A recent rape trial warning has emerged from an interview with a former judge. Retired from the profession, Mary Jane Mowat is still making waves in the legal system, but some might not like the implications of those waves.
The retired judge claims that conviction rates would improve if women stopped drinking so much. Her explanation is that after having been raped, most women allegedly “can’t remember” what happened because they had been drinking too heavily prior to the incident.
Rape is one of the most terrible crimes in existence because it involves one person taking over another person’s body and committing an act that can emotionally damage them for decades. The victim lives on, wondering if they had somehow invited it, and not being able to trust the opposite gender.
When a rape goes to trial, Mowat says that the problem lies in the technicalities:
“It is an inevitable fact of it being one person’s word against another, and the burden of proof being that you have to be sure before you convict. I will also say, and I will be pilloried for saying so, but the rape conviction statistics will not improve until women stop getting so drunk.
“I’m not saying it’s right to rape a drunken woman; I’m not saying for a moment that it’s allowable to take advantage of a drunken woman.”
Mowat’s rape trial warning appears to be rooted in unfortunate facts. Only 24 percent of said trials are said to have ended in conviction this year, and even then, only 15 percent of women attacked feel empowered enough to do anything about it. The national average in England and Wales has been around 60 percent conviction rates, and the reason it isn’t higher is because the victims can’t remember enough details to supply solid evidence.
Even those convicted usually end up serving only half of their original sentences.
Judge in rape trial warning: ‘Conviction rates will not improve until women stop drinking so heavily’ #Oxford http://t.co/sRb55e3JKO
— Oxford UK News (@Oxford_UK_News) August 26, 2014
Perhaps retired judge Mary Jane Mowat ‘s rape trial warning is a statistically backed way of telling the public, especially women, to drink responsibly? This means that you might want to save the actual imbibing until you’re someplace where the chance of rape is much smaller. Being drunk in public just causes too many problems.
Drunk driving, alcohol poisoning from peer pressure, a DWI on your driving record, and even some embarrassing shenanigans are usually favorable compared with what else could happen. Women biologically have to live with the results of rape for years, even if it doesn’t result in unwanted pregnancy.
What do you think of the retired judge’s rape trial warning?
[image via Newsnextbd ]