Here is an example of how good a job women can do, this is a fine example of an Obama patronage appointment to a top diplomatic post. As long as your a Feminazi your good in the Obama administration.

Big Obama donor quits envoy job amid criticism

Feb 4, 2011

WASHINGTON -- As a supporter of presidential candidate Barack Obama, Cynthia Stroum was a superstar whose financial backing of the campaign landed her a plum diplomatic posting in Europe.

As America's ambassador to Luxembourg, the wealthy Seattle-based businesswoman was a disaster.

According to an internal State Department report released Thursday, less than a week after she quit, Stroum's management of the U.S. Embassy in the tiny country was abysmal. The report says her tenure of about one year was fraught with personality conflicts, verbal abuse and questionable expenditures on travel, wine and liquor.

Stroum's case illustrates the pitfalls that presidents can face when they appoint non-career diplomats to ambassadorships as a reward for their political support.

The Luxembourg embassy "has underperformed for the entirety of the current ambassador's tenure," said the report, which was prepared last fall before she resigned abruptly. "At present, due to internal problems, it plays no significant role in policy advocacy or reporting, though developments in Luxembourg are certainly of interest to Washington clients and other U.S. missions in the NATO and EU communities."

Stroum resigned effective Jan. 31, just days before the scathing report from the State Department's inspector general was made public. A message left with a person who answered the phone at her Seattle home said she was unavailable for comment. The call was not returned.

In a farewell message published in the Luxembourg press, Stroum said she was leaving the job because she wanted to return to private life. "The reality is that I now need to focus on my family and personal business," she said.

At the State Department, her departure was not announced. Spokesman Mark Toner gave no hint of problems when asked about the situation. "We are grateful for her service to the United States and wish her all the best in her new endeavors," he said.

But the report paints a picture of a corrosive atmosphere at the small embassy, with the ambassador running roughshod over staff, threatening to read their e-mails, largely concerned about job-related perks and involved in improper purchases.

The situation was so bad that the inspector general recommended that the State Department dispatch medical personnel to Luxembourg to test the stress levels of embassy employees. It said at least four staffers quit or sought transfers to Iraq and Afghanistan during her tenure, unusual steps for diplomats assigned to a modern, Western European capital.

"The bulk of the mission's internal problems are linked to her leadership deficiencies, the most damaging of which is an abusive management style," the report said. "She has followed a pattern of public criticism of colleagues, including (deputies), who have not performed to her satisfaction."

"Those who have questioned or challenged some of the ambassador's actions state that they have paid a heavy price in the form of verbal abuse and been threatened with dismissal," it said.

The report said the State Department was aware of the situation and that a perceived lack of action in dealing with it could be harmful. "It is unfortunate that an impression is being created among officers and local employees at this mission that this kind of behavior may be routinely tolerated by Department of State leadership, particularly for non-career ambassadors."

Stroum began her short diplomatic career in 2009 when Obama nominated her to the cushy position of U.S. ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, a tiny nation of 500,000 people about the size of Rhode Island and surrounded by France, Belgium and Germany.

Aside from her business experience as an investor, entertainment producer and philanthropist active in numerous charities, Stroum's major qualification for the post appeared to be her generous contributions to Democratic politicians and causes, particularly Obama's campaign.

Financial reports say Stroum donated the maximum personal amount to Obama's campaign. She also donated $2,300 to the failed presidential campaign of former Sen. John Edwards.

As a fundraiser, the records show she was responsible for ginning up at least $500,000 for Obama, putting her near the top of the campaign's money generators.

The inspector general said it had learned in interviews with embassy staffers that Stroum, shortly after her arrival in Luxembourg, discussed with them "the importance she attaches to the perquisites of" being an ambassador. As such, she was particularly concerned about the state of the ambassador's residence, which was being renovated, it said.

Because of the renovation, Stroum sought temporary housing. An embassy official spent six weeks searching for an appropriate property and, using contacts in Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and France along with two officials from the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, screened 200 properties and visited 30 to 40.

They found only four that met the ambassador's requirements and she rejected all of them, according to the report, before an acceptable residence finally was found.

Apart from those difficulties and management problems, the report identified several improprieties while Stroum was in charge in Luxembourg. Among them:

- Stroum spent $2,400 to fly with an aide to a Swiss "professional school" whose graduates have gone on to work for Buckingham Palace and similar places to interview candidates to replace a retired property caretaker and a fired chef. The purpose of the trip was listed as "management meetings." Although no one from the school was hired, such recruitment is allowed only if there are no qualified local employees. In addition, they did not get proper authorization for the trip.

- The embassy purchased $3,400 in wine and liquor a day before the 2010 budget year ended in an effort spend as much of its annual entertainment funds as possible. The booze did not arrive until the next fiscal year and State Department rules say embassies are not allowed "to use excess year-end funds" to buy items unless they are used in that year.

