Rape - Just How Much Of A Double Standard Is There? 

This is why I hate both ends of the spectrum. The far right believe that women are reporting false rapes like there's no tomorrow and that rape isn't that big an issue, while the far left believe that women are always the victim and that men should somehow be able to control every aspect of themselves, even when intoxicated. Now I'm not defending rape at all here, what I'm saying is that if two legal aged individuals get drunk and have consensual sex then it should NEVER be considered rape. Now date rape does happen, and this is why we have a police force dedicated to investigating crimes. However, as the stats show false rape accusations do happen. Now 8% is a massive number, and by no means does it show the "epidemic" the right tends to believe is happening, but it's still a number which means it does happen. This is why our society needs to stop this BS of dealing in absolutes. The world isn't black and white, it's full of many shades of gray.

The Young Turks Guy I love your piece on Rape, but I must point out. If your a man and your accused of Rape as a male your life is over regardless of guilt or innocent.

simple definition of rape: Sex without consent.

Keep in mind that that 8% isn't a hard fact number, because it's merely based on the number of CONFIRMED false rape accusations. I'm not saying it's really some exorbitant number, but it could easily be higher than that, since we KNOW that the justice system isn't perfect and a quite a few rape convictions, could and probably are, against innocent people. Especially considering the double standards society hold against men in cases like these.

The policy quoted from Stanford says that if you are even slightly intoxicated, you can't give consent to sex. This would apply to both sexes. If the guy is intoxicated, under this policy, he can't consent to sex. Which brings up this question: How many women have been punished for sexual assault (either by the school or criminally) when they had sex with an intoxicated partner? My guess is zero. How many guys have been punished under this guideline? My guess is only guys suffer under this guideline.

"Most women don't lie or make up bogus accusations about men raping, assaulting them..." "How do we know?" "From all the women we interviewed in a study." SMH... 'Merica!

8% are considered unfounded, approx 25-30% are defined as no crime. The analogy was pointing out a very simple perception. A drunk man is responsible for their actions. A drunk woman isn't responsible for their actions. When matters of sex are concerned. He talks of the double standard that when both parties engage in drunken sex, then the male is the one designated the perpetrator even though both are equally drunk. By the definition of the Stanford edict, both would be guilty of sexual assault, yet somehow that always translates that the male is guilty of sexual assault.

Gotta love those assumptions about the 'majority' of rapes.

No, no, no, no. Drunk consensual sex is not rape on any level. To say it is such is extremely out of line for those who have unfortunately been affected by (a la Todd Akin) "legitimate" rape.

Based on this clip it sounded like the guy was just pointing out the institutional bias against males during rape cases, not that ALL rape was based on a drunken encounter. That number of false reports is definitely high enough to at least keep that in mind.

When normal social activities like drunk sex and teasing become vilified, it diminishes sensitivity towards actual occurrences of rape and assault.

Isn't the 8% figure from where the false accuser admits to fabricating the whole thing? And the claims where the defendant is cleared of all charges and found innocent is still just "unfounded", and not considered a false rape charge?

I wouldn't say its an epidemic, but a big chunk of reported rapes tend to be false, and or exaggerated. And yes, 8% is a big number when you consider that for all other crimes false reporting is only 1-2%. However We also have to consider the fact most rapes are unreported, and the whole point of a false rape allegation is that its reported, so it skews the numbers; its a complex issue. Ps. We should keep in mind that sexual assault is a human issue affecting both women and men; especially young boys. NA stats 'approx': 1 in 5 women and 1 in 9 men experience sexual abuse some time in their lives.

The percentage of false rape accusations is likely much higher as they themselves disagree that sex when drunk doesn't equal rape. Well the law says that is rape so sure only 8% of rape accusations are false according to that study but that study will count sex while drunk as rape which you don't consider rape! So if you counted all the rape accusations which were really just sex while drunk as false rape accusations the percentage of false rape accusations would be much higher! How can they not see that?

It's not just to rely upon the presence of injury in a victim (as a necessary prerequisite) when ascertaining a situation of no consent. If someone rapes another at gunpoint, but sans melee, it is still rape. If someone rapes another without a weapon, but melee was not engaged because the victim understood that there was a zero chance of him/her resisting being overpowered, that is still rape. Not physically resisting a rapist does not mean that consent was given-- it means that the victim was possibly trying to minimize damage to his/her body, and to not aggravate the attacker.

