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Your argument is compelling. I only know one woman who has confided in me that she was raped once. She told me this many years after it happened and a lot of her behaviors suddenly made sense as she explained the impact on her life. With that one brief insight, I got a chilling look- just a peek- at just how horrible the long term damage can be.
Trouble is- I am personally aware of 3 situations dealing with friends in my life who were falsely accused. In all 3 cases, the women admitted they faked the charge for a specific reason (self-serving- wanting to not get in trouble) before any charges were filed. In all 3 cases, the young men paid a personal price- one lost his appointment to West Point just because he had even been associated with such a charge. And none of the women were ever prosecuted or otherwise held accountable.
And that is the terrible balance to be struck.
Prosecuting false claimants is tricky I think for 2 reasons,
1. The legal system is already overburdened.
2. If a real victim knows she might be prosecuted if for some reason she is not believed, then it will be one more reason (and there are too many already) for a woman to suffer in silence and not report a rape at all.
I like that idea at a prosecutor's discretion (they already have it surely) if it seems warranted, but then again perhaps civil court is the answer. The man could sue for defamation if he thought it worth it.
But keeping both sides unidentified until a verdict is reached in the case just makes more sense to me. And then if the man is guilty, certainly release the information at that point.
And I could buy keeping the woman anonymous forever. You make sense there. My main hope is for there to be a way for the accused to have the same protections over such a serious charge which, by the nature of the crime, is more easily falsely made than many others.
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