- Stroum was reimbursed for the purchase of a new bed because she "preferred a queen bed to the king-size bed already provided." The embassy twice asked Washington to reimburse the amount but was denied because it was a personal choice. Despite the refusals, the No. 2 at the embassy signed off on a voucher "reimbursing the ambassador for the cost of the mattress out of program funds." The report said the voucher needs to be repaid.

Source: AP

489 A- A Psychological Perspective -

12 Jan 2011



The law is a very good based on democratic, egalitarian and libertarian principles. The law is based on the assumption of equal rights to both man and woman to live a life of dignity and respect. The woman has equal rights to work to earn her livelihood and enjoy freedom to decide her life. Hence the law is good but it is the attitudes of the people that are troublesome which makes them abuse / misuse the law. It is the attitudes of both the man and the woman that needs to be questioned and put to examination. Wrong/ perverse/ abnormal attitudes of man makes him think that the woman must bring huge dowry, that she must obey him, must follow his rules, must be subordinate to him, must please him by all means possible, must be subservient to his parents, must work or must nor work according to his will, etc. Such attitudes can cause tremendous mental harassment to the woman and then if he also eventually subjects her to violence and abuse to impose his will on her it becomes physical cruelty. In such a case it becomes necessary to evoke the law by the woman.

Wrong/ perverse/abnormal attitudes of woman who think that she can nag/rag him on issues, that it is the sole duty of the man to take care of her, who take the husband for granted to fulfill all her unjust needs and to provide her with all luxuries of life, will take recourse to the law not for justice but to take revenge and to ‘teach him a lesson’ if he goes wrong in some way.

The law should be evoked only when there is continuous violence and mental cruelty of the woman in a marriage and there seems to be no end to it. In other words, the law should be evoked only when all strategies of coping with the situation and resolving the marital crisis between spouses have failed and violence and harassment continues in the marriage.
There are many individual coping strategies that people use to resolve conflict between their partners in marriage and if all efforts fail to give any good results, couples should seek professional help from a psychologist and marriage counselor. This neutral third party psychological intervention becomes a must for two reasons; one is to analyze the marital crisis from all angles and identify the causes for conflict between the partners and two, is to find appropriate remedies for the same by planning regular sessions of individual therapy, couple therapy and family sessions. In the majority of cases violence and abuse stops as the counseling and the negotiation process proceeds. In some cases where there is non-compliance to the process of counseling and where violence re-erupts and continues, the couple should be separated and asked to live in different homes. If there is no headway in reconciliation between the couple and the violence continues, divorce should be recommended to the couple. If that too fails as a solution to be agreed by both parties, the law of IPC 498 A can be evoked as the last resort to save lives and further abuse. The reasons for violence and abuse in a marital situation can be various.

It is important for people to know the different reasons for marital conflict and discord. Marital discord can be due to the following reasons -
a. Incompatibility or different personalities or differences in opinions in major areas of life.
b. Unmet physical and emotional needs of either of the spouses.
c. Too high expectations from either side, about life style, money, sex, children.
d. Infidelity or extra marital affairs by either side.
e. Physical cruelty like violence, rape, abuse, etc
f. Mental cruelty like demands for money, harassment on various issues by in-laws in daily routine household matters, continuous hurting comments and  questioning etc.
g. Personality disorders like histrionic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, etc.
h. Psychological / psychiatric disturbances in any of the spouse like Paranoia, Schizophrenia, Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder etc.

As a psychologist the main point for us to ponder on deeply relates to the attitudes and the behaviour of both the individuals who get married and the behavior of the family and specially the in- laws. Physical cruelty can be defined by physical violence resulting in physical injury, harm. If there are repeated acts of violence by the husband the behavior becomes criminal and the law can be evoked. The excessive demands for sexual intercourse and for experimental sex which the wife may be unwilling to indulge in may also be placed in this category. Forced sex may lead to assault and rape by the husband.

Mental cruelty is more difficult to define. Continuous verbal abuse of the wife, abusing her parents, asking for money from her parents, not allowing her to do a job, forcing her to comply with everything her in laws ask her to do, arm twisting her to do things their way, no freedom of movement etc can lead to mental harassment of the woman which could lead to psychological distress and illness such as depressions, psychosomatic complaints and hysteria.

Attitudes towards women that need to be challenged-- old attitudes would want the “bahu” to be docile, submissive, take care of domestic duties and care for the parents and also work and earn money but not make her career the top priority. The thought that the wife has secondary position in the family and that the man is primary is rampant in our society. Social attitudes many times condone hitting, beating and shouting at the wife. ‘So what if I beat my wife, so what if I shout at her, so what if she has to do all the work, so what if she has to listen to the in laws’ are common attitudes being expressed by men and society all the time. This type of thinking acts as mental blocks to the concept of equality and freedom for the wife. Such attitudes infringe upon her human rights to live a life of dignity and respect.

