非官方發佈資料 Unofficial Release
Reverse Sex Discrimination-
Its Adverse Social Effects
on
Legislation and Law Enforcement
- ref: /doc/art/12/Art20121205 -umblg-sex-sm
Dec 5, 2012
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Table of Content
1 PRELIMINARIES 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Personal Declaration and Disclaimer 1.2 Definition 1.3 Objectives 1.4 Methodology 1.5 Underlying Principles
2 BACKGROUND 2.1 Influence of Feministic Movement on the Society in the Last Five Decades 2.2 Unrealistic or Invalid Presumption in Law Making 2.3. Gender Inequality in the Court 2.4. Gender Inequality Against Males in Law Enforcement
3.
IRRATIONALITIES OF THE GENDER BIASED LEGISLATION AND PROSECUTORIAL POLICY AGAINST MALES 3.1 The practice or policy is unlawful and unconstitutional 3.2 The practice or policy is unprofessional 3.3 The policy is unscientific 3.4 The practice or policy is unethical 3.5 The practice or policy is illogical 3.6 Male Victims Endangered for Being Mistaken as Victimizer
4 THE ADVERSE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF FEMALE PRIVILEGS 4.1 Generating Anti-social and Anti-feminilist Feeling among Young Males 4.2 Facilitating False Allegation 4.3 Discrediting the Honest Female 4.4 Laying Down the Time Bomb of War between Two Sexes 4.5 Encouraging Enjo-kōsai 4.6 Contributing to the Development of Pornographic Industries 4.7 Induction of Lesbian and Homosexual Behavior 4.8 Deterioration of the Image of Social Workers
5. RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Strict Adherance to the Principle of Procedural Justice 5.2 Abolition of Invalid Presumption against Any Sex Especially Male 5.3 Effective Measure to Curb Selective Execution of Law or Prosecution against Males 5.4 Rectification of Misidentified Cases 5.5 The Romeo and Juliet Legislation and the Limits of Law 5.6 Mediation Preceding the Penalty Or Prosecution Regarding Underage Consensual Sex
6. CONCLUSION
TABLE
OF REFERENCES (By Category)
1. PRELIMINARIES
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This article is the new post of an article series which originated from a personal briefing paper on handling sexuality cases written by me for internal sharing among teachers, youth counselors, social workers, administrators and researchers almost twenty years ago. Additional topics were explored by me or my colleagues when new social issues like sex harassment, reverse sex harassment and sex discrimination as a management problem for the establishment of corporate culture were inputted. A submission adapted from this article was also submitted to the to the Law Reform Commission (LRC) in response to the consultation on “rape and non-consensual sex offences as we faithfully believe that both the “sex discrimination” and “reverse sex discrimination” prevent justice from being served on specific social groups especially in cases regarding sexual offences.
1.1 PERSONAL DECLARATION AND DISCLAIMER
The following opinions and informations are provided for referential and informational purposes. I and those who endorse this article, if there is any, truly believe that the sources of information is reliable but do not guarantee their accuracy or completeness. In all discussions, I faithfully maintain a balanced and objective view on any issue or opinion regardless the identity of the entity involved. Regarding the issues involving professional knowledge such as law, medicine, clinical psychology, etc, the information is offered as a general reference but not a professional advice or its substitute. All the literal works, either partial or complete, cited or attached herewith, if there is any, are obtained via legal channels open and accessible to the public including but not limited to the libraries, newspapers, magazines, official web sites or authorized sites of their respective authors. The citation of them is intended for facilitating public discussion and believed to be a fair use of copyrighted materials. The copyrights of them belong to their respective owners.
1.2 DEFINITIONS
1.3 OBJECTIVES
This article is intended to achieve the following goals:
1.4 METHODOLOGY
1.4.1 Intensive Use of Real Case and Precedents
Except those cases I have direct or indirect contact via my personal network with either the victim or victimizer or both of them, the information or statistic data of other real cases is obtained from the research reports published by prominent organizations, precedent cases in various jurisdictions where common law prevails, mass media or the official sites of relevant identifiable entities. The sources of these direct or indirect information will be duly remarked inline and listed in footnotes, endnotes or table of references attached to this article. If both the conventional printed version and digital version on internet are available, digital version is preferable and the URL will be provided. For reason of privacy protection and the adherence to the relevant laws and codes of practice, the use of the information of identifiable persons is confined to their act per se in the incident and feedback to the prevailing law and its enforcement regarding their cases. Details of their identities will be kept strictly confidential.
1.4.2 Critical Approach
It should be noted that the stance of the author and the organization behind him/her is inevitably reflected in the information and opinion released. The view expressed in a quoted reference is hence sometimes controversial. In all the cases cited in the research reports by independent local researchers or NGOs, the authors rarely challenged the action or judgment of the judiciary, the governmental departments or social service organizations in dealing with sexuality cases, nor the adherance to the principle of procedural justice. For instance, The authors of a research report published by the “End Child Sex Abuse Foundation”(護苗基金) in 2007 (Rmk.: 1.7吳惠貞: 探討涉及未成年性罪行的裁判與公義, 護苗基金(ECSAF) ) and a report by the “Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong” (ELCH信義會) (Rmk.: 1.8 林可欣, 竺永洪(2005-2006): 未成年人司法保護之實踐﹕「恢復性公義」於香港「警司警誡」個案的應用成果, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong (ELCHK信義會) ) took the nature of all cases as what they were said to be by the prosecution and law enforcement departments and then assessed the penalty from the perspective of females. They did not feel strange or uneasy to the unanimous prosecution against males while set females free in all cases even though the ages of both youths were very close (less than 4 years) and their sex activities were found consensual, let alone the maintenance of a critical manner towards the implied denial of “reverse sexual assault”. As a matter of fact, from the grievances of male survivors of sex allegation and reliable information obtained directly or indirectly from insiders, together with the disclosed statistical data, there are sufficient reasons and evidences to prove that reverse sexual assaults are not adequately recorded or even misreported as typical cases. Professor Ngai (Rmk 1.8 倪錫欽, BSocSc (HKU); MSW, PhD (CUHK); RSW) maintained a relatively more critical attitude towards the approaches and actions taken by the police in launching the “superintendent discretion program”.(Rmk 1.8 倪錫欽 (2004). 闡釋警司警誡令青少年跟進服務之發展) The foreign scholars and journalists seem to be more professional and critical minded in treating the official data. The truth is thus uncovered and problems discovered. In this article, while sticking to the principle of equity, I shall adopt a critical approach to analyze and examine the relevant opinions and informations critically with logic, empirical experience and relevant scientific findings from the perspective of males based on the following underlying principles.
1.5 UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES
1.5.1 Human Rights
According to the human rights principles as set forth by UNFPA (the United Nations Population Fund) , human rights are universal and inalienable; indivisible; interdependent and interrelated. They are universal because everyone is born with and possesses the same rights, regardless of where they live, their gender or race, or their religious, cultural or ethnic background. The basic human rights as provided in the “International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights” (ICCPR) are guaranteed by Article 39 of the Basic Law and implemented through the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
1.5.2 Gender Equality
Pursuant to the human rights principle, all individuals are equal as human beings and by virtue of the inherent dignity of each human person. No one, therefore, should suffer discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, gender, age, language, sexual orientation, religion, political or other opinion, national, social or geographical origin, disability, property, birth or other status as established by human rights standards. Sex discrimination are made unlawful under “Cap 480 the Sex Discrimination Ordinance”, which applies to both males and females. Therefore, gender equality is a goal for a civilized society to pursue. Neither unjust institutionalized male privileges nor female privileges should be granted to either sex. However, some people claim that “difference in capacities” such as “risk in pregnancy” should be counter balanced by some sort of institutionalized privileges for females. I personally accept on an equitable basis with reservation.