The problem is that there is a high enough percentage to cast doubt on the incidents, especially when in many cases laws have been set up to where the standard of evidence is very low because requiring a high standard of evidence is labeled as "victim blaming"

Um. Why is the 'opposite of the argument' automatically 'conservative'? There's plenty of liberal minded people who don't buy into the excessive fear mongering by feminists and other groups massively over inflating a lot of extremely serious allegations and statistics. While male involvement of abuse must definitely be stopped and persecuted, the author makes a great point that you can't just wish away the risky behavior of the bar culture in which women can make a lot of bad choices as well.

Re: Those college rules. Good to know I can smoke weed in a dorm and get away with it because I was drunk when I made that decision and therefore "not responsible for my actions". Right? ....right?

Well this policy does not specify on the gender. I wonder what they would do if a male decided to say rape and they were both intoxicated. Its sad cause we already know that he would not be treated equally.

8% unfounded does not mean 92% guilty. It means 8% had literally no basis in reality, the others still have to be found guilty to be guilty.

Reasons to love and hate The Young Turks : Love - because they report interesting subjects. Hate - because of their stupid conclusions. IF you agree with James that there is in most campuses especially the more liberal ones double standards in the laws - then why not just sum it up as - We are back you up good job on the article .... Nope, not the case - Cenk Uygur needs to be seem manly doing an over analysis of James's article to the point where he concludes that James believe that there is 'no date rapes'. Nope that's not what written over there - ho wait it continues to the fact that Cenk Uygur thinks women can't assault men like in the Russian female rapist cases he reported about ... well good job The Young Turks...

They have a good point. A buddy of mine was charged of rape just because the girl's father caught her coming home with the wrong pants on. She was forced into filing charges, and he went through a huge process. I was there when they were all over each other and went into the next room, and it couldn't have been more consensual. I'm not saying rape isn't bad, it is, and a very serious issue, but unfortunately there are girls out there who make shitty decisions, and then because they either regret it or got caught, they become just as bad as the real rapists for attempting to ruin a guy's entire life just to keep themselves from getting into trouble. It's a bit of a grey issue sometimes, because it all comes down to her word against his in those cases. Also, who ever said that a man can't be raped? It may not happen physically, but there are women who blackmail men into sex or use other devious means.

Note: 8% of rape reports are known to be false. As in, someone went in to the FBI and filed an actual report alleging rape, and that report was investigated and demonstrated to be false. Note that if an individual merely made an allegation, and then withdrew the allegation, it wouldn't be filed as a "report" and wouldn't be included in the statistics. Reports which are not demonstrably false are not included in the 8%. As in, if a report is filed and they don't know whether or not it's false, they don't put it in the "false report" pile. I'd bet, hands down, that the actual rates for false reporting of rape and sexual assault are MUCH higher than 8%.

He's right though, there is a double standard with the rape laws. Regardless of whose at fault, the female is always the victim & the male is always the perpetrator. That's why I've always found the rape laws are completely sexist. Sure male rape cases are in the minority, but that shouldn't immediately mean that the male is always at fault. Girl says rape....and the guy is at fault & deemed a sexual predator. A guy gets raped & he gets his laughed out of court about it. That completely shows how there is a double standard with the rape laws. I mean if you wanna talk about inequality, these rape laws are proof of that.

cant we just play by big kid rules? two legal aged adults get drunk have sex, end of story. why is it, when it's the woman making a mistake is the mans fault?

8% means that out of every 12 rape cases, one is made up. The article they're discussing talks about how if two parties (one male, one female) are both equally drunk, make a poor decision to have sex, and both regret it; the Male is typically the one being charged if the incident comes to light. We could also get into how 90% of all shelters designed to assist sexual assault/abuse victims wont even accept men; They suggest that because its mostly women being victimized, that by inviting male victims in, they might cause the other female victims to relapse into a depressive state. Instead of honest reporting; TYT focuses on cases where the male isnt drunk, the female is, and the male is quite obviously raping her...

Ppl also need to realize there is a diff between rape & regret

The law that says you cannot consent if you are under the influence are fucking insane.

