Comments from dailywildcat.com

On ‘Don’t drink the jungle juice,’ March 1

Suggesting that the other party involved in these situations is likely as drunk as the victim is naive. Not all, but many times the aggressor is literally waiting for the victim to be too inebriated to say no and then takes clear advantage of his/her inability to make a conscious choice in the matter. This is most certainly rape whether it happens to a woman or a man. Of course there are situations where both are drunk and did something regrettable, and these are hard to weed out. But that doesn’t make it right to paint the entire issue with an “”oops”” brush. What your sister did is rape. She has no business bragging about committing such a heinous act.

Kate

“”Though some may believe that women only file rape charges out of regret, guilt or spite, the FBI reports that false reporting of rape accounts is only about 3 percent.””

This is incorrect and requires correction. I founded the world’s leading site dedicated to giving voice to and raising awareness about the falsely accused — The False Rape Society — and it is an urban myth that only 2 or 3 percent of rape claims are false. False rape claims are a significant problem.

By way of clarification, the last time the FBI reported on unfounded rape claims was 1996 (it never reported on “”false”” claims per se), and it found that 15 percent of all claims were “”unfounded.”” See Dr. Bruce Gross, “”False Rape Allegations: An Assault on Justice,”” Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, Dec. 22, 2008. This percentage, by the way, reflected only the claims that the FBI knew were unfounded; the FBI did not suggest that the other 85 percent were actual rapes. Rape claims do not lend themselves to that kind of certainty. Only 15 percent of all such claims result in conviction, so for the vast majority of claims, no one can assert with certainty how many are false.

In addition, a landmark Air Force study in 1985 studied 556 rape allegations. It found that 27 percent of the accusers recanted, and an independent evaluation revealed a false accusation rate of 60 percent. McDowell, Charles P., Ph.D. “”False Allegations.”” Forensic Science Digest, (publication of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations), Vol. 11, No. 4 (December 1985), p. 64.

See also, “”Until Proven Innocent,”” the widely praised and painstakingly conducted study of the Duke Lacrosse non-rape case. Authors Stuart Taylor and Professor KC Johnson explain that the exact number of false claims is elusive but the “”standard assertion by feminists that only 2 percent”” of sexual assault claims “”are false, which traces to Susan Brownmiller’s 1975 book ‘Against Our Will,’ is without empirical foundation and belied by a wealth of empirical data. These data suggest that at least 9 percent and probably closer to half”” of all sexual assault claims “”are false,”” (page 374).

In short, every objective study ever conducted on the prevalence of false rape claims reveals that they are a significant problem. By any measure, denigrating the experience of the wrongly accused by dismissing their victimization as a myth or as unworthy of our discussion, much less our protection, is not merely dishonest but morally grotesque.

Pierce Harlan

On ‘Evening with Beckett beautiful but baffling,’ March 3

Very nice job. The language is very evocative, with a good eye for telling details (“”red-lipsticked mouth””) and the writer’s confidence is palpable in her voice (“”a face so expressive each twitch signals numerous emotional nuances””). This is everything a Wildcat review should be.

JD

On ‘Cats fall in last bat to Rebels,’ March 2

Time to start looking for a baseball coach that can get the job done. Lopez has had plenty of time and nothing good has happened. Long gone are the days when the Wildcats were top 10 every year. Livengood is gone, new basketball era starting, football was embarrassed by Nebraska. Time to cut our losses and hire a new baseball coach.

Wildcat Fred

On ‘Tucson considers taxing UA students,’ March 2

That’s the spirit! Dump the burden on the students since not much is happening with them financially anyway. And I’m SURE the bookstore will recognize this, and will cut costs, like they do every semester. Why you ask??? Because everybody loves their future generation!

U of A Student