1.5.3 Truth
1.5.4 Justice
1.6 LEGEND IN THE article
1.6.1 Main Text- normal typeface in black color
“This is the sample of main text”
1.6.2 Title And Small Title- bold face in dark blue color
“THIS IS THE SAMPLE OF TITLE” and “This is the sample of small title”
1.6.3 Citation- Indented text in italic font in light blue color
“This is the sample of citation”
1.6.4 Case For Reference- In italic font in black color
"This is the sample of case for reference”
1.6.5 Key Point- normal typeface in red color
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END OF SECTION 1 REFERENCE:
Rmk. 1.1 Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_discrimination
Rmk 1.2 American Heritage Dictionary (http://www.ahdictionary.com/)
Rmk 1.3 Oxford English Dictionary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary)
Rmk 1.4 World Health Organization (WHO) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization)
Rmk 1.5 (http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/faq-female-privilege/ )
Rmk 1.6 United Nations Population Fund (http://www.unfpa.org/rights/)
Rmk 1.7吳惠貞: 探討涉及未成年性罪行的裁判與公義, 護苗基金(ECSAF) , (http://www.ecsaf.org/images/upload_images/file/Research%2003_2009.pdf)
Rmk 1.8 林可欣, 竺永洪(2005-2006): 未成年人司法保護之實踐﹕「恢復性公義」於香港「警司警誡」個案的應用成果, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong (ELCHK信義會)
Rmk 1.8 倪錫欽 (2004). 闡釋警司警誡令青少年跟進服務之發展 (http:// web.swk.cuhk.edu.hk/uploads/research/ebooks-ngaisy.doc ) 2. BACKGROUND
2.1 INFLUENCE OF FEMINISTIC MOVEMENT ON THE SOCIETY IN THE LAST FIVE DECADES
2.1.1 Achievements of Feminist Movement
In the last five decades since 1960s, we have witnessed a huge social and cultural change in the world. In Hong Kong, from 1971 onward, the women's feminist movement has made an all round improvement in gender equality. The polygamy, a symbolic icon of patriarchy, was legally banned in a law reform in the same year, followed by the adoption of an “equal pay for equal work for two genders” salary system in the government. Nowadays, gender equality has taken the moral high ground and become an irrefutable ethical appeal to the society.
2.1.2 Coexistence of Sex Discrimination and Reverse Sex Discrimination
However, it is too early to declare victory in the quest for a world of justice and equality. Feminists and their supporters claim that:
“Although many strides towards equality have been made over the years, women as a class have not yet leveled the playing field, much less been put in a position of power and authority equivalent to that which grants institutional power to men as a class.” (See Rmk. 2.1)
In Hong Kong, feminist movements have brought most females equal rights as males but only confined to ordinary people of the same social group or class only. Exploitation of females by males of upper class or privileged social groups continues to be a common social phenomenon. In the upper class, for instance, polygamy as an open secret still exists legally (or without violating the prevailing ordinance) in the form of mistress or else. On the mass media, females are kept being shaped into stereotyped role as object or consumable of sex for males by the tycoons of entertainment industries. Paternalism and patrilineality are still prevailing among the descendents of prominent big clans and indigenous people in New Territories. At the center of the elite class on the top of the social hierarchy, both the economic and political power are highly concentrated in the hands of males. Examples can be easily found.
On the other hand, at the grass roots and middle level of the society, the overdoing of the rectification of sex discrimination against females has created a number of gender inequalities against males in some areas. The gender biased context against males in legislation and law enforcement regarding sexual crime are typical issues worth our attention. In light of the patriarchal structure on the top of the social hierarchy, benevolent female privileges in the low and middle level society is therefore a showcase of feminist rights which can ease the pressure from the demand of feminists for gender equality on the elite class. In consequence, gender inequalities arising from sex discrimination and reverse sex discrimination coexist in the society.
2.1.3 Invisibility of the Oppressed Males
The first problem is well addressed and being tackled because the feminist movement gains more and more public recognition and support for taking the moral high ground by default in a patriarchal society. There are also a lot of documentary reflecting the feministic view on the issue. Nevertheless, the second problem seems to be invisible to the public and its adverse effects are underestimated.
Unreporting, under-reporting and/or misreporting is the first reason accounting for its invisibility to the public. Even the victims themselves may not know how common the problem is. The second reason for the invisibility of the oppressed males may attribute to the disparity of feeling, knowledge and life experience between the social elites and the general public. The problem is not recognized by the ruling class. The third reason may lie on the fear of condemnation by pro-feminists or sexists claiming to be feminists on the ground of ethical and political correctness.
In March, 2010, the UK “Stern Review” sets a new benchmark in discussions of rape and sexual assault by describing victims in gender-neutral language. Prior to the review, male rape was only recognized by English and Welsh law in 1994 and as a result there was little statistical history. According to the Stern Review, the victim was male in around 8% of all recorded rape cases. (See Rmk. 2.12) The unrecorded figure is thought to be far higher. “Mankind”, which is a UK charity body financed by the National Lottery for delivering specialist support services to men (18+) who have experienced childhood sexual abuse and/or adult sexual assault at any time in their lives, suggests that three in 20 men are victims of sexual violence – a figure that corresponds with statistics in the United States. (refer to <http://www.mankindcounselling.org.uk/index.php>) Neither takes into account instances of rape within prisons – to which there is a collective state of denial in the UK relative to the US. However, for pragmatic reasons, social activists rather fight for the rights of minority groups like homosexuals or ethnic minorities. Without their support and assistance, not only males at the bottom of the society are unable to theorize and voice out their grievances. Two years after the Stern Review, the well educated males of middle class are stilldesperate in addressing their complaints against reverse sexual harassment. The following is a recent news in UK:
“On October 22, 2012, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire reporter Russell Joslin, aged 50, who was well-known for his coverage of Stratford-upon-Avon and the surrounding district for many years, apparently killed himself and died in hospital. Mr Joslin’s family and his colleagues had called for a separate independent inquiry into allegations by the reporter that he was sexually harassed by a female colleague. His complaint was deemed to be inadequately handled by his bosses. “ (Rmk 2.2 & 2.3)
Negligence of the reverse sex harassment found in UK is not unique. In Hong Kong, similar grievances are received from time to time by some NGOs such as Caritas which caters supporting services to male survivors of sexual harassment/assaults. They complain that it is extremely hard for them to draw public attention to the problem . (See Rmk. 2.13am730: 鐵漢有口難言, 性騷擾無人信 24/10/2012 )
2.1.4 False Allegation and Reverse Sexual Assault Arising from Gender Biased Policy
The recognition of gender equality and reverse sexual harassment/assault is crucial to the pursue of justice. People working in the front line actually know the reality very well. They personally do take preventive measures to protect themselves. Now male social workers are advised not to maintain unmonitored contact with female clients, especially young girls. A probation officer was proud of his smartness when boasting how he protected himself against arbitrary or deliberate sex allegation on public transit by fully occupying both his hands with cell phone or else. A barrister admitted that males as a social group is institutionally vulnerable in contrast with females under the prevailing legal framework. A female social worker said that the sex behavior of some young girls were horrible. In many cases, females are no longer timid victim of sexual assault but the de facto victimizers. Nevertheless, it seems that they are all apathetic to the current miserable situation of males and the absurdity behind the scenario. At least, they show no intention to rectify the twisted reality and the biased policy. The heads of these organizations appear to be feeling good with the current practice or policy and claim to the public that the system works well and they are already kind and generous to the male victimizer in their periodical report.
According to the data released in a recent press conference on November held by the “Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong” (ELCHK信義會) , in 34 sexuality cases involving youths, 31 or 90% were “identified” to be consensual. However, 1 girl and 33 boys were penalized under the “Superintendent Discretion Program” . (See Rmk 2.4 明報: 新東調查：青年性罪行女方多同意, 少女短訊問「想唔想試」) In other words, except one special case, only boys were liable for the alleged misbehavior in consensual sex. The almost unanimous penalization against males was not incidental. In the past, there was no exceptional case. All previous records delivered the same message that gender equality is not for young males. The story about the girl and the reason for her unprecedented conviction must be very interesting to the general public. In brief, these figures raise a number of questions:
Disappointingly, the press simply reported the figures without any reasonable doubts regarding the oddity and inconsistency of these figures. The scenario is in line with the comment that there are only reporters but no journalist in Hong Kong.
2.1.5 Imminent Need to Address and Seek Solution to the Problem of Reverse Sex Discrimination against Male
Having been a pure audience or an insider as youth counselor, administrator or person having close relationship with certain party/parties in sexuality cases for almost forty years, I believe that my experience, information and knowledge should worth consideration. I would like to voice out the view and recommendations from the perspective of males of the low and middle class to the LRC on the issue as a resident who has been living, studying and working here for more than half century. However, my opinions should not be seen as the opposite view against feminism or feminist rights. I faithfully believe that injustice cannot be rectified by injustice, let alone the idea of counter balancing the institutional injustice against females in a specific area of the society such as the exploitation of females by the upper or wealthy class with injustice against males in another irrelevant area such as the gender biased policy against males in law enforcement. These injustices have wrecked the integrity of the legal system and created resentment to feminist privileges among many males or even females which will in turn hinders the healthy development of feminist movement in the long run.