"It depends if it was a joint decision." No, Cenk, it really doesn't. Because even if it was a joint decision, she would likely still successfully prosecute him on the grounds that she was "unable to make a sound decision due to inebriation." These standards basically make it so that sex is rape if ever, and whenever, a woman decides that it was. Even if it was consensual at the time, she could easily decide two weeks down the line that she regrets it just because she decides she doesn't like him. If she filed rape charges, she'd probably still win. And there really is no sympathy for men whose lives are destroyed based on false charges, even on the rare case that a woman admits to it, and on the even rarer case that she's punished for it at all. You say false reporting is not an issue? Bullshit. First of all, how do you know the vast majority of rape cases are not reported if...they're never reported? How can you even make that claim when there is no sample from which to observe? And further, that 8% number is also bullshit. Because, really, just how much can you actually prove in a rape case? Even a rape kit can only show that sexual contact occurred, and it can say absolutely nothing about consent, especially based on these standards. No, in the end, it's the word of a crying woman, crocodile tears or otherwise, versus the word of a man protesting his innocence. And I think we've demonstrated long ago who gets the sympathy by default in society. That 8% is based mostly on speculative and biased judgment. Bottom line is, if you weren't there, you cannot know if it really was consensual. Unless the rape occurred in broad daylight, in public, and there were bystanders and eye witnesses, you are arbitrarily choosing to take one person's word over the other. And honestly ask yourself, do you think any court would actually take a man seriously if he cried rape on account of being unable to give consent or not of sound mind?

Chief keef had a 30 year-old baby moma when he was 16; the lady diddnt get charged for rape and keef has to pay child support for 18 years

"Prosecuting someone who has been accused of rape, is not to say they are immediately guilty." On what planet do you live? If a man is accused of rape his career is over. If a man is accused of child molestation, his career is over. It doesn't mater if the the evidence proves he's innocent. By default a man who is accused of rape is assumed to be guilty by everyone. It's the ONE crime where the person accused is immediately deemed guilty by the public and their employer. Conversely, if a man or another women accuses a woman of rape it's responded with harsh criticism and speculation by the public. It's the same with domestic abuse. It simply isn't taken seriously when the woman is the perpetrator of the crime. This is what Feminism has done to the word rape. It's no longer the forcing of one person into having sex. Now rape is defined as a male having sex with a female. It doesn't matter if it's consensual all the way through the act. At any point after the fact the woman feels she was "wronged" she can claim rape and automatically the public is on her side.

If you look for cases where you can actually definitively say the accuser was lying, the number goes down to around 2%, or potentially even less. And then you have to consider why a woman might make a false rape accusation. An NYPD detective investigated this and found that a large percentage of that were mentally ill people, or people looking to get the police to come to their house because their spouse or parent was otherwise abusive. Of actual cases of a real, malicious false rape accusation, he couldn't even find ten out of several thousand rape reports. I lost track of the paper I read that in, so I can't cite it, but to my knowledge that's credible fact. Studies by other law enforcement agencies around the world have come up with pretty consistent numbers on this.A new study just came out that put the number below 1%, though I haven't read it yet. Nonetheless, people double down and start talking about feminist conspiracies to obscure the real numbers and point to a couple confused and thoroughly discredited studies as evidence. It's all a lot of hateful, preconceived nonsense, of course. Sadly, you hear the false accusation thing from liberals as often as conservatives. Best to just admit that there are a shit ton of so-called progressives who don't give a fuck about rape victims. I'm sure that's proven by the comments on this video as it is by every TYT video about sexual violence.

When we think of rape, we assume that it is predominatly a crime where women are victims and men are perpetrators. Of course men get raped too, but then it is probably a man that is the aggressor. If we define rape as "any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person." And look at the cdc 2010 report we get a completly different picture. In Table 2.1 we get 1,270,000 women who where raped in the last 12 month. In Table 2.2 we get 1,267,000 men that were "made to penetrate" in the last 12 month. So that is realy surprising, 50% of rape victims are men. But the second assumption still stands. Sadly the gender of the perpetrator for the 12 month period isn't available, so we have to use the lifetime stats. We find those under gender of Perpetrator on page 24 under "Sex of Perpetrator in Lifetime Reports of Sexual Violence" Female victimes of rape reported 98.1% male perpetrators. Male victims of "made to penetrate" reported 79.2% femle perpetrators. So overall we get 50% of rape victims are men and 40% of rape victims are raped by women. www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf

No matter how small of a percentage false accusations are, it's not small enough. False accusations of rape are an insult to actual rape victims and they put innocent people in jail. Falsely accusing someone of rape (which puts them in jail for 20+ years and causes everyone to loathe them forever) is even worse than rape itself.

