Sarah Harte: Sex assault victims are still not encouraged to come forward
Manhattan New York Abusing Of Court Her For In Photo/seth 1996 In Sexually Liable Trump A E Jean Out Ap Donald Carroll Walks Wenig Jury Found Picture: After Federal
Last week, when E Jean Carroll walked out of a Manhattan courtroom it felt quite emotional. It had less to do with harasser-in-chief Donald Trump and more to do with the fact she had been believed.
Trump was found guilty of sexual assault and defamation by a jury of six men and three women, although not of rape. Carroll was awarded $5m, and Trump will appeal.
Instituting legal proceedings against the former president of the United States of America took extraordinary backbone. Trump has a huge public platform, and highly vociferous supporters, some of whom have proven themselves to be capable of extreme actions.
When she made her allegations against him, journalist Carroll received death threats and was reported to have slept with a loaded gun by her bed.
Some 32 years previously, Anita Hill had testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her when they worked together.
The footage of the testimony was another moment not easily forgotten. A committee of 14 white men chaired by then-senator Joe Biden grilled the young black law professor in a televised live hearing and it seemed as if it was Hill was in the dock. The Senate ultimately confirmed Thomas’ nomination in a 52-48 vote.
Hill was condemned by many, received excrement in the post, and faced death threats. She reputedly left the University of Oklahoma because of ongoing calls for her resignation.
Hill said she would do it again. She reportedly said: “I had important information about an individual who was picked to sit for a lifetime appointment on our country’s highest court. It was not just a professional duty as a lawyer, but I believed it was my ethical responsibility to come forward in the best way and the most effective way that I could — and that’s what I did.”
It was a seminal moment in the broader culture and not just in America. In 1991, in Ireland and elsewhere we barely had the language to identify and discuss sexual harassment. Sexual harassment was a run-of-the-mill experience for many women. Anita Hill shone a light on that.
President Joe Biden later called her to apologise for how she was treated. Hill accepted his apology but had said that he failed to understand how the Senate handling of her complaint had not just been an affront to her but “harmful to women throughout” America.
Fast forward to 2018 when Christine Blasey Ford, another university professor, accused Brett Kavanaugh — then also a Supreme Court nominee — of sexually assaulting her at high school.
Kavanaugh denied the allegations and was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 50-48, and now keeps Clarence Thomas company on the American Supreme Court.
Like Hill, Blasey Ford says she spoke up because it was her civic duty to bring evidence to the attention of the committee.
In the wake of Blasey Ford’s testimony, the hashtag #WhyIDidn’tReport exploded. There were many protests across the country opposing Kavanaugh’s confirmation which represented progress of a kind as Hill had received comparatively limited support but much remained the same.
Blasey Ford was forced out of her home by threats and harassment. She hired private security guards and went into virtual hiding. Her name was also widely smeared.
She has since said that she might not do it again, given what she and her family suffered. She reportedly said:
Depressingly, accusations of sexual assault and misconduct, even when credible, don’t seem to prevent male politicians or powerful, well-connected men from reaching high office.
This raises questions about the systemic problems that may exist in protecting people who commit sexual or gender-based violence.
It also demonstrates that it’s not that the accusations of sexual assault are not believed, just that many people are unwilling to take account of them because they simply don’t care.
Perhaps most importantly, it sends ultra-strong signals to ordinary women who have been sexually assaulted or raped about their chances of being believed.
Bringing an allegation of sexual assault or rape and going through the judicial system when you fear you might not be listened to or mistrusted is hugely daunting.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that where sexual crimes are concerned, we live in a culture where men are guilty until proven innocent. He’s not alone in this fatuous view and there is still a general cultural resistance to believing women.
As one male commentator put it said in last Saturday’s : “Tackling the epidemic of violence against women has become a boo-hoo fest for men who say, ‘but it’s not every man’.”
However, an allegation will always be just that until it is proven. In the explosion of the #MeToo movement (against which sadly there is now an inevitable backlash), one line of thinking doing the rounds, particularly among Millennial women was that if one falsely accused man had to be thrown under the bus for the sake of the greater good, then so be it.
It stems from understandable female anger at having suffered misogyny, sexism, violence, and the rough edge of male power and privilege but it’s a deeply flawed logic that harms everyone.
Women are not blessed saints. They are complex human beings capable on occasion of being mendacious. The statistics for false sexual assault allegations vary but according to various studies they are broadly thought to run between 2% to 10%.
Academic studies seem to suggest that the most common kind of fake accuser is a teenage girl fabricating to get out of trouble often with her parents reporting the ‘rape attempt’.
Meanwhile, sexual assault and rape crimes are greatly underreported, both in Ireland and elsewhere far outweighing the number of fake accusations made.
There are several reasons for this chronic underreporting. We have an adversarial court structure that doesn’t operate in a vacuum from the wider societal context, and there are many misperceptions about the complexities of sexual violence.
A hugely damaging victim-blaming attitude still exists societally and within the judicial system. How a victim dresses, what she has drunk, and where she has gone are still seen as relevant factors in sexual assault trials as if it was a woman’s job not to provoke sexual violence.
There is much work to be done to improve the investigation, prosecution, and trial of sexual offences if we are to encourage victims to come forward.
It matters how women who bring allegations are treated in the halls of power and publicly because it sends out strong signals to the ‘ordinary’ survivors of sexual violence influencing whether they are galvanized to speak up or whether they shut their mouths.
E Jean Carroll, Anita Hill, and Christine Blasey Ford are to be saluted for their bravery.