2.2 UNREALISTIC OR INVALID PRESUMPTION IN LAW MAKING
In USA, relatively more crimes are committed by black people or ethnic minorities but it does not mean that white people should be presumed innocent under all circumstances. Presumptions based on stereotyped notion is dangerous. In dealing with sex offence, Hong Kong is making the same mistake as many people in USA do with criminal activities involving different races.
2.2.1 Fundamental Presumptions
2.2.1.1 Male Presumed to Be the Inevitable Active Agent in Sexual Activities
When tracing back to the origin and rationale of law regarding sexual crimes, unanimously there is a fundamental presumption that the male must be the active agent in all sexual activities and thus it is also natural to infer that the male is always the perpetrator. As human beings are social animal, an individual's behavior is moulded into a stereotyped role by the socio-cultural context constituted by social norms and cultural dynamics. In a highly patriarchal society where males are granted the institutional power to dominate over females, for instance, the western world, China and Hong Kong a century ago, deviant behavior was so rare that it could be ignored in practical sense. This presumption was thus almost true. Now the validity of such presumption has been refuted by increasing number of real life cases. A high school young man feels harassed for being pursued by a girl classmate who keeps waiting for him at the shop where his mother is working. In a case disclosed in the press release conference by the ELCHK, a girl proposed to have sex with the boy in her SMS. (Rmk 2.4). Similar seductive messages from young girls are now very common and happen among children from primary five or earlier but only a little portion of them put their words into action and are discovered. These cases exhibit the accomplishment of sex autonomy for females. The females of younger generations in the last four decades were taught the concept of gender equality and granted the equal rights as males. Now they just act in accordance with the value and belief entailed by the modern education.
In cases of crimes involving violence or coercion, the predominance of power including mentality, maturity, physical strength, and/or social status instead of sex is the crucial factor that triggers the criminal act. Gender biased presumption may pervert the judgment on an issue. The male perpetrator presumption is finally removed in cases of domestic violence but remains stubborn in sexuality cases.
2.2.1.2 Enjoyment of Sex Presumed to Be Attainable by Males Only
The stubbornness is deemed to stem from another invalid but untold presumption that only males have sex desire and can get enjoyment in sex activities which cause males to have the criminal intent to commit sexual crime. The absurdity of such presumption is self-explanatory. If only male is capable of enjoying sex, there should have been no consensual sex or even marriage between two sexes. The proof is available from any honest female who has nice sex partner(s) and satisfactory sex life. When the “sex autonomy” of female is greatly enhanced along with the feminist rights, females may pursue the enjoyment of sex actively as males. Once they are in a position more powerful than males, a certain proportion of them may commit the sex crime as males do. It does not mean that we should admit or adore the wrongful behavior of those females but this is reality supported by factual evidences. We should recognize it and take measures to tackle it instead of covering it for reasons of hypocrisy or political correctness.
2.2.1.3 Age as the Unconditional Waiver of Criminal offence
In September 2010 a 13-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly having sexual intercourse with a five-year-old girl in the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan. He was only charged with indecent assault as the presumption prevented his being charged with rape. This invalid and ridiculous presumption was soon reviewed by the LRC. On 13 December 2010, the Law Reform Commission released a report on “The Common Law Presumption That a Boy Under 14 is incapable of sexual intercourse”, recommending abolition of the presumption. The proposed reform received wide support from the general public and was scheduled to be enacted in July 2012.
However, when invalid or ridiculous presumptions based on age are in favor of females, they are relatively sluggish to the cry for abolition. For instance, girls under 16 are presumed to be incapable of committing sexual assault to males (i.e. an abridged version of Romeo & Juliet Law applied to underage girls only) Someone claim that there is no explicit legal provision parallel to the Irish Law in Hong Kong and many jurisdictions yet the court cases illustrated that this presumption is always behind the judgments. Using the birthday of a certain age to draw a line for differentiating the criminal liability of a person very often causes injustice as the precedent case cited above.
This was not the worst case since it only eased the penalty of the perpetrator. In the extremest case, the victim of sexual assault can be misidentified as the perpetrator when he is a male. Think about a going-to-be 16 years old girl propose to and finally coerces a young boy to have sex with her before her birthday. The boy will be accused of statutory rape (i.e. sexual intercourse with an underage girl) under the prevailing law and practice. However, if the incident takes place on or after the magical day of her 16-years-old birthday, the girl is supposed to be penalized for having sex with underage child. Yet it is still too early for the boy to claim himself a victim as he may be false accused of coercing the girl engaging into sexual activities by the girl, her family or the police on account of seeking alibi. This is highly possible due to the above mentioned gender biased presumptions. Females as a social class are legitimately "more equal" than males. (See Rmk. 2.14-2.17)
2.2.2 Definitions based on Unrealistic or Invalid Presumptions
2.2.2.1 Rape and Statutory Rape
In most jurisdictions including UK and Hong Kong, the crime of rape is only applicable to males by definition of law based on the invalid presumptions as mentioned above. At the utmost extreme end on one side, genital penetration is a necessary condition and penetrator is by virtue the perpetrator or victimizer. In consensual sex activities involving minors, only the boy is charged of rape or statutory rape. Practically, even the boy is abetted, seduced or coerced to engage in the sex activities, he faces a much higher chance than the girl to be penalized by definition of law. Some countries have modified it to the act of penetration thus it may be applicable to either sex theoretically. This definition is presented in the consultation paper for public discussion. Yet it is indeed still made from the perspective of pro-feminist males who may not really understand how females can enjoy sex with their biological structure or keep thinking that females must be the passive or submissive partner in sexual activities. In many states of USA, penetrator is no longer the default perpetrator or victimizer but coercion is the necessary condition in the determination of liability. Rape is thus defined as “forcible sexual intercourse”. (See Rmk.2.5 BBC News: Assange case: How is rape defined? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19333439 ) )This definition and its rationale are more logically sound as they will facilitate the legal sanction on increasing cases of reverse sexual harassment/assault in which the female perpetrator or victimizer is free from all sorts of penalty while the male victim is convicted guilty of rape by definition of the prevailing law as described in the hypothetical situation in section 2.2.1.3.
2.2.2.2 Sexual Assault and Indecent Assault
Regarding other sexual assaults, the law is apparently rewritten in a gender neutral language since the "Cap 213 the Protection of Women and Juvenile Ordinance" (prior to 1993)was replaced by the "Cap 213 the Protection of Children and Juvenile Ordinance" in 1993. Nevertheless, the adherence to the spirit of gender equality regarding sexuality in judiciary and law enforcement is hardly to be said satisfactory especially from the view point of male survivors of sex allegation mainly because of the double standard against males adopted by both the judiciary and law enforcement department. (See also section 2.4.5)
2.3. GENDER INEQUALITY IN THE COURT
I have no intention to offend the judiciary but faithfully believe that the limits of the role of judiciary should be disclosed and discussed or the self-perfection mechanism will be disabled. Based on the opinion of law practitioners, in defending for the male defendants, except guilty presumption against males, they always have the fear of facing the double standard in disfavor of males in the trial.
2.3.1 Noncompliance of the Principle of Innocence Assumption
In an article on false rape allegation, A scholar Mr Bruce Gross (PhD, JD, MBA) said,
"Sex offences are the only crimes that do not require corroborating evidence for conviction. Because there are often no witnesses and no physical evidence (especially if the victim delays in filing a report), the case may come down to the credibility of the accused versus the credibility of the accuser." (See
Rmk 2.6 Bruce Gross, PhD, JD, MBA, False
Rape Allegations: An Assault On Justice)
(http://www.theforensicexaminer.com/archive/spring09/15/).
However, the lapse of “innocence presumption” is not true for both sexes. When reverse sexual assault is reported, the male victim will find that it is almost impossible for him to establish a case with the law enforcement department.
