Oh dear, here we go again.

This week sees the publication of a survey carried out by the Havens and the metropolitan police into women’s attitudes to rape.

At first glance the survey seems to spell doom and gloom. One in ten women think that rape allegations are probably false. But if we look at that the other way round this shows that 9 in 10 women believe that a woman reporting a rape to the police is telling the truth, which surely paints a much more optimistic picture about attitudes to this type of crime.

It is often said that the media’s portrayal of rape is what needs to be looked at, challenged and changed. While I agree with that, what I also think is that we need to be educating everybody about what rape actually is, and when and how it occurs.

Newspapers love to portray rape as something that happens to a scantily clad woman who is trotting down a dark alleyway at three in the morning, possibly drunk, when the reality is that it is much more likely to be committed by someone the woman knows and has known for some time. In this respect I can see why some women accuse all men of being potential rapists, but I don’t actually buy into that theory. Not all men are beasts who can’t control themselves. And a man who will rape once will surely rape again and again. So, one rapist may have many victims.

In a way it’s a good thing to keep this topic in the news in an attempt to dispel the many, many myths of rape but I’m not sure that this sort of reportage is any better than a tabloid purporting the myth of stranger in a dark alley way. And, let us also not forget that it is not only women who are the victims of rape and to ignore the male victims of this crime is to make it so much harder for them to report to the police or to seek any kind of help.

These surveys and reports highlight just how far we still have to go when dealing with crimes as sensitive as this.

So just before I leave, I have something to admit. I love Hugh Laurie (sorry Stuart). I was watching the most recent season on dvd well into the night and the acting was brilliant! I would highly recommend this one to all of you…

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