Flaws of reporting crimes that never happened
We have all heard it by now what DIDN'T happen down at the University of Virginia. In September a freshman girl named "Jackie" was invited to a frat party where she was pumped full of slcohol and raped by seven frat boys in a bedroom. She left ,the frat house, caalled a friend, cue the investigation. Of course every news outlet in the country swooped in and reportedly on the case ruined the bo=ys reputation and what happened? It was all a hoax.
The major problem was Jackie's story fell apart from the word rape. First of all when these guys were finished attacking her, Jackie found the strength to walk out on her own, without being noticed by a house filled with people (of course there was a party going on). She then called a friend who took her to the hospital. In the original article Jackie bemoans the fact nobody believed her story ( I wonder why ) and it took going to the media for her to see some action.
Enter Sabrina Rubin Erdely who wrote this heart-wreching article in Rolling Stone about this poor helpless freshman girl being raped by these four men repeatedly. Erdely's goal, to seeking "justice" for Jackie, to punish the men who did this to her and to highlight this is a massive problem on campuses across America. We all know the story before. Does the words "Duke Lacrosse" come to mind? It should because in that case the true victims were the accused, just like we have here. Although the media is afraid to call these men "victims", they just became innocent, no harm no foul. Let me ask you this say you are a woman and one of these guys started flirting with you. You enjoy the attention, it goes on. You randomly type his name into your favorite search engine and BAM thes false accusations pop up Nine times out of ten people just look at flashy headlines. The articles written before we all knew this was all a hoax. Hopefully the stories retracting these false charges show up first, but it's not a save bet! What does a women do? Does she confront this guy? Does she ignore them?
The other really disturbing angle to this article is the police weren't given the chance to investigate. G iven all the bad press the cops have gotten lately, this might seem like another blunder. However nine times out of ten the shortcomings of the police are the type of investigation they conduct, not if they do one at all. Erdely never asked the police about an investigation, because no poilice report was even filed. This is one of the most disturbing aspects of this case. If you have problems trusting the police to begin with, Erdley's article seemed like a real cry for help. In reality given Jackie's storyy, thee police had every right to send her one her way. However Erdely protrays Jackie as a "victim" who has nowhere to turn. Sounds more like a Hollywood script than evidence of a crime
Sexual assualt is serious, it is a problem that needs to dealt with forcefully. It is also undereported because sadly there are times when the victim isn't believed, especially if it's a male victim. False claims like the Duke Lacross and now this one at the UVA do just as much damage because men can point to these cases and say they can become victims too. It's time we start believing them!
The major problem was Jackie's story fell apart from the word rape. First of all when these guys were finished attacking her, Jackie found the strength to walk out on her own, without being noticed by a house filled with people (of course there was a party going on). She then called a friend who took her to the hospital. In the original article Jackie bemoans the fact nobody believed her story ( I wonder why ) and it took going to the media for her to see some action.
Enter Sabrina Rubin Erdely who wrote this heart-wreching article in Rolling Stone about this poor helpless freshman girl being raped by these four men repeatedly. Erdely's goal, to seeking "justice" for Jackie, to punish the men who did this to her and to highlight this is a massive problem on campuses across America. We all know the story before. Does the words "Duke Lacrosse" come to mind? It should because in that case the true victims were the accused, just like we have here. Although the media is afraid to call these men "victims", they just became innocent, no harm no foul. Let me ask you this say you are a woman and one of these guys started flirting with you. You enjoy the attention, it goes on. You randomly type his name into your favorite search engine and BAM thes false accusations pop up Nine times out of ten people just look at flashy headlines. The articles written before we all knew this was all a hoax. Hopefully the stories retracting these false charges show up first, but it's not a save bet! What does a women do? Does she confront this guy? Does she ignore them?
The other really disturbing angle to this article is the police weren't given the chance to investigate. G iven all the bad press the cops have gotten lately, this might seem like another blunder. However nine times out of ten the shortcomings of the police are the type of investigation they conduct, not if they do one at all. Erdely never asked the police about an investigation, because no poilice report was even filed. This is one of the most disturbing aspects of this case. If you have problems trusting the police to begin with, Erdley's article seemed like a real cry for help. In reality given Jackie's storyy, thee police had every right to send her one her way. However Erdely protrays Jackie as a "victim" who has nowhere to turn. Sounds more like a Hollywood script than evidence of a crime
Sexual assualt is serious, it is a problem that needs to dealt with forcefully. It is also undereported because sadly there are times when the victim isn't believed, especially if it's a male victim. False claims like the Duke Lacross and now this one at the UVA do just as much damage because men can point to these cases and say they can become victims too. It's time we start believing them!
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