The presumption itself is a violation of the principle of innocence-before-proven-guilty presumption. With guilty presumption, the burden of proof will be placed heavily on the male defendant who must prove himself innocent. However, we should not confuse the attitude of the judiciary with that of prosecution and law enforcement department. From the court news and my personal knowledge in some real cases, the judges of Hong Kong do observe the innocence presumption principle so that the jurisdiction is very often criticized by the public and feminists to be too benevolent to the accused because the prosecution and the law enforcement department are either too hasty to make judgment without sufficient evidences or they actually do not make too much effort in the collection of additional evidences for proving the accused to be guilty beyond all reasonable doubts. They may feel that further investigation is not necessary. In consequence, innocent males or even male victims can be prosecuted and suffer from huge pain and loss on the one hand because of this stereotyped guilty presumption against males, on the other hand, the de facto female perpetrator, victimizer or false accuser is always free from any kind of legal sanction.
Based on the principle of separation of power, the judiciary is not able to intervene the prosecution decision but just makes judgment based on the evidences presented by relevant parties in the trial. Based on the research report by ECSAF in 2007 , in 2005/6, a Juvenile Court Judge criticized the prosecutor's decision on prosecuting an underage boy who is just a few months older than the girl in an alleged consensual intercourse incident but set the girl free. The prosecutor admitted that it was their policy. The court and the judges may be fair and just. With selective prosecution and incomplete evidence, justice cannot be seen to be done in the court. (See Rmk 2.8 吳惠貞: 探討涉及未成年性罪行的裁判與公義, case 8, pp43-44 護苗基金(ECSAF)).
2.3.2 Double Standard Discriminating Against Males for Stereotyping
In fact, double standard is a more imminent injustice for male victims of gender discrimination to fight against in the court room. For example, any touching by the male can be regarded as sexual assault unless he can prove beyond all reasonable doubts that his life is under material threat while the same act of touching on males by females may easily be attributed to playing or an unwanted act under coercion with just a fabricated story before the police officer and social worker. The judiciary's recognition of gender inequality, if there is any, may stem from the stereotyped notions of two genders which deliver a message that females are vulnerable when confronting with males. The stereotyped role of male is taller, bigger, stronger, tougher and more aggressive. A century ago this is almost true. Today, the said assumption is usually true but no longer certain. The validity should be judged case by case especially in sexuality cases involving minors because of the likelihood of atypical cases due to the huge difference in both the mental and physical development between children or teenagers within the same age group. The relative power and credibility of persons involved are more significant than the sex they inherit upon birth.
Theoretically speaking, we should have no reason to suspect the court and the judges who are supposed to be decent ladies or gentlemen possessing all good qualities of human beings including ethics, integrity, wisdom, experience, intelligence and knowledge. As a matter of fact, no body can be so optimistic when going down to the practical level. The law practitioner usually advises the male defendant to consider confession for easing the penalty as they faithfully believe that the judge tend to trust the female accuser. In the Juvenile Court, even when a young male defendant is younger and smaller than the girl accuser, the duty lawyer usually tell him and his guardians that boys are believed to be stronger and tougher than girls regardless of the age, size and maturity. Males are deprived of the right to admit being weaker before a female or declare himself a victim of bully by a female yet they are allowed to lie that they are stupid, pathological and possessing unbelievable power to subdue and assault a female who is actually much stronger.
2.3.3 Double Standard Discriminating Against Males for “ Difference in Capacities”
Another reason for the recognition of gender inequality in favor of female is the “danger of pregnancy”. Recently, the Irish Supreme Court ruled for the prosecutorial discretion of the authority against a male minor Mr A, who had tried to fight for gender equality for 6 years since 2006, pursuant to a law that waives all criminal liability of sexual behavior for a girl under 17. The panel of judges tried to rationalize their judgment by arguing that their decision was made on the ground of “difference in capacity”. However, the general public disagree. The public view could be represented by the result of a poll test conducted by "TheJournal.ie". Over 90% readers voted against the SC's view. (Rmk. 2.18-2.19) The overwhelming majority understand that "difference in capacity" means more than “danger of pregnancy” . Perhaps unlike the judges and law makers living in a small community of upper class composed of decent ladies and gentlemen, the ordinary people are living and working in the present real world where females' behavior diverges as males. Young girls may fight, drink, smoke, taking drugs, speaking foul language, telling dirty jokes, watching pornographic media, and, of course, assault or sexually assault their peers including males; they are fooling around as young boys. In addition to consensual sex, reverse sexual assault is not anything very remote to us. People know that what happens in the western world is exactly happening in Hong Kong as well if they are not so "off" (ignorant) about the sub-culture of the younger generation. The ordinary people understand that the victim of gender discrimination may be their son, brother, husband, student, any male family member or close friend. Analogous to male on female sexual assault, cute, handsome and docile young males are the target preys of female predator. They deserve the protection of law equally as all mankinds. The “danger of pregnancy” should not be transformed into an indefinite privilege for waiving females' liability of harming herself or others.
2.4. GENDER INEQUALITY AGAINST MALES IN LAW ENFORCEMENT
Frankly speaking, from all the available informations as far as I can obtain, it is believed that most of the gender inequalities against males are neither caused by legislation nor judiciary. The enforcement of enacted law relies heavily on the ethics and ability of the administrative branch of the government. Unlike the legislation and judiciary which are composed of personnel of relatively higher calibre and integrity on average, the quality of people working in the administrative branch of government from the rank-and-file to the top management varies significantly. From many real life cases, people may doubt to what extent the law reform initiated by the LRC can be effectively and faithfully enforced by the government and what measures have been and will be taken to ensure the enacted law to be duly enforced without prejudice. The case (ESCC5021/11) (Rmk. 2.19 Yahoo! 新聞香港:懲教員_不造假會受壓迫 (http://hk.news.yahoo.com/懲教員-不造假會受壓迫-212427923.html)9.3 ) in which two correctional department staff were convicted guilty of making falsified urine test report of released prisoners illustrates that it is absolutely possible for the junior staff to take inadequate or even elicit approach to accomplish an insensible mission assigned to them. For reason of hypocrisy or political correctness, penalizing the male in sexuality case is easier to win the applause from the public. Therefore, we have reason to doubt the validity of the normal figures showing that males are always the prosecuted in all sexuality cases including those involving minors identified to be consensual based on either disclosed court cases or statistic data. (See Rmk. 5.1-5.7 ) The query and answer by the Juvenile Court Judge and the prosecutor in the case 8 cited in the ECSAF research report (See Rmk. 2.8, case 8, pp.43-44) directly proved that the gender biased policy/practice against males do exist for very long time. According to the newly released data, nothing has changed in the last 5 years. From their point of view, granting favor to females may be more “safe” and make them “feel better”. The gender biased practice or policy endures in the following manners:
2.4.1 Double Standard Discriminating against Males in the Establishment of Complaint
In the establishment of complaint about sex assault, sex is the major or only consideration for determining who is to be penalized by the police. Except there is “evidence beyond all reasonable doubts” somehow exposed to the public for proving that the female is the perpetrator so that the police may not be able to reject and ban the public release of the evidence for whatever reason, a male is hard to accuse a female of sexual assault (See Rmk. 2.21-2.28). On the contrary, only “preponderant evidence” is needed for the establishment of accusation against males. In some occasions, even teachers and social workers who receive more professional training in psychology or behavioral science also said that a young boy alleged to commit sex assault may be curious about sex but soon they found that it was groundless to deny the same behavior of girls in the current socio-cultural context. Moreover, once the case is referred to the police by the social worker, the allegation will be established definitely because the social worker is considered to be an important and reliable witness. In reality, the social worker may be only informed of unreliable unilateral information by the alleged female victim but know nothing about the other party. Lacking the professional training and knowledge for holding forensic interview with the alleged victim, most of the social worker is unable to ensure the reliability of the information. The police rarely change the judgment notwithstanding the prima facie evidences and unresolvable doubts found later refute the allegation or show that the case is a reverse sexual harassment/assault , eg. a big sister on a small brother. Social workers are thus always given the nick name of "golden finger" (i.e. conspirator of false allegation) by young males on the internet forums (Rmk. 2.14-2.17). In response to the criticism, social workers attribute their referral to the standard procedure required by the code of practice ( See Rmk 4.1-4.3, Code of Practice 2009 ) and their belief in the neutrality and professionalism of the police. Both of them bring us into a “chicken or egg” circular reasoning loop.
