It certainly can be a slippery slope. There’s all kinds of potential consequences to believing the accuser. There’s also potential injustice in not.
Which is why the justice system requires evidence! Short of telepathy, there's just no way to know what to believe and what not to.
You just cannot get passed this is a moral question, not a legal question. Look, man, morality is not for everyone and you may not be able to process this. That’s ok. For @AAAintheBeltway, I believe there is a moral responsibility to believe the accuser in these cases unless we have a compelling reason not to.
Well, I am certainly not advocating disbelieving them. The amount of proof we expect goes up with the consequences to the accused. When we are talking about people getting fired, kicked out of school or criminally prosecuted, we should require substantial evidence. To apply societal penalties, ie blacklisting them, the woman's word alone is sufficient, provided she is credible.
Moral questions with legal consequences are problematic with our jump to conclusions society. Therefore legal takes precedent every single time. Don't like it? Then quit supporting trial by media mob
Seeing that most in-depth studies indicate that 40% to 45% of rape accusations are false there is no moral responsibility to believe the accuser unless supporting evidence is provided. Lets take a look a look at a sampling of papers from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service... "In the study, 41 percent of the total disposed rape cases were officially declared false. The incidence figure was variable from year to year. The data showed that all the complainants were white, largely of lower socioeconomic background, and a majority was modestly educated. The study of the 45 cases of false rape allegations 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. " https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=191920 The FBI and police report a minimum of 8% to 14% of rape accusations are false; the actual numbers shown in actual research puts the number above 40%. There are women's groups who attempt to claim the rate of false accusations is a mere 2% -- which has been demonstratively proven to be incorrect and significantly below the rates shown by law enforcement and in-depth studies. "Brent E. Turvey, a criminologist, wrote a 2017 book that dispels this notion. His research, and that of two co-authors, cited statistical studies and police crime reports. One academic study showed that as many as 40 percent of sexual assault charges are false. Mr. Turvey wrote that the FBI in the 1990s pegged the falsity rate at 8 percent for rape or attempted rape complaints." https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/7/false-sex-assault-reports-not-rare-reported-studie/
It certainly is a moral question. However, you fail to consider the rights of the accused - you only think there is some moral responsibility to the accuser. That is typical to the left. Leap to an emotional response, not a factual one.
Now I’m lose with the facts. Why does the accused or the accuser have any rights in a question of morality? Rights are a legal issue. You are becoming too much of a chore on this. Please stop boring me with you’re inability to grasp the issue.
So you think when a woman claims they are raped, and says you did it, you don't think you suffer anything for their claim against you? You think people should be able to accuse whomever they want whenever they want the accused has no right to defense? One of us is certainly unable to grasp this issue, that's for sure. Just not sure it is who you think it is.