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Manchester Police admit they don’t prosecute women who make false rape allegations

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Detectives at Greater Manchester Police (GMP) will publicly admit that the force takes a soft approach on women who make false allegation of rape against men, on a BBC documentary to be broadcast this evening, says a report in The Guardian.

According to Detective Superintendant Jon Chadwick, who has been running GMP’s serious sexual offences unit (SSOU) since it opened in 2012, dozens of reports received by GMP turn out to be fabricated, but unlike other forces it has never prosecuted a woman for making a false allegation of rape.

GMP dealt with 1,802 rape cases in the past year and estimates that less than 3% (<54) were thought to be fabricated.

According to DCI Colin Larkin, a new “victim-focussed” approach taken by the SSOU can be “massively frustrating” when officers know that the person making the allegation is lying.

Larkin told the BBC: “We do get people making up allegations because they want to get their own back, for whatever reason. If A and B are courting and A has an affair with C, sometimes B will say that A has raped her … It’s not massively common but it isn’t uncommon either.”

Reported rapes on the rise 

The upside of the “victim-focussed” approach is that GMP has seen a significant increase in the numbers of genuine victims who feel able to come forward. GMP recorded 737 rapes in 2011-2012, a figure that has more than doubled to 1,649 in just three years, with 40% of those reports being “historic”, meaning the alleged incident happened more than a year ago.

It isn’t just female victims who are more likely to come forward either. The number of men reporting rape more than doubled in the past 12 months, from 35 incidents to 84 incidents between April 2014 and April 2015. GMP suspect that a large number of crimes against men go unreported and are working with local charity, Survivors Manchester, to help more male victims to break the silence.

But while a victim-focussed approach which recognises that men and boys are victims of rape too is laudable, taking a soft approach on women who make false allegations of rape sends a very strong message that the law takes a softer line on female perpetrators and a harder line on male victims.

GMP admits that it is actively prosecuting a higher proportion of men accused of rape than other forces in the UK, while at the same time taking a softer approach to women who make false allegations. According to The Guardian, GMP has handed out “the odd fixed-penalty fine for wasting police time” and Chadwick’s view is that it is better not to prosecute because  “those making false reports have some sort of vulnerability”.

A crime against men and boys 

But making a false allegation is not just a crime against the police, it is also a crime against men and boys who are uniquely vulnerable to the impact of false allegations, which in extreme cases can lead to suicide and murder.

False allegations are a uniquely gendered crime with 92% of perpetrators in the UK being female and 98% of victims being male, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

While conflicting statistics on the scale of the problem are hotly contested on the battleground of gender politics, we should be in no doubt that false allegations happen and are overwhelmingly directed at men by women.

Estimates of the proportion of allegations of rape that are false range from 0.6%, a statistic favoured by some feminists keen to downplay the problem, to the much higher 50% figure favoured by some anti-feminists keen to grab hold of any statistic that puts women in the worst possible light.

More moderate observers agree that a figure of around 10% could be feasible. These include Fogg (2%-10%); Full Fact(8%-11%) and Hawkes (8% to 12%).

GMP deserves credit, but taking a proactive approach to helping more women and men who have been raped to get justice—but this shouldn’t come at the expense of men who have been wrongly accused of rape by women.

How about being tough on rape and tough of false allegations of rape?

—Picture Credit: Stock Monkeys

Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

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‘Yes means yes’ doesn’t mean men accused of rape are now guilty until proven innocent

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If the headlines were to be believed, the sudden announcement last week of new “yes means yes” guidelines in rape prosecutions, reversed the presumption of innocence before guilt in rape trials and with it one of the corner stones of British criminal justice. But that is not actually what the guidelines say, writes Ally Fogg  in an exclusive analysis of the new rules for insideMAN.

This week Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions, announced that a new toolkit of rape investigation procedures is to be sent to police officers. The reaction from men around my digital neighbourhood on social media, comment threads and forums was pretty fierce – abusively angry at worst and concerned or worried at best.

The negative reactions were understandable, given the headlines. They were also misplaced. The proposals announced are I believe modest and necessary, they are also genuinely helpful not only to women and  girls, but to men and boys.

What the new guidelines say

First, the facts. Despite what you might have (reasonably) taken from some of the headlines, it is not true that those accused of rape must now produce proof that they had consent in order to defend themselves. Read through to the actual words of the DPP and what she said was:

“We want police and prosecutors to make sure they ask in every case where consent is the issue – how did the suspect know the complainant was saying yes and doing so freely and knowingly?”

If there is a scandal here, it is not that police investigators will be expected to ask such questions from now on – the scandal is that they might ever not have asked such a question in the past.