2.4.2 Stereotyping Based on Myths in the Identification of Victim and Victimizer
Nevertheless, it is difficult to convince people to believe that the police is neutral. Lacking the relevant professional training parallel to professional teachers or social worker in dealing with gender equality and sexuality, myths or stereotyping always governs the reasoning and action of the personnel of law enforcement department. Nowadays, everybody knows that females can be as evil as males. Police officer accept that females may be fooling around as males in all aspects except reverse sexual assault. In dealing with sexuality cases, regardless of the conduct of both parties, the male is always stereotyped as the “victimizer" while female the “victim” based on the stereotyped notions. A police officer said he trusted a young girl because she should not lie and did not know how to lie on sex but he could not explain why a young boy should lie and know how to lie regardless of the common sense that boys are usually less mature than girls at the same age. Another officer said he rather believed that a small boy sexually assaults a big woman than thinking about the possibility of sex abuse of a boy by adult female. They projected the stereotyped roles of two genders many decades ago onto the two sexes nowadays.
2.4.3 Unfair Treatment during Investigation
Once the social worker or the police is reported of sexual assault on a female, the alleged victim as well as the prosecution witnesses will be protected and shielded from the irritation of the alleged victimizer. Again, procedural justice is not fairly accessible to males. In the absence of video tape recording as the alleged female victim, the police officers may arbitrarily or deliberately express their "personal views" which can adversely affect the validity and objectiveness of the statement made by the male suspect during the interrogation process. This practice very often works when the male suspect is very young and coming from the grassroots lacking the knowledge and resources to defend for himself. The situation is even worse when the alleged victim is an underage girl. The police tend to be more reckless and do not care who is the real perpetrator but unanimously penalize the male even though the girl make the assault and the male is underage too. Sometimes they proceed to the prosecution in lieu of preponderant evidence as they think that sex alone is enough for the establishment of charge. (See also Section 2.4.6)
2.4.4 Application of Nonexisting Law
Their thought originates from their misunderstanding of the law regarding sex offences. From reliable sources of information, many police officers are orally, conceptually and practically enforcing the former "Cap 213 the Protection of Women and Juvenile Ordinance" (prior to 1993), which was written in gender biased language, with their discretionary power in various occasions. It seems that most of the police officers are ignorant about the law reform which replaced “girl” with “child” in most contexts.
2.4.5 Non-performance of Due Responsibilities to Investigate
According to the grievance of the male survivors of allegation of sex assault, being preoccupied with a conclusion that males must be the victimizers in sexuality cases, the police officers were reluctant to perform their due responsibility to exhaust all the possibilities such as false accusation or reverse sexual assault based on evidences but only try to push the male to confess or proceed directly to the prosecution without sufficient evidence.
2.4.6 Abuse of Discretionary Power under the "Superintendent Discretion Program”
When the alleged male victimizer is young, the alleged wrongful behavior is minor, evidence is not sufficient or the female is the likely perpetrator, the police will try to close the file by referring the young "male" to the “superintendent discretion program”. The pros and cons of the “superintendent discretion program” is another topic worth review and reform. In a research paper by Prof. Ngai, S.S.Y, he pointed out that many police officers were unable to uphold the principle of voluntary confession and evidence beyond all reasonable doubts in exercising their discretionary power under the program. The youth is either persuaded or pressurized to admit guilty without considering the severity of the consequence (有些警務人員在運用警司警誡時，未能堅守充份証據、自願認罪的原則，青少年在警務人員「軟硬兼施」的游說下，誤以為警司警誡令無傷大雅，以致輕率認罪。(Rmk. 2.11 倪錫欽: 闡釋警司警誡令青少年跟進服務之發展 (2004)), Usually, they understate the harm of “superintendent discretion” on the present and future life of a child and his family throughout the process on the one hand, while on the other hand, they single out, distort and exaggerate a certain mistake or act of the male, indoctrinate some specific clauses in the ordinance (or even obsolete ordinance like the former "Cap 213 the Protection of Women and Juvenile Ordinance" (prior to 1993)), isolate them from its intent of legislation and ignore all other ordinances in contradiction to the application of the specific part of law.
Surely the official information tells that a lot a outstanding persons including senior police officers, social workers and even court judges were once penalized under the superintendent discretion program when they were young but it does not mean that it is justified for innocent victims. Moreover, it can hardly be harmless as it sounds. A medical school graduate complained that he failed his houseman internship for his superintendent discretion record. In applying for the registration of some professions or just a post in an reputable organization, the applicant may be required to declare all his/her "indecent" record and liable for its validity notwithstanding the record was duly canceled or expired according to the relevant laws and the disclosure requirement may breach “Cap 468 the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance”.
Unjust penalty, no matter how slight, should not be tolerated in any case.
2.4.7 Abuse of Prosecutorial Power
Perhaps all police officers think that superintendent discretion is very minor in comparison with court jurisdiction so some of them do not care what the truth is. They faithfully feel that such offer is already generous and harmless. Despite their judgment may be unfair and unjust, there is no reason for the young male suspect and his parents to take it too serious. If the young male suspect and his parents are tough, they will exercise their discretionary power of prosecution to pressurize them to surrender their statutory right for justice. As prosecution places needless burden of proof on the prosecuted and may invoke lengthy and costly legal proceedings in court for years which will bring about even bigger injuries on the defendant and his family, male victims are nonetheless the loser in all cases under their unrestricted discretionary power of prosecution. In Europe and United States, many young males have made a number of attempts to challenge the unrestricted discretionary prosecutorial power of the governments. In Hong Kong, not even a voice is heard.
In sexuality cases of adults, abuse of prosecutorial power definitely incurs immense damages to the innocent males. A married male was accused by his ex-girl friend of attempted rape in a personal date before she got married with her new boy friend without evidence but her statement. The court judgment ultimately went down to the credibility of the two parties. He was luckily found not guilty by the district court judge as friends and schoolmates who knew both of them well took the side of the male in the court. However, the arrest and prosecution had caused him, his wife and his family huge irrevocable damages without any compensation. In return to the support of his wife, friends and schoolmates, he had proved to all of them with his behavior that he deserved their trust. Nobody really knew the truth except those two persons involved. However, we must query if a professional prosecutor should exercise his prosecutorial power when evidence is not sufficient or the investigation is too reckless and unprofessional. In all senses, the arrest and prosecution per se are serious penalties which cause anxieties, distress and monetary losses to the alleged and his family. If the prosecution itself is not justified, how can we say that justice is manifestly and undoubtedly done before the general public?
2.4.8 Violation of Professional Ethics for Hiding the Truth
From the dialogues with police officers as well as their collaborating social workers, it appears that they indeed know very well that females are the de facto perpetrators in many cases and the gender biased practice or policy in favor of females actually casts severe fear of false allegation over males. (See also section 2.1.4) In some of the occasions, the police officers admitted that they were too junior to change the practice or policy but these junior police officers are given the discretionary power to judge the underage youth as court judges under the superintendent discretion program. I and a lot of people suspect the existence of such practice/police as no body has seen a written document conveying such directive. The practice or policy may be just a myth inside the law enforcement department.
There are also evidences to show that the fact was even shaped intentionally, unintentionally or carelessly into stories that fit the prototyped model conforming to the stereotyped behavior of two genders in sexuality cases. A willful and rebellious girl can suddenly become a timid victim of sexual assault. A timid and well behaved boy is described as a tough guy. The age of a boy who may be even younger is erroneously overstated. Even though a young male is the real victim as either a coerced or passive partner in the sex activities, he is thus labeled as a sex offender in the record for his remaining life under the threat of prosecution. Then they sent officer and social worker to “reeducate” the real young male victim of sex harassment/assault not to assault the female perpetrator based on the false information, thus causing secondary injuries to the male victim. As fact was twisted, female perpetrators who were identified as victims could not receive adequate therapy but is further encouraged to indulge herself in more dissolute sex behavior afterwards. Their queer behavior is then interpreted by the "experts" as the aftermath effect of sexual assault, thus creating wrongful inputs to the legislation and formulation of social policy.
The truth is turned upside down in the stacks of documents, and so do the value and belief of the relevant professions.
2.4.9 Aiding and Abetting False Allegation against Male
The penalizing-the-male-only policy together with the lack of sanction to the false accuser can inspire and encourage females to make arbitrary false allegation of sexual assault. Objectively, it creates the same effect of aiding and abetting false allegation against innocent males. Moreover, for reason of protecting the privacy of the alleged female victim and the prosecution witness, the male suspect is banned from contacting other persons who may provide him valuable information for finding out the truth. The police are also blamed by the survivor of sex allegation that they are reluctant to accept or collect those evidences beneficial to the alleged male. Some of the evidences thus perished or were destroyed over time for their passiveness.
