip and untruthful rumors had destroyed his career, his place in the community and felt he had already been punished for a crime he had not committed so ended up sadly resigning indefinitely.

Just to spell something out (having read some of the comments below), the 2-10% stat refers to rape allegations that are PROVEN to be 0. It does NOT mean that the other 90-98% are 1. Most are unproven either way. If I am 0ly accused of rape, but I can prove that I was overseas at the time. That would be included in the 2-10%If I am 0ly accused of rape; and there is no evidence or witnesses; then this is NOT included in the 2-10% because whilst I cannot be proven guilty, I cannot prove my innocence either

OK Geordie, would you send someone to the gallows and have them hanged on a gut feeling. Most would say no, which is why we have a justice system to hopefully weigh up the facts and deliver a verdict. Rather than social media condemning them on hearsay or political leaning.