The 498A law is based on the assumption that women have equal rights as the man to live a life of dignity. This fact has to be understood by the men and the women not only in its letter but also in its spirit totally before a rational discussion can be done. The law is progressive in thought and spirit but the society’s perverse cultural norms and social practices are still not entirely egalitarian as far as women are concerned. It also means that we have to agree first that the old thinking of the subjugation of women is wrong and that the modern thinking of equality of men and women is right. We have to stand  together first on this basic assumption before we can proceed into the discussion in a proper manner.

A perverse mind will not understand the concept of equality of women and hence will not accept the modern law as valid. In such a case the good law stands condemned by such a category of people.

To repeat, the law needs to be evoked when all other strategies fail to stop the violence and the harassment that makes the life of the woman miserable for normal functioning. Actually, in the case of a marriage that breaks down beyond repair the best solution is separation and then divorce. It is the aggrieved party that would want the divorce and it may happen that the other party declines to agree for divorce for reasons that are emotional and irrational. If this solution also fails to be acceptable to one member the law could be evoked to seek justice.

It should however be the last resort.

It also has to be understood by women that once the law is evoked, the marriage breaks down further to a point of becoming irretrievable because of the fall out of the law. The police arrests of the husband and his family (if they have been implicated too), the social disgrace and shame, the police and public humiliation all leads to bad feelings and a total breakdown of the bonds of relationship. The ensuing bitterness and hostility between the two opposing parties makes enemies out of them where no further bonding is possible. This is ironic as the very purpose of the law which is to save the woman and settle her back into the family is defeated. Justice comes only in the form of punishment of the erring man and his family. Justice does not come in the form of rehabilitating the woman respectfully in the family. In fact she is most likely to be totally rejected by the family after they have suffered the law.

If the woman is ready for such an ultimate effect of the use of the law she should evoke the law.

However, it is not the law that needs to be condemned but its misuse and hence its improper use. The misuse occurs primarily on the sentiment of seeking revenge and vengeance. A woman who has suffered and felt victimized has the choice to break the marriage and seek divorce. That is the most rational decision to take. However in some cases she may not opt for a rational solution like divorce but may instead decide to evoke the law only for the purpose of seeking revenge and punishing him. Such a thing needs to be condemned in strong words.

Take another example. If a man has fallen out of love with his wife and wants to end the marriage through divorce the woman may disagree for divorce and may instead resort to punish him through the law by making a false case of violence against her husband. In such cases the specific law of 498 A is being used as a tool by some women to punish, victimize, harass and seek vengeance from the husband. This is a clear case of misuse of the law and needs to be condemned. A point to note for the legal community here would be to realize that when a marriage which has failed beyond redemption, to reject a divorce petition would not serve any purpose. For, when the soul is lost there is no wisdom in trying to keep the shell intact. When there is no ‘marriage’ left in spirit between the couple the stamp of legality on a marriage serves no purpose.

If two people who have been married for some time and now cannot live with each other for some reasons (mentioned above), and if all the strategies of reconciliation including counseling have failed, the best possible solution would be a mutual divorce. This would ensure a peaceful breakup of the marriage with minimum harm to both the parties. When one spouse decides to be vindictive and teach a lesson to the other they take the law into their own hands and make a mess of whole thing.

The marital crisis then becomes a sordid battle which is fought in full public glare and the end result is only further pain, suffering and emotional trauma to all. Such scars may remain for life and mar the personalities of all persons concerned. More so, the children are worst affected, if there are any.


Source: http://www.rita-psychologist.com/section-blog/28-womens-world/179-489-a-a-psychological-perspective-12-jan-2011

False rape allegations.

by Eugene J. Kanin

With the cooperation of the police agency of a small metropolitan community, 45 consecutive, disposed, false rape allegations covering a 9 year period were studied. These false rape allegations constitute 41% the total forcible rape cases (n = 109) reported during this period. These false allegations appear to serve three major functions for the complainants: providing an alibi, seeking revenge, and obtaining sympathy and attention. False rape allegations are not the a consequence of a gender-linked aberration, as frequently claimed, but reflect impulsive and desperate efforts to cope with personal and social stress situations.
© COPYRIGHT 1994 Plenum Publishing Corporation
INTRODUCTION

Of the many controversies surrounding the crime of rape,
no more thorny issue arises than that dealing with false
allegations. Generally, this issue is couched in terms of
unfounded rape. However, we are not addressing that
concept here since unfounded rape is not usually the
equivalent of false allegation, in spite of widespread usage
to that effect. There is ample evidence, frequently ignored
(see MacDonald, 1971; Brownmiller, 1975), that in
practice, unfounded rape can and does mean many things,
with false allegation being only one of them, and
sometimes the least of them. Other factors that are
typically responsible for unfounded declarations are
victim’s late reporting to the police, lack of corroborating
evidence, lack of cooperation by the victim and/or
witnesses, reporting in the wrong jurisdiction,
discrepancies in the victim’s story, wrong address given by
the victim, victim’s drunkenness, victim’s drug usage,
victim’s being thought a prostitute, victim’s uncertainty of
events, victim’s belligerence (Clark and Lewis, 1977;
Hursch, 1977; Katz and Mazur, 1979; Kanin, 1985;
LaFree, 1989). In sum, the foregoing largely represent
those conditions that could seriously frustrate efforts to
arrest and/or convict the offender. This paper deals
exclusively with false rape allegations: the intentional
reporting of a forcible rape by an alleged victim when no
rape had occurred.