Female may abuse their privileges to attack or destroy an innocent male for whatever reason.(Also see section 4.2 and Rmk. 2.6, Rmk. 2.7, Rmk. 2.29-2.31) A woman garment worker who was hardly to be said beautiful or attractive always told her colleagues that she was pursued and sexually harassed by male workers. Her allegation bothered her colleagues and boss at the beginning. As time went on, everybody knew that it was just her fantasy. At last, she said she was pursued by her boss, making her a big joke in the factory. In another case, a young female administration assistant complained to the senior management that her supervisor sexually harassed her. After holding a number of interviews with both parties and other staff, it could be sure that they indeed had no chance to stay with each other privately in the absence of other staff but the alleged supervisor sometimes told dirty jokes with other staff. He was duly warned and advised not to tell any dirty jokes with the young woman again but the alleged victim did not satisfied. She further alleged that the senior management was prejusdicial and too benevolent to the male supervisor while no other staff including females did not recognized her blood thirsty demand for further disciplinary action. As a matter of fact, the feeling and response to gossip carrying messages of sex is quite personal and subjective. In a total different case, a group of young people including males and female were enjoying dirty jokes in the office and felt unhappy when being advised by a colleague not to be too indulgent. The ethical value of an individual should be respected but only to the extent that the demand for intervention is duly acknowledged and the offensive behavior is promptly stopped in an equitable manner. Any further demand going beyond the line of personal rights and freedoms must be refused. Besides, the intent behind an allegation may be unethical. A woman reported for many times to the police that she was sexually assaulted by a male neighbor in the public area. Both the eyewitnesses and CCTV proved that she was making the false allegation. In reality, they were members belong to two rivalry groups in the Owners Incorporation Management Committee of the housing estate. The false allegation was intended for destroying an innocent man for unethical reason. The police refused to establish the case after conducting provisional investigation but no penalty was imposed on the woman.
All the active acts or passive gestures of the government in favor of females are somehow becomes the behavior of aiding false allegation if the accuser is lying for some kinds of reasons. (See also section 4.2)
END OF SECTION 2
References
Rmk 2.1 finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com: faq: don’t women have “female privilege”? (http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/faq-female-privilege/ )
Rmk 2.2 David Icke.com: Sexual harrassment investigation at the BBC (http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=226699 )
Rmk 2.3 BBC News: Russell Joslin death: BBC bosses 'could have done more' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20079460)
Rmk 2.4 明報: 新東調查：青年性罪行女方多同意, 少女短訊問「想唔想試」 (http://www.mingpaohealth.com/cfm/news3.cfm?File=20121107/news/gop1.txt)
Rmk 2.5 BBC News: Assange case: How is rape defined? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19333439 )
Rmk 2.6 Bruce Gross, PhD, JD, MBA, False Rape Allegations: An Assault On Justice, (http://www.theforensicexaminer.com/archive/spring09/15/).
Rmk 2.7 False allegations of sexual harassment, domestic violence and rape (http://www.manwomanmyth.com/women/false-allegations-of-sexual-harassment-and-rape/)
Rmk 2.8 吳惠貞: 探討涉及未成年性罪行的裁判與公義, 護苗基金(ECSAF) , (http://www.ecsaf.org/images/upload_images/file/Research%2003_2009.pdf)
Rmk 2.9 林可欣, 竺永洪(2005-2006): 未成年人司法保護之實踐﹕「恢復性公義」於香港「警司警誡」個案的應用成果, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong (ELCHK信義會)
Rmk 2.10明報:性罪行個案趨年輕化, 報道節錄, 文章日期：2011年12月15 (http://life.mingpao.com/cfm/language3.cfm?File=20111215/language01/gfm6_er.txt)
Rmk 2.11 倪錫欽: 闡釋警司警誡令青少年跟進服務之發展 (2004) (http:// web.swk.cuhk.edu.hk/uploads/research/ebooks-ngaisy.doc )
Rmk 2.12 Stern Review- a report by baroness vivien stern cbe of an independent review into how rape complaints are handled by public authorities in england and wales , March, 2010 (http://beneaththewig.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Stern_Review_acc_FINAL4.pdf )
Rmk. 2.13am730: 鐵漢有口難言, 性騷擾無人信 24/10/2012 (http://www.am730.com.hk/article.php?article=126597)
Rmk. 2.14 有無人憎呢個社工 (17歲弟被控與姊亂倫) - 休閒聊天 - 香港討論區 Uwants (http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=9745379)
Rmk. 2.15 香港人已經濫用左_強姦_ - 香港高登討論區 (http://forum5.hkgolden.com/view.aspx?message=4092269&type=BW)
Rmk. 2.16 覺唔覺得香港D社工好HiHi__ - 香港高登討論區 (http://forum8.hkgolden.com/view.aspx?type=CA&message=4044941&page=6)
Rmk. 2.17 17歲弟被控與姊亂倫 - 香港及世界新聞討論 - 香港討論區 discuss.com.pdf (http://news.discuss.com.hk/viewthread.php?tid=11978796)
Rmk. 2.18 MARY CAROLAN: Boy loses challenge to underage sex laws, Irish Times- Feb 24- 2012 (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0224/1224312311250.html )
Rmk. 2.19 thejournal.ie, Poll: Should laws on underage sex be the same for boys and girls?, www.theJournal.ie
Rmk. 2.20 Yahoo! 新聞: 香港:懲教員_不造假會受壓迫, 明報 (http://hk.news.yahoo.com/懲教員-不造假會受壓迫-212427923.html)
Rmk. 2.21 1in6.org, Myths & Facts
Rmk. 2.22 Men and Sexual Trauma, NATIONAL CENTER FOR PTSD, Department of Verterans Affairs, USA (http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/men-sexual-trauma.asp)
Rmk. 2.23 Michael Amherst: Rape is not just a women's issueguardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 7 March 2 01 0 1 1 .00 GMT (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/17/stern-review-male-rape )
Rmk. 2.24 Brian Kassar, Psy.D.: Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, Men Stopping Rape Program, Director Counseling & Psychological Services, MontanaStateUniversity (http://www.scu.edu/wellness/topics/family/malesexabuse.cfm)
Rmk. 2.25 Karyl McBride, Ph.D.: Why Boys Do Not Tell About Sexual Abuse, Published on November 12, 2011 i n The Legacy of Distorted Love
Rmk. 2.26 BBC News: Russell Joslin death: BBC bosses 'could have done more' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20079460)
Rmk. 2.27 Sexual harrassment investigation at the BBC (http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=226699 )
Rmk. 2.28 am730: 鐵漢有口難言, 性騷擾無人信 24/10/2012 (http://www.am730.com.hk/article.php?article=126597)
Rmk. 2.29 False Allegations - Wrongful Accusations of Rape (http://suite101.com/article/false-allegations-a21219)
Rmk. 2.30 False accusation of rape, Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_accusation_of_rape )
Rmk. 2.31香港網絡大典: 港女對「強姦」、「非禮」的運用 (http://evchk.wikia.com/wiki/港女對「強姦」、「非禮」的運用)
3. IRRATIONALITIES OF THE GENDER BIASED LEGISLATION AND PROSECUTORIAL POLICY AGAINST MALES
In dealing with sex offences, we are in a situation very similar to USA. Ms Renée M. Landers, who is an Associate Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School, put two court cases side by side and examined their contravening connotations originating from sex and class discrimination. In both “Commonwealth v. Bernardo B., 453Mass. 159 (2008)”, and “United States v. Robinson, Cr. No. 08-10309-MLW (D. Mass. Jan. 20, 2009)”, the courts had to determine the extent to which the doctrine of prosecutorial discretion insulates prosecutorial practices from judicial review. Both cases also involved the courts in the ongoing cultural debate about sex and gender, and the criminal justice response to both. In an article published on the “Boston Bar Journal” , she wrote:
“Together, Robinson and Bernardo B. lift the veil that screens prosecutorial decisions from public view. They reveal how the system gives prosecutors the ability to make important life-altering decisions for complainants and the accused. The notion that prosecutors should have unreviewable discretion in charging and other decisions that precede judicial involvement of the type argued by the Plymouth County District Attorney and the United States Attorney in these cases seems inconsistent with an open society premised on constitutional values of equal protection and due process. The cases also raise important questions about the role of the legal system in policing sexual behavior.
