Kristen Houser provided a lot of useful information at the Rape Crisis Training. I think that this is a serious issue that some have to face every day. Especially here at Penn State, we get emails and text messages about forcible sex offenses all the time. Those emails and text could be something that you ignore because we get them often, or they could be something that we take notice of and realize that this is a humongous problem here.
Two things stood out to me. One is the issue of disclosing names, which is a topic that we have expanded on in class multiple times and I find the arguments for both sides valid. The other is how we talk about the accuser which is a topic that we should take seriously.
I was reading an article on the New York times entitled “ The Nation; Should the Media Name the Accuser When the Crime Being Charged is Rape?”. I agreed with many of the issues that was stated in the article. One passage read, “By withholding the names of the plaintiffs, even as they routinely reveal the names of the alleged assailants, news organizations have chosen to override two principles they apply almost universally in the rest of their coverage.”
It went on to say that the first principle that is ignored is fairness. Although I have sympathy for the victims of these terrible crimes I cannot ignore the number of times nationwide and even on this campus false accusations have been put out into the media. Leaving the accuser with no harm to his or her name but with the accused name blemished or even tarnished maybe forever.
The second principle was the obligation of the media to publish truthful and relevant information. I am a believer that the names of the accused and accuser should be released, but only after the case has been solved. I think the media puts out all the accusations that they hear without solid information to back it up. Again, leaving the accuser in the dark, but with the accused name out to be thrown around.
A recent case that I can think of is with the current quarterback at Florida State Deondre Francois. The police got a call from Francois and he said that a woman was in his apartment throwing things around and being disturbing. The police came and got both sides of the story, the woman said that Francois put his hands on her, and Deondre said other words. Immediately the story came out saying that Francois was involved in a domestic dispute, with no solid information to back up the accusation. And as in most cases the accused name was all out while the accuser’s was in the dark. The case ended up being completely bogus. The woman ripped her own shirt and was quoted saying that she, “Just wanted the police to scare him”. This is why I believe names should not be released until the case is solved.
With all that being said, I still believe that the way we talk about the accuser should change. They should not have to be fearful to come forward about being harmed, and think that people will think they are lying. This causes stress for them and sadly some just never come forward with their story. The story that the Huffington Post had about Rachael Denhollander who was the first to go public about the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University team doctor Larry Nassar was a very informative on this issue.
Rachael talks about when she came out many called her a liar. She was shamed by some of her so called friends, and they were also shamed at their own church. The said thing is that she was really all alone at the time that she came about because there were few that believed her. Thankfully other women came forward also and the truth came out. I applaud her for the courage that it took to come forward in the day and age we live in where victims are looked down upon and are accused of being liars. We need to make a better climate for victims of rape of domestic abuse so that they are not scared to come forward and can have the courage to talk about it.
I learned about the reasons that the accuser’s name should be protected in the speech and I completely understand the points made. But, I think that the issue is that there names would be released and still have the whole investigation to go through. If names are not released until the end I think that helps with the issue.
I also learned about how the victims are villainized when they come out with their accusation. I find this disturbing to say the least. I believe this issue should continue to be talked about so that we can create a better climate so that the victims of these cases will feel more comfortable coming forward.
Sources:
Vagianos, Alanna(2018, Janurary 24). She Was The First Woman To Go Public About Nassar. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rachael-denhollander-nassar-impact-statement_us_5a690ef6e4b0e563007627aa
Cohen, Roger (1991). The Nation; Should the Media Name the Accuser When the Crime Being Charged Is Rape? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/21/weekinreview/nation-should-media-name-accuser-when-crime-being-charged-rape.html