I also LOVE that Ana says "Oh people accused of rape will stand trial" As if people like Woody Allen (who, I'm not sure if he's guilty or not) have had their name DRAGGED THROUGH THE MUD because he is ACCUSED of rape.

I am a victim of false sexual assault accusations, and suffered significantly for it. The prejudice against men in these cases is very real.

I'd rather be falsely accused of rape than allow someone do be raped anyway.

if you care about tour own rights as a man and a father its unfortunate that you HAVE to vote republican to protect yourself and your own rights. if it wasnt for republican legisation the crazy trend of women who feel raped after you break up with them because theyre mad at you and you could get locked up ended. i know what im saying is massively unpopular but its true and it happens. This doesnt dismiss scumbag men who are sick, They deserve to go to jail. but normal people shouldnt havent to suffer because of crazy liberal policies or a women who got drunk and feel bad about their own behavior.

This is why I believe rape accusations should be dealt with on a case by case basis, and political groups (including feminists) should not be allowed to have any influence on official policy with regard to rape.

As much as we would like to believe the opposite, there does exist a double standard in cases of rape. I've known individuals from both sexes who have been victim of sexual rape, and as much as I am disgusted by the act, there does exist a sort of societal biased inclining the aggressor as the male. This may be the case in a larger percentage of incidents, but it would be unjust to view rape cases with a "one-size-fit-all" biased

I have to question the 8% for a simple reason: it doesn't account for BOTH parties being intoxicated. The allegation is that in the case of BOTH parties being drunk, the male is almost always found to be the guilty party. That's the issue being raised: that if both parties were drinking, consented, and then the woman regrets it in the morning, the male will almost always lose (and if not in court, often university policies are far more strict, and with far lower evidenciary standards, resulting in sanctions or expulsion simply as a result of the charge). That's the double-standard being spoken to. Granted, the law is clear when it comes to intoxication and consent (you can't give it), but the fact remains that in the event of both parties being intoxicated (as noted even in the video, this makes up most of the cases), the male is fighting an up-hill battle and is effectively presumed to be the guilty party. This is only one of a number of sexist double-standards, alongside the clear bias in favor of women when it comes to custody disputes, alimony, etc. The fact is, sexism does exist, and the stereotypes of women as home-makers, child-raisers, and submissive to males, very much influence the cases where these stereotypes come up. This is not to marginalize the real cases of women taken advantage of while drinking, the mother being the better-suited or better-able to raise a child, etc., but rather to point out the unfairness in this report marginalizing the very sexist double-standard AGAINST males. If Jane and I have a few drinks and decide to hook up, I shouldn't need to worry about her changing her mind a week later and find myself up on charges a month after that. I've had my own share of drunken hook-ups that I regretted after the fact, but I certainly didn't decide to take out my embarassment inthe form of rape charges; I accept that we were both drunk and I made a poor choice in giving consent, but own up to the fact that I did consent. Unfortunately, we're not big on personal responsibility these days, and the number of cases of regret and embarassment (often encouraged by peer pressure; "oh-em-gee, did you seriously fuck that guy?!") that result in destroying lives rather than learning from a moment of poor judgement, however small they may be, are not something that should be ignored. We have to remember that the mere ACCUSATION of a sexual offense is sufficient to destroy someone's entire future, no matter how solid their defense or victory is (even if there's no trial, the accusation is enough). This holds even more true in the perspective of college, where presumably you're aiming for a "real" job, not some at-will position that pays at most 50% over minimum wage. Our system, after all, is predicated on the idea that it's better to let 10 criminals go rather than imprison 1 innocent; in this case, it doesn't matter if you're convicted or not, because your life is destroyed either way. Final point: I'd be curious to see the numbers on cases where both parties were intoxicated and also met the other disqualifying criteria mentioned. That's the real number, in my opinion, because if you're both drunk, one is just as capable of being the victim as the other (or there may be no victim at all). If you're both drunk, neither could consent, so did they BOTH commit rape? Or was there no rape, and just two drunk people regretting their poor, drunken judgement? That is the issue here, and I don't see that it's really been addressed at all.