Both Bernardo B. and Robinson also demonstrate that the proposition that “good” girls do not engage in illicit sex is alive and well. If the sexual activities in Bernardo B. were in fact mutual, the prosecutor in Bernardo B. seems to be prosecuting the boy to protect the girls from their own conduct. In Robinson, Judge Wolf’s opinion protects the unidentified businessman from the aggressive behavior of an “unworthy” prostitute. The irony is that a 14 year old minor who ostensibly enjoys the protection of the statutory rape law will be prosecuted, while an adult businessman who illegally paid for sex emerges with his reputation and record unscathed. If any single lesson emerges from the Massachusetts and First Circuit studies of gender bias, it might be that the legal system should take care not to incorporate gender stereotypes into decision making. The Bernardo B. and Robinson cases indicate that, after all these years, adherence to this principle by prosecutors and courts remains a work in progress.”
(Rmk. 3.3 Renée M. Landers: Sexual Activity Between Minors, Prostitution, and Prosecutorial Discretion: What Difference Should Age and Sex Make?) (Source: http://www.bostonbar.org_pub_bbj_bbj0506_09_bbj0506.pdf)
In the words of Ms Renée M. Landers, probably we may say that all the figures and cases as released in the official reports or research papers indicate that, after all these years, adherence to the principle of gender neutrality by prosecutors and courts remains a work in progress. Theoretically speaking, the gender-biased decision is a violation of the core value of human rationalities in the following senses:
3.1 THE GENDER BIASED PRACTICE OR POLICY IS UNLAWFUL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL:
Pursuant to Art 39 of the Basic Law, all people enjoy equal human rights before law. Sections 3 and 4 of the “Bill of Rights Ordinance” help to ensure that the stated aim of Article 39 of the Basic Law the enjoyment by Hong Kong people of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the ICCPR is fully met. The gender equality is further assured by “Cap 480 the sex discrimination ordinance” which provides equal rights to both genders instead of privilege to either sex. Let alone the reverse sex harassment or assault, in consensual sex between minors, the penalty or prosecution against the male only is deemed to be a selective execution of law by the US court. In the aforesaid case “Common Wealth v Bernardo B.,453 Mass 159（2008）”(See Rmk. 3.1-3.3), a US Supreme Court determined that the prosecutorial discretion of law enforcement department is not unrestricted. The Chief Justice Margaret Marshall who gave the last decisive vote for the boy is a lady and two woman organizations pledged their support to the boy and her decision. These ladies understood that female privileges are not anything as gender equality but on the contrary create adverse effect on the movement for feminist rights. CJ Margaret Marshall wrote for the majority,
"Indeed, sexual behavior seemed to melt seamlessly into games of 'manhunt,' ' true or dare, ' and 'making out.' Some of it occurred with more than one complainant present. "
This penalizing-the-male-only practice or policy, whether it is an official policy or a personal practice of individual officers, should be manifestly and undoubtedly abolished. Some individual officers or the law enforcement department as a whole think in the same way as the State of Massachusatts in “Common Wealth v Bernardo B.,453 Mass 159（2008)”. As commented by a columnist and blogger Mr. Robert Franklin, “they are stuck in the bad old days when only males could be charged with sex crime regarding minors.” It should be noted that the prosecutor of State Massachusatts argued that the age difference and grade difference were the basis for his decision. The gender difference was purely incidental. Now in almost all cases involving minors in Hong Kong, even the male was younger or age difference was insignificant, the male still bears all the responsibilities. Thus it can be concluded that the gender difference is not incidental but the sole consideration of the law enforcement department. For this reason, it can be further inferred that most or all reverse sex harassment/assault cases are misidentified and recorded as consensual or even male on female sexual assaults. This is not just a hypothesis but the counter accusation by the convicted young males. All the primary injuries and secondary injuries cannot be undone to all these young males victims of sex discrimination. Their grievances deserve rectification
Some people do not understand that overdoing the rectification of sex discrimination against females in the past 2 decades has been mutating into the sex discrimination against males. Both of them are equally evil. Sexual assault should be defined in terms of its genuine meaning regardless of the gender of the perpetrator. The intent and coercion should be the key elements of a wrongful behavior. If he law does not allow underage children to give consent, why does the law allow underage girls to coerce and assault? Though there is no such stupid bad law in Hong Kong and the prevailing law, as it explicitly states, should also disallows reverse sexual assault, it is nullified by the selective prosecution of law enforcement department. They are seemingly enforcing the Irish Law with their discretionary power.
3.2 THE GENDER BIASED PRACTICE OR POLICY IS UNPROFESSIONAL
It is said that some police officers received professional training provided by the SWD or experts in dealing with sexuality case but none of the theories of psychology or behavioral science admits the presumption that male must be the victimizer of sex assault. Being professional detectives, with the divine mission to seek for justice, the police should exhaust all the possibilities and be ready to deal with atypical cases based on both the passive and active discovery of evidences instead of false presumption based on myths. In all sexuality cases involving coercion, relative power determined by maturity, mentality, personal character, physical strength and social status is the major consideration. As a matter of fact, they tend to ignore those evidences beneficial to the male suspect. In cases of juvenile sex, they failed to reconcile the gender biased law to which they referred with the remaining part of law like “Cap 200 s146 Indecent conduct towards child under 16” , “Cap 480 Sex Discrimination Ordinance” and the fundamental definition of perpetrator. If they were honest, what behind their logic discriminating against males should be really an implicit or explicit genders biased practice or policy which adversely affected their professional judgment.
3.3 THE GENDER BIASED LAW, PRACTICE OR POLICY IS UNSCIENTIFIC
There is an enormous volume of documentary about male sexual victimization myths with myth busting facts.(Rmk. 3.4-3.11) All these serious and scientific studies end up with conclusion that males can be victims of sexual assault, including female on male assault among peers. The enjoyment of sex relies on the mental and physical state of the participant instead of his/her sex. In many states of USA, rape is redefined by law as forcible sexual intercourse so that the genital penetration as the criterion which is by virtue discriminating against males no longer required. Studies also suggest that girls are almost equally aggressive as boys during their childhood when physical strength predominance of male over female is not obvious or even reversed in pre-puberty stage because the biological development of girls generally leads the boy by one to two years at the same age. The “biological preponderance” of young females is a significant natural advantage of “difference in capacity”. Together with the “legitimate preponderance”, an acquired advantage of "difference in capacity", female privilege is perceivable by the children early in their babyhood. The better the conduct of the boy is, the higher chance of being assaulted. Those younger, weaker and docile boys are thus the target of "sexual harassment/assault" by peers including girls. Reverse sex assault is nothing extraordinary to teachers or social workers nowadays. However, a girl may attribute her assault to playing when blamed by the adult. If the same act was performed by a boy on a girl, he can be arrested and charged of sexual assault in the worst case. A lot of females including underage girls are clever enough to make use of or abuse their female privileges. All these reverse sex harassment/assault are under-reported or unreported for at least 4 reasons according to relevant studies (Rmk. 3.4-3.11):
3.4 THE GENDER BIASED LAW, PRACTICE OR POLICY IS UNETHICAL
The unethical nature of the practice or policy is self explanatory. The society can be kind and forgivable to female perpetrators in sexuality cases because they are deemed to be harming themselves as well but not to the extent to penalize the male victim just because of his natural sex inherited upon birth. In the extremest cases, to the utter astonishment of people, when overshadowed by the female privileges and the fear of false allegation, young males do not know how to resist and are easy to be the victim of sex extortion. In a video clip posted on the internet, a young girl was having sex with a boy on the podium of a housing estate in Northern district. In the whole course, she obviously dominated every process while the boy was stood still without any sign of rejection or resistance. Under the gender biased practice or policy, more ridiculous outcome will follow under normal circumstances because the male victim may be treated as the victimizer, being blamed, insulted and/or prosecuted by the government in "due course" while the real perpetrator was protected as victim if the female is underage and disclose the incident to else people like teacher or social worker.
