The Myth of False Rape Accusations

Disclaimer: I use the pronoun she to describe the victim since many of the media stories about college campus rape are a male perpetrator and a female victim. This is not to discredit or overlook the rape and abuse of male victims. Where I use the pronoun she can easily be replaced with he and the facts of why we don't believe the victim would be the same. 

In the previous blog post I wrote about societies failure to admit to rape, calling rape accusations - false, and preferring to blame it all on alcohol use or on the victims behaviors and not the rapists actions. In this blog I would like to highlight some points about how the media and the court system builds their case that a rape accusation is false. Thereby, allowing the rapist to carry on without taking full responsibility for his actions. Statistics show that out of 1000 perpetrators, only 6 are convicted of rape and go to jail.   

1. The most popular reason is blaming the victim. She was asking for it, she was dressed slutty, she was into it (what does that even mean?) she was so drunk she can't remember that she said yes.
2. The victims memory is vague. "If she can't remember what happened, then how can we know she didn't say yes?" There are countless of research studies explaining how memories are altered in the event of a trauma. In order to protect our psychological wellbeing our brain will suppress the details of the traumatic event, known as dissociative amnesia. This memory loss can be short term, with the memory and details of the event surfacing shortly, or long term, where the memory and details never surface or the memories return many years later.  
3. Friends, family, colleagues, classmates of the rapist claim "he's such a nice guy, he would never do this?" As Laci Green expresses in her YouTube video "rapists aren't creepy men hiding in the shadows, they are normal guys ..." 
4. The victim convinces herself it didn't happen and retracts her statement, or comes forward months later. To admit that someone violated your most intimate space is too painful. Some victims attempt to suppress all memories of the event and they convince themselves that nothing ever happened. But sometimes, the pain keeps resurfacing and the with the help of friends, family, or a therapist they choose to come forward about the rape. Coming forward weeks or months later is used against the victim. Additionally, When a victim recognizes that she is going to have to replay and repeat over and over what happened to her in a public realm, she shuts down, and retracts her statement. She's been violated once, she cannot be violated again. 

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Sara Schapiro-Halberstam, MHC-LP, CASAC is a psychotherapist in New York City where she practices individual therapy, couples counseling, and sex counseling. You can contact Sara at sara@mwr.nyc and read more blog posts at www.mwr.nyc
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