There are certain crimes that guilt or innocence are pretty much irrelevant. Rape and child molestation come to mind. By this, I mean if somebody even decides to accuse a person of these such crimes, regardless of the outcome of the trial, or truth or falsities of the trial, that person's reputation is destroyed and they are forever marked. Losing their job is the amongst the smaller concerns, compared to being quite literally run out of their home, town or even state. Given the gravity of such charges, there should not be any biases as far male vs female, and there should definitely have to be evidence to back up charges. Eight percent unfounded, is way, way too high with charges that carry such absolute and total damage, regardless of guilt of innocence.

"In most of the cases, the guy held her down, or she was passed out to begin with and couldn't give consent" In most of the cases (which cases, sex or alleged rape?) If sex, obviously not, most drunken sex is not rape. If allegations, then NO, by very definition of school policy, drunken sex is ALWAYS rape. That is a blanket allegation. It doesn't matter what Dick says, or what Jane says, it IS, LITERALLY, sexual assault, by him. So drunken sex is illegal for males, so, if she doesn't report him, is she a co-conspirator? She would be sober now and aiding and abetting a felon. I'm so glad we do not live in a police state.

Drunk sex isn't rape, passed out sex is, the difference is massive. As a person who has been unfairly accused by third parties of such horrific violation of a womans privacy I'll always voice my discontent with the overboard generalizations that surface from time to time.

Sorry guys, but 8% is an enormous number of false accusations, when getting sent to jail for rape will fuck up your life far more than being raped. Let alone all the false accusations that actually succeed in getting the guy charged.

where are all these women sexually assaulting me while Im asleep! lol

Consent is a consistent and ongoing thing though. She may have said yes at the bar when she was tipsy but once she's back at your place and starts sobering up and says no you stop. You guys are acting as though saying yes once overrides any no said during the act. Married women can be raped by their husbands so I don't even know why you brought up that argument.

Cenk i think the journalist wasn't talking about completely unfounded claims. What it appears to me is that he was talking about situations like regret or guilt, where someone just regrets a decision they made so while the act happened and in the moment it was consensual like people make all the time drinking, some people in the morning will report it as rape out of guilt. Someone in a relationship for example makes a bad decision after a few drinks..... That being said you retards who will comment (call me psychic) with a hilarious sense of undeserved morality save it because i'm just pointing out what i think the reporter meant, not my opinion on it.

The problem with rape is that it is in essence a thought crime. In many cases, it is not clear by the actions alone. You have to determine who was aware of what and what intentions each person had. That's why any objective definition of rape either includes too much or too little.

Just gonna say that being accused of rape while legally doesn't mean you are guilty. But in terms of social perception. There's no recovering from a rape accusation. We always assume the guy is guilty.

That 8% of false reports are those reports that have been *found as false beyond any reasonable doubt*. Then you have a whole host of reports in which the case is dismissed or the alleged aggressor is found not guilty. Obviously a guilty person can be found not guilty due to lack of evidence, *but having a lack of evidence might also mean that the person wasn't guilty in the first place meaning they were a victim of a false allegation which wouldn't count toward that 8%.*" The rate of false rape allegations is necessarily higher once you take that into account, but how much higher is completely unknown.

Here is a riddle for you So if an under age boy rapes a woman who is legal age of consent but is passed out drunk, who's the rapist?

It may be true that only 8% of rape accusation are considered false under the law, but if the legal definition of rape includes instances where two consenting participants were both intoxicated, then I would argue that some of those accusations are morally false even if they're not legally false. As for unreported rapes, I'm curious how they come up with those statistics. I'm always hearing that rape is one of the least reported crimes, but how do they determine that? And what qualifies as an unreported rape? For instance, suppose that you have two kids dating in high school. He's 18 and she's 17. They have consensual sex. Now, under the law, he's guilty of statutory rape, because the law considers him an adult and her a minor. However, this is unlikely to be reported, because the 17 year old is unlikely to feel that she was the victim of rape, even if the law says that she was. Would this situation be counted as an unreported rape?