Similarly, it is not true that every drunken hookup will from now on involve a male rapist and a female victim. Again, in Saunders’ words: “it is a crime for a rapist to target someone who is no longer capable of consenting to sex though drink.”

Most importantly of all, it is most definitely not the case that the burden of proof in rape cases has now been reversed, that an accused man is now legally guilty until proven innocent. The guidance under discussion could not be more clear:

“In investigating the suspect, it must be established what steps, if any, the suspect took to obtain the complainant’s consent and the prosecution must prove that the suspect did not have a reasonable belief that the complainant was consenting.”

In other words the law is exactly as it stands. In order to obtain a conviction, the prosecution must prove that the suspect did not have a reasonable belief that the complainant was consenting. How could the prosecution prove such a case? That will continue to be very difficult.

Not changing the law, but clarifying it

Many or most cases will continue to pivot on a case of he said/ she said, and someone will still need to be found guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. The truly guilty will continue to lie through their teeth, the brave victim will continue to be put through an ordeal, as will the accused innocent. Police will still have to consider the possibility that an allegation is mistaken, misguided or malicious, and as ever, some will be so. Not much has changed.

The new guidelines do not change to law, but they do clarify it, to everyone’s benefit. I hold it as an article of faith that most men are not rapists and do not want to be rapists. The law says that there is only one way to be sure you are not a rapist and that is to make absolutely sure you have your partner’s consent to penetrative sex. The question that the police are now being told to put to rape suspects is no more or less than the question every one of us should ask ourselves at any time sexual consent is in doubt. If I  cannot answer that question there and then, forget the police, I might be about to rape someone, and that is a far, far more important consideration.

A significant milestone for sexual consent

So the new guidelines will probably have a material influence on a tiny handful of the tens of thousands of rape reports filed each year, if that.  Nonetheless they mark a significant milestone in how British society considers sexual consent. In the jargon, it has pushed us closer to a definition of consent which stands at yes means yes, rather than no means no.

One of the less-observed elements to a yes-means-yes model, is how valuable it could be for male victims of sexual violence. One of the myths of male-on-male rape is that it is primarily committed by gay men against straight men. In truth the male victims of rape are  disproportionately gay or bisexual, and often their attackers identify as straight.  One feature that emerges commonly from case studies is victims saying “he told me I must want it because I’m gay.”

Underpinning that (homophobic) prejudice is a related myth, that men are – if you’ll pardon the expression – up for it at any time. Recent years have seen a slight but growing recognition of the extent and harmful consequences of the sexual abuse of underage boys by women and even sexual assaults upon adult men – an issue which leapt into mainstream debate with the recent case involving actor Shia Laboeuf. It seems likely that many of the women committing such serious assaults do not think of themselves as sexual abusers or even rapists. They have been raised with the belief that men are insatiable animals who will never say no to anyone, allied to the pernicious though pervasive lie that an erection equals consent.

The right thing to do.

it might well be the case that male victims are far from the thoughts of Alison Saunders or most campaigners for affirmative consent. As so often in these respects, male victims tend to he thrown in as an afterthought, if at all. However the laws and the policies are gender neutral, and if there is a problem with the authorities disregarding male victims, that is not helped by the rest of us doing the same. .

Will a more affirmative model of sexual consent prevent the rape at abuse of men and boys, of women and girls? Not alone, not overnight, no it won’t. However some small but profound shifts in our sexual mores, our expectations, our habits, our rituals could perhaps make a significant difference in the long term.

Even if that is ambitious, as the father of two boys I am happy to help teach them how sexual consent should be both offered and understood, explaining you should never do anything intimate with anyone unless you are absolutely sure it is what you both want. I will tell them that, not because it is what the law demands, but because it is the right thing to do.

Photo: StockMonkeys.com

Ally Fogg is one of the UK’s leading media commentators on men’s issues. You can follow his writing on gender at freethought blogs and find him writing in various publications especially The Guardian. He’s also a regular tweeter@AllyFogg

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It’s thanks to women and girls I’m able to help male rape survivors

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Duncan Craig is CEO of Survivors Manchester, explains how he has been helping pushing the needs of male victims of rape and sexual abuse up the political agenda.

—This is article #84 in our series of #100Voices4Men and boys 

In late 2013, The Ministry of Justice announced a £4 million Rape Support fund that enabled voluntary sector organisations to apply for a share of the fund to support the delivery of their services.

Great news!

Well yes, absolutely if you run an organisation supporting women and girls but not so great if you’re organisation only supports boys and men.

