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Is it me, or is this just horrific?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Trafficking of women is something that actually goes on in the UK today. That is, women are tricked (or occasionally) kidnapped or sold from their home country to come to the UK, be locked in a room and forced to have sex, sometimes with up to 40 men a day. They don't receive a penny for what they get and get beaten up, sometimes even with chains and baseball bats if they attempt to keep a tip.
How come there isn't anything in the UK that provides support or protection for women in the UK who have been through this ordeal? There's ONE shelter... Is it me or is that just disgusting? And the women if they end up in the 'safety' of the police are treated like prostitutes or illegal immigrants... I read a lot about this in an Amnesty newsletter and it moved me...
But does anybody else think these women should be treated like illegal immigrants? Should punishment be harsher on men?
Shouldn't these men be sentenced with not just sex offences, but offenses of keeping slaves and human rights abuses?
How come there isn't anything in the UK that provides support or protection for women in the UK who have been through this ordeal? There's ONE shelter... Is it me or is that just disgusting? And the women if they end up in the 'safety' of the police are treated like prostitutes or illegal immigrants... I read a lot about this in an Amnesty newsletter and it moved me...
But does anybody else think these women should be treated like illegal immigrants? Should punishment be harsher on men?
Shouldn't these men be sentenced with not just sex offences, but offenses of keeping slaves and human rights abuses?
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Comments
Basically the attitude to foreigners in this country is appalling, if these were English women you would imagine their might well be more attention but because immigrants are given such little respect here it isn't surprising that nobody cares about these poor women or that they have nowhere to turn because they are effectively guilty of the 'crime' of immigration and will be treated as such..........
But what do you expect from a country that allows the only national Rape Crisis helpline fold for the sake of fifty thousand pounds?
It's nothing compared to the budget of the country.
It's about power mainly. "Men rape because they can". Quoting some figures from this article 50,000 rapes occur each year with 600 convictions. Using the figures quoted, about 11,000 of those 50,000 rapes (1 in 5 for simplicity?) are reported, which gives about a 5% chance of conviction if you want to be dragged through the court process.
A rapist who knew anything about statistics and probability wouldn't ever be worried about getting caught. To draw a parallel with how utterly incompetent our police force is, even if you get a big JCB in the middle of the night (and there arent that many JCBs around - you need to have got it from somewhere) and driving it into a bank, then using cutting tools while the alarm goes off and CCTV catches your face (since we have more CCTV cameras per mile than any other country in the world) then drive off in a red 4x4 with the money, you'll probably get away with it. http://www.itn.co.uk/news/1304807.html http://www.shropshirestar.com/show_article.php?aID=36763
With most crimes there are very few leads to go on, so how the hell would you catch anyone, do you have an amazing strategy that no-one else has though of?
This is one of the arguments for a genetic database. If evryone had their DNA on database, and with advances in tech to make it fool proff (if this is possible, I am not sure)
= 100% rape conviction rate...............
If you read my 2nd source (quoting the 50,000 rapes, 600 convictions) then it points out that previously (1984 I *think*) conviction rates were far higher. Now, even if that's because more cases are reported now, surely it would remain proportional. So that the small percentage of reported rapes then would still yield a 5% conviction rate rather than a 33% conviction rate that they actually do. Either people were being convicted on less evidence than is required today (so maybe not as thorough) or maybe because it is one of those 'your word against mine' in so many cases type of crimes, then the lawyers / barristers have wised up and know how to get people off the hook.
One of the most devastating things for many people is that they know they've been raped, and they've told their family and such and it's true... yet the police (even though they might think its the case) wont have the evidence to prove it. By removing the justice from the immediate victims etc. and making the state take care of it, it is more fair, but it's less efficient. As far as I can see anyway. Wouldn't want it to change mind you, vigilante justice is too cruel.
Yes it does seem strange that rates would have dropped, I don't know why that would be tbh........
On the note of vigilante justice and the issue of sufficient evidence, there is a film which I haven't seen but have read about, where a woman gets raped and her boyfriend and browth find the person they think did it and torture him to death only to find out later that it was someone else entirely.
Not a situation we would want really, that is why it is important to do things properly but like you say the result will be that very few are ever caught because it is so diffcult to get a good case together.......
Mum bought it because the book she wanted was buy one get one free or something, so she gave me it. I cried, start to finish. I even took it with me to my boyfriends so I could finish it sooner.
There are some goddamn weirdos out there. :extreme anger:
I was shocked when I saw about the Children been trafficed and exploited after the Tsunami... how can anyone bring themselves to do that? For fucks sake, those poor fucking kids are going through hell at that time, and some sick bastard cunt decides to use them for that.
I'd shoot the lot of the fuckers.
hanged, technically. and no, they shouldn't. why would you want such a quick clean death?
Well it's the most sensible way of killing someone...I don't wish death on many people and when I do, they at least deserve a quick death.
Let me just put my defence lawyer person hat on for a minute.
The problem is that because of the poor conviction rate for rape, much more pressure has now been put on the CPS to proceed with any rape prosecution, regardless of chance. The CPS do this to a large extent, but more cases are being proceeded with that simply are eitehr without merit or won't win, and therefore the conviction rate drops even lower.
I believe that there should be specialist rape prosecution solicitors and counsel, because unless the rapist is the traditional stranger in an alleyway with a gun/knife then quite often it is very very easy for a good defence counsel to get the man off. Non-specialist solicitors and counsel miss things and don't know how to cross-examine properly, and don't know how to convince the jury that a woman's history and a man's history has nothing to do with the likelihood of rape.
A conviction rate would be much higher if there were specialist prosecution lawyers and counsel. But sadly rape is always a hard one to convict on unless the rapist is the "traditional" knife-wielding maniac, and even then it is very hard to convict if the woman was drunk or wearing "slutty" clothing.
The biggest problem facing rape prosecutors is the fact that most juries are demented morons, and my experiences with juries have made me lose all faith in the intelligence of human beings.
There needs to be much better facilities for women (and men) to come forward and be examined, have urine taken, etc. as soon as possible and by dedicated teams. I know this is happening in some areas but not many.
I am dubious about moving the balance of proof, its to use a over used term 'a slippery slope'. Though using special teams to prosecute as Kermit suggested would be a big improvement.
Also treating rape as a mental health issue after conviction would also really cut down on re-offending.