I don’t doubt that some people make false accusations that they were raped as children or that some children are persuaded by vindictive adults to make such complaints.

False accusations are made with regard to a whole range of crimes and offences, up to and including murder. What I do doubt is that the numbers making false accusations of child rape to the police are as high as the scaremongers would have us believe. I would go further and say that any woman who makes such an untrue allegation as a bargaining chip in a divorce case is in for a world of pain. From henceforth, she and her offspring will have come to the attention of the social services and once that happens, she will never be in the driving seat again as regards her little brood. In my experience, these tactics have a way of badly backfiring on all concerned. And I stick by my original assertion: the fact that we all know someone who has lied about something very, very serious, whatever it is, does not mean that “everyone is doing it” or likely to do it. That is paranoid thinking and feeds into an endless loop which can only benefit the lawyers and the child rapists: the former because they can sue on behalf of fake victims and also defend the real rapists on the grounds that ” we all know he didn’t get on with his wife: she’s behind all this.” It ‘s a great life, being a lawyer. If you can hold two mutually contradictory ideas in your head at one time, then you’re set for a glittering career.

RE: judge’s casual attitude to child rape – this didn’t come from their deep knowledge of human nature and objective research into the matter. They really did take a casual attitude to it. And children’s reluctance to report being raped by family members wasn’t due to fear that they would be stigmatised within the wider community. It was plain, old terror and what we would now call psychological adjustment to their reality. As for when the children who were raped became adults, they rarely chose to mount a case against their father/uncle/grandfather/step-father-rapist because their main objective was to get the hell out and away: not to come back and rake it all up again. The notion of “stigma” is a real red herring here. Loss of reputation as chaste vessels or the blot on the family escutcheon was the least of their worries.

I stand by my view that we the public are now so utterly bewildered by all the conflicting tales we are told about child rapists by media, police, professionals etc that we have lost sight of the fact that it happens, it happens more often than some of us believe and less often than others believe, and if we have so thoroughly effed up our handling of the crime that we are in danger of not seeing the wood for the trees.

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Eyes Wide Shut,

Re: “I don’t doubt that some people make false accusations that they were raped as children or that some children are persuaded by vindictive adults to make such complaints”

I actually know a girl (who was under 12 years old at the time) that made a false accusation of rape off her own back and the reason doesn’t appear to have been ‘spite’ or ‘malice’ at all in this case, it seems the most likely motivation was her wanting attention and she was inspired by the sort of talk and conversations she heard around her. So I don’t doubt that some people make false accusations (children and adults, but mostly adults by far) and i’m not scaremongering – just talking from my own observations. Yes i’m aware of people who have been genuinely abused too, and I don’t call them liars, but i’m not going to pretend liars like this don’t exist because I know for a fact that they do.

Re: “And I stick by my original assertion: the fact that we all know someone who has lied about something very, very serious, whatever it is, does not mean that “everyone is doing it” or likely to do it”

Well, as i’ve already said, I actually know several people who have lied about this sort of thing – not just one person.

Re: “That is paranoid thinking and feeds into an endless loop which can only benefit the lawyers and the child rapists: the former because they can sue on behalf of fake victims and also defend the real rapists on the grounds that ” we all know he didn’t get on with his wife: she’s behind all this.” It ‘s a great life, being a lawyer. If you can hold two mutually contradictory ideas in your head at one time, then you’re set for a glittering career”

Tell that to the people who do lie about this sort thing then, their the ones giving defence lawyers and genuine rapists/child molesters that sort of amunition by setting precedents. I know of a small number of people who were genuinely sexually abused as children, i’m not lumping them in with people who make things like that up to try and get their own way or for attention. Their two completely different sets of individuals.

Re: “And children’s reluctance to report being raped by family members wasn’t due to fear that they would be stigmatised within the wider community. It was plain, old terror and what we would now call psychological adjustment to their reality”

Yes if someone is very young and is being abused, especially by their parents, a lot of them wouldn’t say anything for fear of what that parent/abuser would do to them as they probably wouldn’t know at a young age that that parent/abuser is actually in the wrong (especially if it is a parent they live with as they are usually in control of nearly every aspect of the child’s life) and if they told somebody (out with the abusers circle of friends or family – who may choose not to believe it) that it would probably be stopped (them taken away, the abuser punished etc). When I was referring to fear of becoming a ‘social pariah’ I was talking about older children, teenagers, young adults (and some older adults) etc because for some, other people thinking your family is ‘weird’ or your ‘weird’ often *is* a big issue – it probably depends on the individual or how serious the abuse is/was, up bringing, self esteem, how they’ve been treated in life etc – but I wouldn’t say fear of stigma was a ‘red herring’ – it probably isn’t an issue these days because, yes, these days practically *everyone* gets bombarded with the notion on a regular basis in the media, books, magazines, films. I’m not not paranoid, and i’m not ‘scaremongering’, i’m just telling how I actually see it….

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IlovetheBBC,

Re: “I’ve had the sobering experience recently of quizzing my teenager about a teacher at her school in front of the court for voyeurism. Given lurid headlines, I feared the worst.
I was calmly told that all the kids at the school know it is nothing to do with them, but a charge following an acrimonious divorce with his wife ‘being a dick about something they were both into’. Daughter and friends opined what a shame it all is because he was one of the best teachers at the school but that he will never be allowed to teach again.
Teenagers are not as daft as we sometimes think”

I actually don’t think teenagers are daft at all until their brains get poisoned by society and the over whelming about of bs they (and we) are forced to listen to day in, day out, usually by people that don’t particularly give a shit about them (or us) anyway….

But honestly even if I absolutely hated my ex is there any need to go as far as to commit perjury and try and get him jailed for imaginary crimes, put on the sex offenders register, unable to get a proper job again – that’s just plain vicious and vindictive. Though I do know a lot of women who do make up stories of abuse to try and get their own way after a break up or over a custody battle – a few have gone as far a court recently, but most haven’t, and some haven’t even gone to the police – it’s just an attempt to poisen other people’s opinion against their ex partner to try and cover up, or falsely account for their own failings. It’s not just women that try pulling these stunts or dirty tricks, but it is usually women that find themselves in the position where they are able to do it with any sort of success….

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