Where do people pull these numbers of so-and-so per cent of rapes not being reported if they were, you know, NOT REPORTED?

I have a question about the 8% how many of the " actual accounts of rape" were convicted based on this idea that if two people are drunk it = rape, because I know for a fact people have been charged on that basis.

But what if both partners are intoxicated? With they both be rape victims and rapists at the same time? And chould they later share their jail cell?

If you drink or take drugs and you know you become slutty, that is on you. I have the same vitriol toward violent drunks and drunk drivers. There is a reason people drink at clubs and parties, to break down their Puritanical barrier. Just because you woke up next to Big Foot because of beer goggles doesn't mean rape. If a guy takes advantage of a passed out girl or force a woman, that is rape. Let the courts decide since we are under the rule of law.

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8% of the time they are found innocent, there is a difference between that and how many actually are innocent

I think that very often, a girl gets drunk wants have sex, does it. And then when she is completely sober, she sincerely feels like she was rape/taken advantage of..I attribute this to the fact that women get labeled as sluts for acting on their desires,instead of people accepting women as beings that love sex too.

The Stanford policy is ridiculous

What he says is true, when two people get drunk and both consent or if a woman rapes a drunk man and regrets it then it's the man who loses his job and gets jail.

Legally speaking I was raped, I was drunk beyond the point where i could make any reasoned decision, (she was on top, I was to drunk to be on top) but I don't mind I know It was implied consent(Been making out and want not for hours) therefore it wasn't rape as far as I'm concerned.(I'm an adult I can take responsibility for my actions) These so called rapes that happen when the girl is to drunk to say no, you should have gone home before that point, you shouldn't have drunk that much and you shouldn't have flirted/made out whit the "rapist". In short, you gave implied consent it's your fault.

If some guy passes out and some girl takes advantage of that has sex with him and has to find out the next morning this girl did that to him without him knowing that is rape....it goes both ways. Many dont talk about it but i know men that have told me this has happened and they cant do anything yet they were violated

Freakiest thing about the piece; "Unfounded rape accusations account for 8% of all reports." That is a lot! I would have guessed about 3%." As for the rest, drunk sex is involved in most one night stands, no biggie, but if a girl is too really too drunk to give consent, then an assault has occurred. (No idea what BAL constitutes too drunk to give consent.)

It bothers me when they talk about rape statistics so confidently. Its a crime where, in the majority of cases, there was only two people involved. Meaning, without dna evidence, the only evidence is the word of the alleged victim. You have no fucking clue what percentage of rapes go unreported or what percentage of rape claims are false. I want justice just as much as the next person, but these "stats" don't do a god damn thing to help. If anything these ridiculous sounding statistics make me feel less sympathetic.

Some of the most understandable, intelligent conversations about real, current and ongoing controversies. Love you guys

Anna, a rape accusation not being proven doesn't count as a false rape accusation. They only count accusations as false if they can prove that the accuser was lying (through their own confession, for example)

Why is it so hard to agree, that Rape is Evil - and falsely accusing someone of rape is just as Evil? I agree that there could be a double standard there... I mean, Men can be raped. So clearly, if both participants are drunk, then neither of them can make a conscious decision, then both of them have committed rape against the other. Not the man, nor the woman. Both them. And this needs to be accepted. And I think, that if two people make the prior agreement to have sex, then I can understand, why, if they are in a present relationship, one wouldn't consider their partner changing their mind. I mean, common sense has to be employed here. You can't place an arbitrary line on it - that's why we have trials and juries. If it was a matter of ticking a box, we'd only need a judge. But seriously people. I get that some people's lives have been ruined by false rape accusations. I have hread some HARROWING Accounts of young men and boys, who lose their virginity in one drunken night, and the next are chucked in a jail cell at the behest of a guilty young girl and her angry father. But that doesn't mean Rape DOESN'T happen - or that it is not wrong. You can't divide it into CRAZY FEMINISTS and BASTARD MISOGYNISTS. That isn't the case and only and idiot would think that it was.

I sort of agree with him except men are usually stronger physically and if they are both drunk but the woman clearly says no then there's a problem. The women usually bear at least some responsibility unless it's a blatant abuse of power on the part of the man.