False rape charges have probably been in existence as
long as the concept of rape. However, in the 20th century,
medical jurisprudence saw a new development that
enabled false allegations to be viewed as a singular
instance of gender-related lying, something quite different
in nature from the false accusations of robbery or burglary
that were made by men. In short, false rape accusations
became a reflection of a unique condition of women, not
unlike that of kleptomania (Abelson, 1989). This new
development was the masochistic nature of woman
doctrine, a perspective that assumed women had a
subconscious desire for rape, as evidenced by their rape
fantasies (Freud, 1933; Deutsch, 1944; Horney, 1933),
and that neurotic individuals would convert their fantasies
into actual beliefs and memory falsification (for an
extensive and critical treatment of this perspective, see
Edwards, 1981, 1983; Kanin, 1982; Bessmer, 1984). In
addition, some influential medical figures adopted the
position that false rape allegations were widespread
(Menninger, 1933; Guttmacher and Weihofen, 1952).
Many legal scholars enthusiastically endorsed this medical
position (Wigmore, 1940; Juliver, 1960; Comment, 1973;
Hibey, 1973) and commonly recommended that rape
complainants be routinely subjected to psychiatric
examination in order to determine their truthfulness
(Guttmacher and Weihofen, 1952; Sherwin, 1973;
Comment, 1973). An American Bar Association committee
offered a similar recommendation to this effect as early as
1937-1938 (Weihofen, 1959).

In the legal literature, pseudologia phantastica became the
authoritative scientific label for the condition responsible
for false rape reporting (Grablewski, 1958; Juliver, 1960).
Pseudologia phantastica was described as a "Delusional
state in which the complainant truly believes that she had
been raped although no rape, and perhaps no sexual
contact of any kind, had taken place. Since she firmly
believes this non-fact, her story is unshakable" (Bessmer,
1984). Less pretentious legal scholars made the same
point by merely making references to delusional and
hysterical states (Smith, 1953-1954; Comment, 1970). In
recent years, however, possibly as a response to the
women’s movement, members of the mental health and
legal community have become markedly less likely to
express such a position on false rape allegations. In
England, judges still rather freely comment on the
mendacious nature of women (Lowe, 1984).

Currently, the two main identifiable adversaries involved in
the false rape allegations controversy are the feminists
and the police. The feminists are by far the most
expressive and prominent on this issue. Some feminists
take the position that the declaration of rape as false or
unfounded largely means that the police do not believe the
complainant; that is, the rape charges are real reflections
of criminal assault, but the agents of the criminal justice
system do not believe them (Brownmiller, 1975; Russell,
1984). Some feminists virtually deny the existence of false
rape accusations and believe the concept itself constitutes
discriminatory harassment toward women (see Grano,
1990). On the other hand, police are prone to say the
reason for not believing some rape complainants resides
in the fact that the rapes never occurred (Payton, 1967;
Wilson, 1978; Jay, 1991). Medical Examiners lend support
to this police position by emphasizing the ever-present
possibility that rape complainants may be lying (Shill,
1969, 1971).

The purpose of this paper is to report our findings on the
incidence and dynamics of false rape allegations from a
long-term study of one city’s policy agency.

METHOD

This investigation is essentially a case study of one police
agency in a small metropolitan area (population = 70,000)
in the Midwestern United States. This city was targeted for
study because it offered an almost model laboratory for
studying false rape allegations. First, its police agency is
not inundated with serious felony cases and, therefore,
has the freedom and the motivation to record and
thoroughly pursue all rape complaints. In fact, agency
policy forbids police officers to use their discretion in
deciding whether to officially acknowledge a rape
complaint, regardless how suspect that complaint may be.
Second, the declaration of a false allegation follows a
highly institutionalized procedure. The investigation of all
rape complaints always involves a serious offer to
polygraph the complainants and the suspects. Additionally,
for a declaration of false charge to be made, the
complainant must admit that no rape had occurred. She is
the sole agent who can say that the rape charge is false.
The police department will not declare a rape charge as
false when the complainant, for whatever reason, fails to
pursue the charge or cooperate on the case, regardless
how much doubt the police may have regarding the validity
of the charge. In short, these cases are declared false only
because the complainant admitted they are false.
Furthermore, only one person is then empowered to enter
into the records a formal declaration that the charge is
false, the officer in charge of records. Last, it should be
noted that this department does not confuse reported rape
attempts with completed rapes. Thus, the rape
complainants referred to in this paper are for completed
forcible rapes only. The foregoing leaves us with a certain
confidence that cases declared false by this police agency
are indeed a reasonable -- if not a minimal -- reflection of
false rape allegations made to this agency, especially
when one considers that a finding of false allegation is
totally dependent upon the recantation of the rape charge.
We followed and investigated all false rape allegations
from 1978 to 1987. A ranking police official notified us
whenever a rape charge was declared false and provided
us with the records of the case. In addition, the
investigating officers provided any requested
supplementary information so that we could be confident
of the validity of the false rape allegation declarations.