You see, the £4million Rape Support fund excluded organisations only supporting boys and men from applying. Not only did this prevent organisations such as Survivors Manchester, Mankind and Survivors UK from accessing much needed funds to continue to run our services, but it sent a clear message out to the public at large… “if you’re a male rape victim, we don’t recognise you”.

As the CEO of an organisation that supports male survivors of sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitation, it was a message that was far too seriously wrong to go unchallenged. And so began our lobbying campaign. We took to social media; wrote letters to MPs, colleagues, and organisations in the field of sexual violation asking for support; and challenged the Ministry of Justice’s decision.

Seriously, what about the men and boys…..?

But in undertaking this lobbying campaign, I began to wonder… “why do I still have to make these stances? when will the discussion not have to end in ‘oh and boys and men too’”

Whilst all the lobbying activity, discussions and meetings resulted in fantastic win – a £1.3million ‘Male Rape Support fund’ that would be spread over two financial years; I soon realised that the real challenge is not about fighting for a small pot of money, but how to move the discussion on to a point where we can talk about victims of sexual violence without alienating anyone, male or female.

In looking at how to make the challenge to the Ministry of Justice, I turned to the Rape Crisis England and Wales website and began looking at what they had done over the 41 years they have been around.

How to make change happen

They have campaigned tirelessly to end the sexual violence committed against women and girls and helped thousands of service users to get the help they deserve. I’m so grateful to them for what they have done; for the sheer effort and determination they have made to ensure that the needs of women, who have experienced the abhorrent acts of violation that occur in sexual abuse and rape, are not ignored. I am grateful to them for continuing to keep the issue of sexual violation on the agenda and for always responding to the injustices in this arena.

However, I’m most grateful for showing me how to apply pressure in the right areas to make a change for those that you want to support the most – victims of sexual abuse and rape.

But don’t be confused here between specialist organisations that support a single gender or community and those that should be looking after us all and only look one way.

We don’t need to apologise for helping men and boys

Whilst Rape Crisis England and Wales focus on female victims, they acknowledge boys and men also experience rape and sexual violence and that the impacts on their lives can be similarly devastating and long-lasting, and they don’t need to apologise for their focus. Equally, organisations such as my own, Mankind or Survivors UK, shouldn’t need to apologise for focusing on boys and men.

But those charged with looking after the health, well being and safety of the general public have a duty to ensure that they don’t just look one way or the other! They have a legal and moral duty to ensure that whether a victim is male or female, boy or girl, man or woman… they should have equal access to support to help heal and recover from the trauma they experienced.

So why do we apologise? Why do those of us that provide gender specific support feel the need to apologise? and why don’t we stand together?

I think the answer is simple.

The passion and desire that we all have to help those we designed our organisations around, set against a difficult political climate and an even more difficult and tight funding environment has resulted in silo working. But the future needs to change if we are to thrive and early signs on the horizon look promising.

The newly formed male survivors’ alliance, although in its infancy, is already looking at the lessons we can learn from the women’s movement, and our early discussion with our female counterparts are exciting and give hope to a new movement, one where males and females stand proudly together with the aim of making central government and policy and decision makers listen to the voices of survivors.

So thank you to those women that paved the way. Never think that in our efforts to have the voices of male survivors heard that we are trying to silence you.

Lets stand together to ensure that all survivors get the help they deserve, regardless of gender.

—Picture credit: Sniper Girl

Duncan Craig is CEO of Survivors Manchester, you can find him on twitter @SurvivorsMcr 

You can find all of the #100Voices4Men articles that will be published in the run up to International Men’s Day 2014 by clicking on this link—#100Voices4Men—and follow the discussion on twitter by searching for #100Voices4Men.

The views expressed in these articles are not the views of insideMAN editorial team. Whether you agree with the views expressed in this article or not we invite you to take take part in this important discussion, our only request is that you express yourself in a way that ensures everyone’s voice can be heard.

You can join the #100Voices4Men discussion by commenting below; by following us on Twitter @insideMANmag and Facebook or by emailing insideMANeditor@gmail.com. 

Why do women make false rape allegations?

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There has been a spate of media reports about women who make false allegations of rape in recent months, the most recent of which involved a woman from Grimsby who forged letters from the Deputy Prime Minister to try and avoid prosecution.

False allegations are a uniquely gendered crime with 92% of perpetrators in the UK being female and 98% of victims being male, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

While conflicting statistics on the scale of the problem are hotly contested on the battleground of gender politics, we should be in no doubt that false allegations happen and are overwhelmingly directed at men by women.

Unfortunately for male victims, there are many people who struggle to believe that any women would lie about being raped. Earlier this year, one male victim of a false allegation told his local newspaper in Sussex, “my girlfriend initially believed it, she didn’t think another woman would make it up.”

