I would agree that in a domestic violence situation in the US, the police are more likely to believe the woman than the man. That said, the second sentence of your PSA is just a specification of the general rule that criminal courts tend to defer to police judgment in practice. Your last sentence is useful practical advise, at least right now (unfortunately).
In short, the second sentence is a specific application of a separate, gender-neutral problem with the way US society (particularly the criminal justice system) is organized. And the first sentence (“few legal protections against women”) is false as written. If it is read as limited to DV situations, it adds no information above the latter two sentences. If it is not read in that limited manner, it is easily falsified, even in the criminal context.
Don’t assume because I didn’t provide more examples of how this information applies doesn’t mean there aren’t any. That was deliberate. If you want a hint, you can look into gender sentencing bias, plaintiff gender bias, and maybe, to see the far end of it, how courts have ruled on child support payments from statutory rape victims when the victim is male—those aren’t the only cases when rape victims have paid child support to their rapists, but they’re the easiest to find and the least horrifying to consider. You probably don’t want the full picture. The shape of its edges is bad enough. Just know that in any legal exchange you’ll be severely handicapped and there exists effective blackmail material against you at all times regardless of your actions and if you -do- get attacked you should have no expectation of legal support.
And yes, I do speak somewhat from experience, and this is information I -really- could have used about four years ago. No, it’s not as horrible as it could be. Yes, it has scared the crap out of me, in large part because I didn’t even realize there was a hazard there. Hence the PSA.
I’m sorry that you had a difficult time in your encounter with the legal system.
As a practical matter, there are some differences in how supposedly neutral laws are applied based on the sex / gender of the participants, even if the law as written says there aren’t. The way the legal world looks when the rubber meets the road can (and often is) very different than one would think if one only read appeals decisions.
An example for your hobbyhorse: It’s an undeniable fact that female statutory rape defendants are sentenced less harshly that male statutory rape defendants. But that’s not a fact about the law as written. If a law were actually written that way, it would be invalid.
Your PSA made an assertion about the law as written, and that statement was wrong. I’m speaking as an expert on the subject.
If you want to talk about the problems identified in places like Three Felonies per Day, I agree already. But that’s not really a sex / gender issue because we’re all equally vulnerable.
I would agree that in a domestic violence situation in the US, the police are more likely to believe the woman than the man. That said, the second sentence of your PSA is just a specification of the general rule that criminal courts tend to defer to police judgment in practice. Your last sentence is useful practical advise, at least right now (unfortunately).
In short, the second sentence is a specific application of a separate, gender-neutral problem with the way US society (particularly the criminal justice system) is organized. And the first sentence (“few legal protections against women”) is false as written. If it is read as limited to DV situations, it adds no information above the latter two sentences. If it is not read in that limited manner, it is easily falsified, even in the criminal context.
Don’t assume because I didn’t provide more examples of how this information applies doesn’t mean there aren’t any. That was deliberate. If you want a hint, you can look into gender sentencing bias, plaintiff gender bias, and maybe, to see the far end of it, how courts have ruled on child support payments from statutory rape victims when the victim is male—those aren’t the only cases when rape victims have paid child support to their rapists, but they’re the easiest to find and the least horrifying to consider. You probably don’t want the full picture. The shape of its edges is bad enough. Just know that in any legal exchange you’ll be severely handicapped and there exists effective blackmail material against you at all times regardless of your actions and if you -do- get attacked you should have no expectation of legal support.
And yes, I do speak somewhat from experience, and this is information I -really- could have used about four years ago. No, it’s not as horrible as it could be. Yes, it has scared the crap out of me, in large part because I didn’t even realize there was a hazard there. Hence the PSA.
I’m sorry that you had a difficult time in your encounter with the legal system.
As a practical matter, there are some differences in how supposedly neutral laws are applied based on the sex / gender of the participants, even if the law as written says there aren’t. The way the legal world looks when the rubber meets the road can (and often is) very different than one would think if one only read appeals decisions.
An example for your hobbyhorse: It’s an undeniable fact that female statutory rape defendants are sentenced less harshly that male statutory rape defendants. But that’s not a fact about the law as written. If a law were actually written that way, it would be invalid.
Your PSA made an assertion about the law as written, and that statement was wrong. I’m speaking as an expert on the subject.
If you want to talk about the problems identified in places like Three Felonies per Day, I agree already. But that’s not really a sex / gender issue because we’re all equally vulnerable.