FINDINGS

Incidence of False Allegations

Widely divergent viewpoints are held regarding the
incidence of false rape reporting (Katz and Mazur, 1979).
For example, reports set the figure from lows of 0.25%
(O’Reilly, 1984) and 1% (Krasner et al., 1976) to highs of
80-90% (Bronson, 1918; Comment, 1968) and even 100%
(see Kanin, 1985). All of these figures represent releases
from some criminal justice agency or are estimates from
clinical practitioners. The extraordinary range of these
estimates makes a researcher suspect that inordinate
biases are at work.

Regarding this study, 41% (n = 45) of the total disposed
rape cases (n = 109) were officially declared false during
this 9-year period, that is, by the complainant’s admission
that no rape had occurred and the charge, therefore, was
false. The incidence figure was variable from year to year
and ranged from a low of 27% (3 out of 11 cases) to a high
of 70% (7 out of 10 cases). The 9-year period suggests no
trends, and no explanation has been made for the
year-to-year fluctuation.

Although very little information exists regarding the
characteristics of the complainant, some data can be
offered. These false complainants are all white, largely of
lower socioeconomic background, and the majority were
modestly educated. Only three complainants had any
education beyond high school. The mean age of these
women was 22. On the basis of the limited information
available, these women could not be distinguished from
those whose complaints were recorded as valid.

The study of these 45 cases of false rape allegations
inexorably led to the conclusion that these false charges
were able to serve three major functions for the
complainants: providing an alibi, a means of gaining
revenge, and a platform for seeking attention/sympathy.
This tripartite model resulted from the complainants’ own
verbalizations during recantation and does not constitute
conjecture. Of course, we are not asserting that these
functions are mutually exclusive or exhaustive; rather,
these rape recantations focused on a single factor
explanation. A possible objection to these recantations
concerns their validity. Rape recantations could be the
result of the complainants’ desire to avoid a "second
assault" at the hands of the police. Rather than proceed
with the real charge of rape, the argument goes, these
women withdrew their accusations to avoid the trauma of
police investigation.

Several responses are possible to this type of criticism.
First, with very few exceptions, these complainants were
suspect at the time of the complaint or within a day or two
after charging. These recantations did not follow prolonged
periods of investigation and interrogation that would
constitute anything approximating a second assault.
Second, not one of the detectives believed that an incident
of false recantation had occurred. They argued, rather
convincingly, that in those cases where a suspect was
identified and interrogated, the facts of the recantation
dovetailed with the suspect’s own defense. Last, the policy
of this police agency is to apply a statute regarding the
false reporting of a felony. After the recant, the
complainant is informed that she will be charged with filing
a false complaint, punishable by a substantial fine and a
jail sentence. In no case, has an effort been made on the
part of the complainant to retract the recantation. Although
we certainly do not deny the possibility of false
recantations, no evidence supports such an interpretation
for these cases.

Alibi Function

Of the 45 cases of false charges, over one-half (56%, n =
27) served the complainants’ need to provide a plausible
explanation for some suddenly foreseen, unfortunate
consequence of a consensual encounter, usually sexual,
with a male acquaintance. An assailant is identified in
approximately one half of these cases. Representative
cases include the following:

An unmarried 16-year-old female had sex with her
boyfriend and later became concerned that she might be
pregnant. She said she had been raped by an unknown
assailant in the hopes that the hospital would give her
something to abort the possible pregnancy.
A married 30-year-old female reported that she had been
raped in her apartment complex. During the polygraph
examination, she admitted that she was a willing partner.
She reported that she had been raped because her
partner did not stop before ejaculation, as he had agreed,
and she was afraid she was pregnant. Her husband is
overseas.