The impact that a false allegation of rape can have is devastating and at times fatal. Last year a 16 year old boy from Cheshire killed himself after he was falsely accused of raping a girl by an older boy. In a separate case an 18 year old boy from Essex was beaten to death by a gang including a 21 year old woman whose younger sister falsely accused him of rape.

Opposition from the women’s movement

In some quarters of the women’s movement there is fierce opposition to the “fiction that women lie about rape” notably from the campaign group Women Against Rape who claim that prosecuting women who “cry rape” puts real victims off reporting. The group regularly calls for the money spent prosecuting women who make false allegations to be spent on prosecuting men accused of rape instead.

The official narrative on false rape allegations, from both the Government and the women’s sector, is that such cases are very rare. The evidence provided to support this claim is that there were just 35 prosecutions of false allegations of rape during a 17 month period in 2011 to 2012 compared to 5,651 prosecutions for rape. This accounts for just 0.6% of all rape and false rape prosecutions, when women’s charities estimate that the actual proportion of false allegations is five times higher at 3% (and men’s advocates claim the actual figure is higher still).

What’s missing from mainstream conversations about the significantly gendered crime of women making false allegations of rape against men, is any attempt to understand what motivates the women who make such claims. As insideMAN is committed to pioneering conversations about men’s experiences, we thought we’d try to kick start a discussion on the issue by asking  this question: “why do women cry rape?”

So far we’ve undertaken a brief review of recent media reports which suggests there are four common reasons why women “cry rape”:

1. To hide infidelity 

Some false rape allegations are made by women in long-term relationships who have consensual sex with another man and then “cry rape” to cover up their infidelity. Last year, Gaynor Cook, from  Northamptonshire was sent to jail 10 years after making a false rape allegation in 2003 to cover up an affair she had with an unidentified taxi driver.

The man was found 8 years later, when he provided a DNA sample for an unrelated and minor offence and put on trial with Cook’s support. But when the truth emerged she was charged and convicted.

Other women who appear to have alleged rape to cover up infidelity include the Scottish Ann Summers’ rep who was in a relationship, arranged to have sex with another man, “cried rape” and then admitted to police she had made it up; and a pair of friends  from Southampton who had a consensual threesome and then “cried rape” because they both had long-term boyfriends.

2. To excuse or cover up promiscuity 

Some women who “cry rape” after taking part in consensual sex don’t do so because they are in a relationship, but to avoid taking responsibility for “promiscuous” behaviour. One such woman was Welsh mother of four, Emma Jones, who falsely claimed she had been raped because she thought her dad would be angry with her for coming home late. Two different men were arrested and subjected to intimate examinations before Jones’ lies were uncovered and she admitted that she had in fact had consensual sex with one of the men.

3. To Get Revenge

Many women who make false allegations of rape appear to be motivated by thoughts of revenge. This was certainly the thinking of Lisha Tait, who “cried rape” when she was snubbed in a nightclub by a former lover in Northern Ireland. She later admitted to the police that she had made the story up “on the basis that the man had given her the cold shoulder”.

Another woman whose false rape claims appear to be motivated by revenge is Emily Pike, who “cried rape” after having consensual sex in a Premier Inn in Bristol with a dating partner she met on the internet. The court was told that the man crept away afterwards because Pike didn’t resemble her dating profile and she angrily took her revenge by falsely claiming that s raped her. Pike had 15 previous convictions including an earlier false rape claim.

While false rape claims are often made after consensual sex, sometimes women will “cry rape” in cases when there has been no sexual contact. One such woman is Emma Saxon from Sheffield who claimed a man she was dating had raped her on an evening when he had failed to turn up for a liaison with her. It was the second time Saxon had been convicted of making a false allegation of rape.

4. To Garner Sympathy

Another motivating factor for women who “cry rape” is to garner sympathy. One recent example is the case of Rhiannon Brooker, a trainee lawyer from Bristol. Media reports suggest that Brooker falsely claimed her boyfriend repeatedly raped and assaulted her in the hope that she would be excused from taking her Bar exams. Another woman who “cried rape” to garner sympathy was Linsey Attridge from Aberdeen who randomly picked two men off Facebook to accuse in an attempt to win sympathy off her boyfriend, in the hope it would save their relationship.

Tell us what you think

This list is far from exhaustive but provides some insights into the minds of women who make false allegations of rape against men. We’re open to hearing other theories, particularly those based on evidence or experience, so if you have something to contribute on this subject then please share your thoughts in the comments section of this article.

—Photo Credit: flickr/familymwr

Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

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