The drunk driving analogy is flawed, since it assumed both drunk drivers are equally reckless -which is rarely the case when it comes to rape. A better analogy would be if Drunk Driver #1 is speeding, swerving, runs a stop sign and rams into Drunk Driver #2, who was backing into their driveway, and has to be rushed to the hospital with a broken leg. Are both drivers culpable for DUI? Yes, but Drunk Driver #1 is the one who is going to jail for vehicular assault, and rightly so.

4:10 8% seems like a small number, until it completely ruins your life when you are falsely labelled as a rapist in the public opinion.

Everyone has their opinion but RAPE simply means NON CONSENSUAL.. So if I am blacked out & the man I am staying with knows this & he has sex with me then it is considered rape only if he knew you had no idea what was going on. If the girl is blacked out but looks the guy straight in the eye during intercourse & he is not aware that she isn't fully aware/capable of making her own decisions then that's the difference.

Rape is a serious, horrible crime and these types of issues only serve to complicate the problem. I think, perhaps a lesser charge for these drunken assaults and prosecution of people who make provably false accusations would be helpful. I realize alot of people will say, rape is rape, but I think there is a big difference between being brutally raped and getting taken advantage of. The damage both physically and psychologically are much more severe in the first than the later. It is also generally perpetrated by two completely different types of people. 

if the women is passed out how could she know if she was raped? likewise if the tree falls in the forest and no one hears it did it fall?

The problem is that the US justice system bases itself too much on precedents instead of taking everything case by case.

Wanna hear the middle ground? It's when both realize that a mistake happened so no one wants to report anything. Legally they COULD report, but they chose not to. No one intentionally exploited anyone. Unfortunately that means that every time you have sex with some one incapable of giving consent you take the risk of being accused of rape if your partner feels exploited. We simply HAVE to respect it when people feel they've been sexually exploited and find it necessary to report it. If you're in doubt that this person will not regret having sex with you once sobered up and you're conscious enough to say no then don't have have sex with that person. This will of course have a negative impact on the free flow of casual hook ups but that takes second priority to preventing rape.

when a guy gets drunk and have sex with someone he wouldn't have sex with sober, he gets up, shakes it off and laughs about it the next day. when the same thing happens to a woman she is raped. not saying that rape isn't an issue but those kind of cases inflate the numbers and they make it harder to prosecute real rape cases. we need to stop telling women that they are going to get raped, because it puts the thought in their head and all of the sudden every man is a potential rapist, and if you thought that every person is a pickpocket then every time you miss place your wallet you'll assume that anyone that stood next to you or pumped into you stole it.

Okay so just don't have sex with intoxicated people - simple. What's so unreasonable about that?

8% is a huge amount! What the hell?! Also, those FBI _guidelines_ aren't rigid, they are factors that are considered when deciding if a rape occurred or not.

im down with taking rape seriously, but i do think a healthy lack of zeal in the matter is also warranted. solid scrutiny should be brought to every rape case or else we let our propensity to turn accusations into a witch hunt and force peoples reputations and lives into an abyss a la Brian Banks.

Two questions about the Stanford definition. What happens if both people have alcohol in the system, are they bother charged with sexual assault? Secondly how often is a female charged or something under this definition?

The expert in the psychology of technical game analysis say's ABOUT 17% of rape that occur are rape. The rest both parties are equally involved! Ken Woods MA.

Wait, so if I lie down and just decide not to fight back while my best friend holds me down because I don't wanna get hurt? That doesn't count?? That's insane.

UVA show clearly the causal nature motivating false rape accusations. It also shows how the general population automatically assumed guilt of the men accused. if it were not for one or two men willing to investigate a bit further, the lives of several innocent fraternity men would be completely ruined, and at no point would the woman behind the false allegation feel an inch of remorse for the damage she might have done, (and still doesn't.) And that's the central issue. Since there is no real consequence for women making false rape accusations, there's little reason for several women not to do so out of spite, vindictiveness or simply to make a man suffer horribly for any reason. What college men on campuses need to be taught is to extremely careful of the female company they keep and always keep in the forefront of their minds to proceed with extreme caution with campus women. Always make sure there are witnesses, don't offer them drinks, and take time out to find out about her past and if she ever made an allegation before. If so, run the other way and don't look back.

This was very eye opening. Thank you for reporting on this. Maybe the right person will see it and something will be done.