The above cases are prototypical cases where the fear of
pregnancy is paramount in motivating the rape charge.
This theme is constant, only the scenario changes in that
the lover is black, the husband is out of state on a job, the
husband had a vasectomy, the condom broke. Only three
cases deviated from this tradition:

A divorced female, 25 years of age, whose parents have
custody of her 4-year-old child. She lost custody at the
time of her divorce when she was declared an unfit
mother. She was out with a male friend and got into a fight.
He blackened her eye and cut her lip. She claimed she
was raped and beaten by him so that she could explain
her injuries. She did not want to admit she was in a
drunken brawl, as this admission would have jeopardized
her upcoming custody hearing. A 16-year-old complainant,
her girlfriend, and two male companions were having a
drinking party at her home. She openly invited one of the
males, a casual friend, to have sex with her. Later in the
evening, two other male acquaintances dropped in and, in
the presence of all, her sex partner "bragged" that he had
just had sex with her. She quickly ran out to another
girlfriend’s house and told her she had been raped. Soon,
her mother was called and the police were notified. Two
days later, when confronted with the contradictory stories
of her companions, she admitted that she had not been
raped. Her charge of rape was primarily motivated by an
urgent desire to defuse what surely would be public
information among her friends at school the next day, her
promiscuity. A 37-year-old woman reported having been
raped "by some nigger." She gave conflicting reports of the
incident on two occasions and, when confronted with
these, she admitted that the entire story was a fabrication.
She feared her boyfriend had given her "some sexual
disease," and she wanted to be sent to the hospital to "get
checked out." She wanted a respectable reason, i.e., as an
innocent victim of rape, to explain the acquisition of her
infection.

Revenge

Essentially, this category involved a false rape report as a
means of retaliating against a rejecting male.
Twenty-seven percent (n = 12) of the cases clearly
seemed to serve this function. These rejections, however,
ranged from the very evident cases of women who were
sexually and emotionally involved with a reciprocating
male to those women who saw themselves spurned from
what was in reality the females’ unilateral involvement.
Regardless, these women responded with a false rape
charge to perceived rejections. Because the suspect is
always identified, the false allegations potentially pose the
greatest danger for a miscarriage of justice. Examples of
these types of cases are as follows: An 18-year-old
woman was having sex with a boarder in her mother’s
house for a period of 3 months. When the mother learned
of her behavior from other boarders, the mother ordered
the man to leave. The complainant learned that her lover
was packing and she went to his room and told him she
would be ready to leave with him in an hour. He responded
with "who the hell wants you." She briefly argued with him
and then proceeded to the police station to report that he
had raped her. She admitted the false charge during the
polygraph examination. A 17-year-old female came to
headquarters and said that she had been raped by a
house parent in the group home in which she lived. A
female house parent accompanied her to the station and
told the police she did not believe that a rape had
occurred. The complainant failed the polygraph
examination and then admitted that she liked the house
parent, and when he refused her advances, she reported
the rape to "get even with him."
A 16-year-old reported she was raped, and her boyfriend
was charged. She later admitted that she was "mad at
him" because he was seeing another girl, and she "wanted
to get him into trouble."

Attention/Sympathy-Getting Device

Although this device seems to be the most extravagant
use for which a false rape charge is made, it is also the
most socially harmless in that no one was identified as the
rapist. Approximately 18% (n = 8) of the false charges
clearly served this function. The entire verbalization of the
charge is, by and large, a fabrication without base. The
following are typical examples:

An unmarried female, age 17, abruptly left her girlfriends in
the park one afternoon allegedly to go riding with a young
man, a stranger she met earlier that morning who wanted
her to smoke marijuana with him. Later that day, she told
her friends she was raped by this man. Her friends
reported the incident to the police, and the alleged victim
went along with the rape charge because "I didn’t want
them to know that I lied to them." She explained that she
manufactured this story because she wanted the attention.

An unmarried female, age 17, had been having violent
quarrels with her mother who was critical of her laziness
and style of life. She reported that she was raped so that
her mother would "get off my back and give me a little
sympathy." An unmarried female, age 41, was in
postdivorce counseling, and she wanted more attention
and sympathy from her counselor because she "liked him."
She fabricated a rape episode, and he took her to the
police station and assisted her in making the charge. She
could not back out since she would have to admit lying to
him. She admitted the false allegation when she was
offered to be polygraphed.

RELATED FINDINGS

In addition to the foregoing, certain other findings and
observations relevant to false allegations warrant
comment. First, false allegations failed to include
accusations of forced sexual acts other than penile-vaginal
intercourse. Not one complainant mentions forced oral or
anal sex. In contrast, these acts were included in
approximately 25% of the founded forcible rape
complaints. Perhaps it was simply psychologically and
socially more prudent for these women to minimize the
humiliation of sexual victimization by not embroidering the
event any more than necessary. This phenomenon has
been observed previously (McDowell and Hibler, 1987).

Second, although the literature liberally refers to various
extortion scams as responsible for false rape charging
(Comment, 1968; MacDonald, 1973), no such cases were
encountered or could even be recalled by members of the
police agency. This type of case may very well be a period
piece, or perhaps it was even then the exceptional case.
Extraordinary attention would readily have been
forthcoming since this theory nicely meshed with the
position of prevailing authorities who stressed the
omnipresent threat of female cunning and stealth. One
authority, (MacDonald, 1973), for example, cited a 1918
article (Bronson) to illustrate a blackmail case since he
never encountered one himself. In a similar vein, no
apparent case of pseudologia phantastica surfaced. The
earlier view of a deluded complainant, tenaciously
affirming her victimization, just does not appear here.
These women were not inclined to put up a steadfast
defense of their victimization, let alone pursue it into the
courtroom. Recantation overwhelmingly came early and
relatively easily. Certainly, false rape allegations can arise
from a deluded condition but we failed to find indicators for
what was once offered as the most common explanation
for false rape allegation.

