Do men understand rape?

[Jim Lane]

94. Wrong. We have more than two policy options.

First, you really ought to stop inveighing against the proposal that a mere allegation be enough for imprisonment. No one here has proposed that, so it's a straw-man argument, and your constant invocation of it lowers your credibility.

Second, as to the specifics, here's another alternative that occurs to me just off the top of my head. It's obvious that a woman who reports a rape is often in great emotional turmoil, and is at risk of finding the interview very traumatic. We might conclude that pretty much any police officer can handle the initial complaints of assault, robbery, and the like, but that a woman who presents with a rape complaint should be referred to a specialist -- an officer who, by virtue of natural temperament and with training in such interviews, is better able to discharge the basic police functions without further traumatizing the complainant. We might reach a similar conclusion about the choice of the assistant district attorney who will work with her in presenting the prosecution's case in court.

That procedure wouldn't entail the slightest retreat from the presumption of innocence or from any of the defendant's rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. It might, however, increase the percentage of rape victims who initially report the rape, as well as the percentage who are willing to persevere through the trial that you and I both think should occur.

That's just one example of why "women should report their rapes" is true but is not the end of the story.