False accusation isn't the main issue, but that's not to say that it isn't an issue. The stigma of rape is life ruining, and for innocent parties that's beyond ruining. I'd also like to see where the numbers come from. Do they come from convictions? Because a problem that James Taranto should have been addressing is situations where the conflict boils down to "their word against ours". In many rapes, there is unsuitable evidence, and the law leans towards to the women. It gives them the benefit of the doubt, which is great for women, but disastrous in the case of false accusation (and can skew the figures significantly). A word for the comments. If you refer disparagingly to "MRA"s, or "Femists/Feminazis", your opinion is invalid, as you can't raise yourself above petty side taking.

A rape accusation can destroy a man's life . But you're right it's only 8pct it's not a big deal.

And people are saying India has a rape problem. We can't even get our stuff together...

Ana you missed some. that actually drives the figure down from 8% There was not evidence of Forced sexual activity. Evidence contradicting the "victim's claim, And also aligations that do not get investigated in other words a grou of women cliaming a taxi driver raped them and evidence was provided on the spot that they were lying. Also I would like to point out the women who ACTUALLY tried this were not charged of a crime. So to try and downplay the numbers speculating that there is erroneous factors is just as bad as saying if a woman orgasm's she wasn't raped.

I'm not gonna lie, I thought this was going to about how some say it is impossible for a woman to rape a man.

as a woman who likes her liquer occasionally - it is my decision to drink and get intoxicated. if in such state i agree to have sex with somebody, that is my wrong decision that i may regret later, but i am the one to be blamed and that is not rape at all. but if somebody puts something in my drink or fucks me without my stated content, then it is rape. unfortunatelly lines are rather blurred sometimes... but before telling women not to get drunk, it would be better to tell guys to always ask for content and if they are not sure, better not to do it. and yeah, i am talking about male rapist, because it is much easier for a man to rape a woman than visa versa. men needs to have physical reaction to be able to have sex.

I remember when I was in university and I was afraid of getting accused of rape if I were to take home a drunk girl. Fortunately, I never did but it was a huge fear of mine. Now as an adult, I know that drunk sex sucks anyways so I don't even get into those kinds of situations.

As a note, from my vary limited experience, a lot of false accusations of rape never involve the police. A guy I new in college was sleeping with a woman who had a boyfriend, when her boyfriend found out about her cheating she claimed she was raped, and when he broke up with her she tried to enter into a relationship with her supposed rapist. Another case I heard of from a friend was a woman who claimed to be raped by her boss in a large company. The boss claimed that she was trying to get revenge on him because she was (repeatedly) turned down for promotions. When the company tried to get the police involved she tried to back out of her accusations, and when a co-worker produced emails where she suggested that she would get him fired for promoting someone else she was fired. Now, I see nothing wrong with claiming that most people who claim that someone raped them are telling the truth (as they see it) but why these crimes should be investigated by the police and not by an institution like a college is because there are a lot of crazy people in the world who will claim anything for just about any reason.

1:10 when you're drunk you can't make conscious decisions....

I disagree, TYT, you guys didn't do much digging on this story and came to a lot of assumptions.

I know two victims of false reports, so the issue sketches me out. And in my eyes I think false reporting is a large issue. I also know some other girls that have lied about being rapped in the past just to make people feel bad for them. No joke.

Jesus Christ. This was a vaudeville act. At 6:30 I swear to god, you both became Abott and Costello. This is a professional story? Did you look at the statistics at all or visit Gawker for your take? Cenk: Heeeeey Abottt!

I had a philosophy professor provide a situation that we had to respond to. It was essentially a story about a man and a woman. I forget the exact premise, but the man was suppose to be driving the woman to her home, but instead drives her to his house. She willingly goes inside after saying that she wanted to go home instead. Once inside, he asks if she wants a drink, and she willingly drinks. Despite her asking to be taken back home, she continues drinking as he continues to press her to keep drinking (the assumption is that it's a mutual situation, they're both drinking and he's encouraging her to drink more). They end up sleeping together, and the next morning the woman thinks she was raped because she had initially told him she wanted to go home. I mean, people argue everyday that this is a case of rape.

I gots a question for ya. If a women or man decided to have sex with someone and that some one fell asleep right before the end, is it rape to finish.