One of the most haunting and serious implications of false
rape allegations concerns the possibility of miscarried
justice. We know that false convictions occur, but this
study only tells us that these false accusers were weeded
out during the very early stages of investigation. However
encouraging this result may be, we cannot claim that false
charging does not incur suffering for the accused. Merely
to be a rape suspect, even for a day or two, translates into
psychological and social trauma.

CONCLUSIONS

We feel that these false accusations can be viewed as the
impulsive and desperate gestures of women simply
attempting to alleviate understandable conditions of
personal and social distress and that, as an aggregate,
labels connoting pathology, e.g., delusional states, are
uncalled for. One can be tempted to pigeonhole this type
of conduct since we view it as extreme, as deviant, as
criminally reckless. At first glance, false rape allegation
seems to be a rather extreme gesture to satisfy alibi,
revenge, or attention needs. Practitioners in the mental
health and legal professions, however, will readily
recognize that these false rape reports are not really
exceptional exaggerations in light of what people rather
commonly do in order to satisfy these same needs in other
contexts. Consider the extravagant and perjurious
accusations that routinely pepper divorce and child
custody proceedings, and the inordinate departures from
the truth that have accompanied credentialed and
respected political and corporate figures in their quest for
recognition and office. And think of the petty and
commonplace transgressions that people frequently
verbalize as reasons for having committed homicide.

No evidence exists to suggest that something unique or
defective is in the female condition that prompts such
behavior. Rather, something biological, legal, and cultural
would seem to make false rape allegations inevitable. If
rape were a commonplace victimization experience of
men, if men could experience the anxiety of possible
pregnancy from illicit affairs, if men had a cultural base that
would support their confidence in using rape accusations
punitively, and if men could feel secure that victimization
could elicit attention and sympathy, then men also would
be making false rape accusations.

Most problematic is the question of the generalizability of
these findings from a single police agency handling a
relatively small number of cases. Certainly, our intent is
not to suggest that the 41% incidence found here be
extrapolated to other populations, particularly in light of our
ignorance regarding the structural variables that might be
influencing such behavior and which could be responsible
for wide variations among cities. But a far greater obstacle
to obtaining "true" incidence figures, especially for larger
cities, would be the extraordinary variations in police
agency policies (see Comment, 1968; Newsweek, 1983;
Pepinsky and Jesilow, 1984); variations so diverse, in fact,
that some police agencies cannot find a single rape
complaint with merit, while others cannot find a single rape
complaint without merit. Similarly, some police agencies
report all of their unfounded rape cases to be due to false
allegation, while other agencies report none of their
unfounded declarations to be based on false allegation
(Kanin, 1985). Some of these policies are really nothing
more than statistical and procedural legerdemain. On the
other hand, a degree of confidence exists that the findings
reported here are not exaggerations produced by some
sort of atypical population, that is, nothing peculiar exists
about this city’s population composition to suggest that an
unusual incidence or patterning of false rape allegations
would occur. This city is not a resort/reveling area or a
center attracting a transient population of any kind,
attributes that have been associated with false rape
reporting (Wilson, 1978). The major culprit in this city may
well be a police agency that seriously records and pursues
to closure all rape complaints, regardless of their merits.
We may well be faced with the fact that the most efficient
police departments report the higher incidence of false
rape allegations. In view of these factors, perhaps the
most prudent summary statement that is appropriate from
these data is that false rape accusations are not
uncommon. Since this effort is the first at a systematic,
long-term, on-site investigation of false rape allegations
from a single city, future studies in other cities, with
comparable policies, must assess the representativeness
of these findings.

ADDENDA

In 1988, we gained access to the police records of two
large Midwestern state universities. With the assistance of
the chief investigating officers for rape offenses, all forcible
rape complaints during the past 3 years were examined.
Since the two schools produced a roughly comparable
number of rape complaints and false rape allegations, the
false allegation cases were combined, n = 32. This
represents exactly 50% of all forcible rape complaints
reported on both campuses. Quite unexpectedly then, we
find that these university women, when filing a rape
complaint, were as likely to file a false as a valid charge.
Other reports from university police agencies support
these findings (Jay, 1991). In both police agencies, the
taking of the complaint and the follow-up investigation was
the exclusive responsibility of a ranking female officer.
Neither agency employed the polygraph and neither
declared the complaint false without a recantation of the
charge. Most striking is the patterning of the reasons for
the false allegations given by the complainants, a
patterning similar to that found for the nonstudent city
complainants. Approximately one half (53%) of the false
charges were verbalized as serving an alibi function. In
every case, consensual sexual involvement led to
problems whose solution seemed to be found in the filing
of a rape charge. The complaints motivated by revenge,
about 44%, were of the same seemingly trivial and spiteful
nature as those encountered by the city police agency.
Only one complainant fell into the attention/sympathy
category. These unanticipated but supportive parallel
findings on university populations suggest that the
complications and conflicts of heterosexual involvements
are independent of educational level. In fact, we found
nothing substantially different here from those cases
encountered by our city police agency.

