Is there less rape these days?

[Berkut]

BB, I appreciate your patience in explaining this to me.

[Barrister]

BB, I appreciate your patience in explaining this to me.

No prob.  I enjoy talking about this stuff - after all it's what I've trained to do and what I know, so I love that people find it interesting.  I even love it when people challenge me as it forces me to go back to basic principles I know, but can always use a refresher on.

[Caliga]

After having read through this, I found an interesting point in one of Beeb's post.  He said something about feeling the need to have reasonable suspicion of guilt before bringing someone to trial, not necessarily absolute certainty of guilt.  I think I agree that on a basic level this is indeed his job and there's nothing wrong with him conducting himself like that.

However, does the morality of conducting prosecutions this way change in a world where, as soon as someone is indicted, there's a chance their name/face will be splashed all over the newspapers/TV/radio?  Should the burden of proof be higher, internally, given the potential of even an accusation by the government disrupting someone's life?

I pose this as a completely unloaded question... I don't have any clue what the answer might be.

[Grey Fox]

BB, I appreciate your patience in explaining this to me.

That's different, eh?