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Does Anil Verma have a history of domestic violence?

Jan 28, 2011

New Delhi: Indian Diplomat Anil Verma, accused of physically assaulting his second wife in London, has a history of domestic violence.

Exclusive details accessed by CNN-IBN show that this was not the first time that Anil Verma has faced allegations of domestic violence.

CNN IBN has accessed an FIR filed in 1998 by Verma’s first wife alleging dowry harassment.

Anil Verma's first wife had accused him of dowry harassment and violence in the complaint. The FIR also named Verma’s parents and sisters.

In fact Verma was arrested after his first wife had filed a criminal case against him.

The FIR was later withdrawn when couple agreed to a divorce.

"My husband reduced me to such a state that I started thinking suicide was the only option left to me. He used anger, threat, ridicule, humiliation and violence as weapons on me,” said the FIR.

Earlier, Verma had been recalled from London after his second wife Paromita had accused him of beating her.

Speaking to CNN-IBN, Verma’s first wife said, "there was a marriage. It was an unhappy marriage due to his violent tendencies and dowry demands from him and his family. All of this is a matter of court records.

"I thank god every day that he is no longer in my life and I would like to keep it that way. I have had no contact with Anil Verma or his family in the last 11-12 yrs and have nothing to do with the present case. My family and I have had a very long and difficult journey to get to where we are today and I would like to be left in peace to move forward with my life."

Source: IBNLIVE.in.com

Click www.delhipolice.nic.in to download FIR

Jan 31, 2011

NEW DELHI: All FIRs registered in Delhi will be uploaded on Delhi Police's website from Tuesday. People can download new FIRs from the Delhi Police website -- www.delhipolice.nic.in while an accused can get a copy from the police station by paying Rs 25.

"We are all set to upload the FIRs on the website. All police stations have been equipped to do it," a senior police official said.

The move comes following a direction by the Delhi high court on December six last year that an accused is entitled to get a copy of the FIR within 24 hours of its registration and police cannot deny supplying it.

The court had said the FIRs should be uploaded within 24 hours of its registration though it exempted the force from making public FIRs on sensitive issues.

However, whenever it does not make FIRs public, such a decision has to be taken by an officer not below the rank of deputy commissioner of police and they have to inform area magistrates.

According to the official, an accused can apply for the copy of an FIR at a charge of Rs 25 for four pages and an extra Rs ten for each extra page.

"The accused can approach the police station in person or depute another person or his lawyer to collect the FIR registered against him," Bhagat said.

The FIRs on sensitive issues like terrorism, national security, rape, molestation and kidnapping for ransom will not be uploaded, he said.

The application forms for procuring the FIRs will be available at all police stations and deputy commissioners' office, he said.

The high court had observed that fair and impartial investigation is the fundamental right of an accused and he or she need not move to court in order for getting a copy of FIR and it is the duty of the police to provide it.

An accused is entitled to get a copy of the FIR at an earlier stage than as prescribed under Section 207 of the CrPC which says that accused has to move to court and it would be supplied by order of magistrate, the high court had said.

In case if police refuse to reveal the FIR, then the person can approach the police commissioner, who will form a committee to decide such cases.

Anusha stalker gets life term

Feb 1, 2011

Rajahmundry, Jan. 31: Matta Rajesh, who murdered the parents of the girl he was stalking in 2009, was convicted to two life terms on Monday.

Infuriated that Ms Anusha had rejected his advances, Rajesh broke into their house on the night of September 17, 2009, and stabbed her in the neck. He then stabbed to death her parents, Narla Srinivasa Rao and Satyavathi, who tried to rescue their daughter. Apart from the two life sentences for the murder of Srinivas Rao and Satyavathi, Rajesh was also sentenced to two years for the attack on Anusha. The family court judge-cum-additional district judge, Mr R. Niranjan, said the sentences would run concurrently. The verdict came after the judge heard 28 witnesses.

Hearing the judgement, Ms Anusha broke down and said that Rajesh should have been given more severe punishment. “I and my sisters Prasanna and Nanidini are living in constant fear. We don’t know when we will be attacked by the supporters of Rajesh.” She said the prosecution would appeal to the HC for death penalty.

“I wish nobody suffers the agony I am undergoing . The punishment that he should be given should serve as deterrent to all others who intended to commit similar crimes,” she said. Given an opportunity to enter his plea before the verdict, Rajesh said he should be given less severe punishment in view of his young age.