Both the law and the ethics exist for the protection of the weak against the exploitation and persecution by the strong. Mistaking sex as the sole factor in the determination of power and victimizer is absolutely wrong and ridiculous. In all crimes of violence, the overwhelming power of the strong over the weak without the sanction of morality or law is a lure and precondition for criminal act. A famous saying in a Hollywood film said, “Sex harassment is not about sex. It is about power.” More and more people now realize that the ridiculous presumption that male must be the victimizer and female the victim regardless of the relative mental and physical state only undermine the justice. Removing such presumption will not alter the righteous judgment in sexuality cases in the past, present and future when the assault can be proven by convincing evidence to show the dominance of the vitimizer (not necessary to be physical violence) but justice can thus manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done in atypical cases when males are the victim. The law regarding domestic violence and indecent sexual assault is supposed to be revised accordingly. However, what can a young male and his family do if the law enforcement department ignore the revised law and continue to discriminate against males? A police officer just kept silent when he was queried if he would prosecute a ten years old boy when he was coerced to have sex with a 15 years old girl according to their practice probably because he knew that the answer was “yes”. He also could not answer if they would charge a girl or a boy of sexual assault if the girl performed the act of fondling on the boy probably because he had a hidden agenda which was unethical to be disclosed.
Benevolent female privileges, though politically correct, is not ethically justified.
3.5 THE GENDER BIASED LAW, PRACTICE OR POLICY IS ILLOGICAL
The practice or policy is illogical in three aspects.
"We
should not be enforcing the law based on stereotypical notion about
girls as not being capable actors in the same way that boy are. They
are doing what teenagers are doing today. They are fooling around
sexually and the girls are participants in the same way that boys
are."
In the current social and cultural context, when females enjoy more or less the same rights as males, they should be prepared to take up symmetrical responsibilities as males do.
3.6 MALE VICTIMS ENDANGERED FOR BEING MISTAKEN AS VICTIMIZER
Apparently, some of the law has been revised to achieve better gender equality, but in reality, the details of law such as the definitions of rape are only applied to male, making it inconceivable for male to report sexual assault by female, especially underage girls. The female privileges granted by law and social norms causes male victims to be extorted by females. They remain silent as their anger and hatred are violently suppressed by the authority with abusive power. Mistaking a male victim as a sex offender for reason of hypocrisy and political correctness pose more dangers to him because any further contact or assault initiated by the female perpetrator will continue to be interpreted as nuisance or attempted assault by the male. In the worst case, the sex discrimination gives rise to blackmail which is the logical entailment of a gender-biased practice or policy. Real life stories about how the families of young males settle the sexuality cases with a sum of money are occasionally heard. Who can dispute their validity?
END OF SECTION 3 References
Rmk 3.1 COMMONWEALTH vs. BERNARDO B., a juvenile. (Suffolk. November 3, 2008. - February 6, 2009. ) (http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ma-supreme-judicial-court/1417774.html)
Rmk 3.2. Bostom.com: SJC: Boy accused of statutory rape may be victim of sex discrimination (http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/02/boy_accused_of.html)
Rmk 3.3. Renée M. Landers: Sexual Activity Between Minors, Prostitution, and Prosecutorial Discretion: What Difference Should Age and Sex Make? (http://www.bostonbar.org_pub_bbj_bbj0506_09_bbj0506.pdf)
Rmk 3.4 1in6.org, Myths & Facts
Rmk 3.5 Men and Sexual Trauma, NATIONAL CENTER FOR PTSD, Department of Verterans Affairs, USA (http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/men-sexual-trauma.asp)
Rmk 3.6 Michael Amherst: Rape is not just a women's issueguardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 7 March 2 01 0 1 1 .00 GMT (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/17/stern-review-male-rape )
Rmk 3.7 Brian Kassar, Psy.D.: Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, Men Stopping Rape Program, Director Counseling & Psychological Services, MontanaStateUniversity (http://www.scu.edu/wellness/topics/family/malesexabuse.cfm)
Rmk 3.8 Karyl McBride, Ph.D.: Why Boys Do Not Tell About Sexual Abuse, Published on November 12, 2011 i n The Legacy of Distorted Love
Rmk 3.9 BBC News: Russell Joslin death: BBC bosses 'could have done more' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20079460)
Rmk 3.10 Sexual harrassment investigation at the BBC (http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=226699 )
Rmk 3.11 am730: 鐵漢有口難言, 性騷擾無人信 24/10/2012 (http://www.am730.com.hk/article.php?article=126597)
4
THE ADVERSE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF
REVESE SEX DISCRIMINATION AND FEMALE PRIVILEGES
4.1 GENERATING ANTI-SOCIAL AND ANTI-FEMINILIST FEELING AMONG MALES:
Sex discrimination against males definitely turn a male victim who was once positive and respectful of the law and government into an angry, cynical and skeptical man, Having listened to the frank but faithful words revealed by those young male survivors of sex charge who claimed themselves the victims of sex discrimination or false allegation, we feel that our society fails to convinced these young males with a good reason and prove to them that justice is impartially done for all people. Instead, it has successfully injected fresh new blood into the allies of anti-establishment and anti-feminist camps. (See Rmk. 12.1-12.4)
4.2 FACILITATING FALSE ALLEGATION:
Those female sex perpetrators benefited from the gender biased policy can hardly respect the policy and the system. They only abuse it and taking advantages from it. Since only slight or no penalty on false allegation of sexual assault against males by females, there is strong incentive for some females to abuse this powerful mean to destroy a male or shift their liabilities to others for whatever reason. Survivors of false sex allegation name it the cancer of a civilized society. In many states of USA, the law enforcement department requires the accuser to undergo a polygraph test. This is said to reduce almost 40% of the accusations.
In a brief discussion with a lady who had once sit the board of Hospital Authority, she said that she was deeply impressed by the grave distress and desperation that those alleged male offenders of sex harassment exhibited during the years long period of endless hearing and investigation. Their fame, profession, possession, family and future life were under serious threat. The disastrous effects may be irrevocable and far reaching. In another real case, a junior form girls told a teacher that she was sexually abused by her biological father. After a number of interviews held by school social workers and a few experienced female guidance teachers, the validity could not be definitely confirmed. The case was finally referred to the police according to the code of practice. Then the man was arrested, prosecuted and jailed. However, all the other family members of the girl had never trusted her words and were dissatisfied with the action of the school and police. They also complained that the man was bullied and tortured during the interrogation process. Up to now nobody could be sure if the girl told the truth but one thing was certain. In pursuing the justice for the girl, a lot of persons were harmed in the process for doing nothing wrong. Their family was broken up. Shame, blame and distrust were with all of them for their remaining life. All the teachers and social workers involved felt upset and guilty for their helplessness.
Studies suggest that there may be a lot of reasons for an underage girl to lie about sexual assault. At their age, they do not really know the severity and the consequence of false allegation which may probably be an alibi or revenge. Mr Bruce Gross (PhD, JD, MBA) gave a profound illustration of the causes for false allegation with his expertise in his article “False Rape Allegations: An Assault On Justice”:
“In the study of false rape allegations in the midwestern town and state universities, over half of the accusers fabricated the rape to serve as a "cover story" or alibi. This included 56% of the non-student and 53% of the student false accusers.
The
most frequent context and motive for the fabricated rape was
consensual sex with an acquaintance that led to some sort of problem
for the accuser. The perceived problem was typically something that
caused feelings of shame and guilt in the accuser (such as
contracting a sexually transmitted disease or becoming pregnant),
which was bound to be discovered and received negatively by family or
friends. (See Rmk. 8.4: Bruce Gross, PhD, JD, MBA False Rape Allegations: An Assault On Justice) (http://www.theforensicexaminer.com/archive/spring09/15/)
For all the above mentioned reasons, the principle of caution must prevail or the teacher, counselor, social worker, clinical psychologist, police officer, etc. are all conspirators aiding the false allegation against innocent people.
4.3 DISCREDITING THE HONEST FEMALE
On a blog, a female reporter Karen Stephenson said,
“Men are not the only victims of women who make false allegations. Women who are the real victims of rape, are further victimized by those who make false accusations. Words and actions by a false accuser rob the real-life victims of rape of badly needed services. These women abuse police, prosecutors and victim group resources, taking time, money and resources away from those who truly need and deserve help.” (Rmk.
8.1: Karen Stephenson, False Allegations, suit101.com, May 14, 2007
(http://suite101.com/article/false-allegations-a21219) )
The lack of effective sanction on false allegation will definitely encourage its occurrence. In consequence, it not only discredits the legal system, it also discredits all other honest female and real victims. Accordingly, wise and genuine feminist like Karen Stephenson and CJ Margaret Marshall never ask for female privileges they do not deserve.
4.4 LAYING DOWN THE TIME BOMB OF WAR BETWEEN TWO SEXES
The irrationality of benevolent female privileges only rationalizes the anti-feminist feeling among males. In the worst case, the repercussion to the sex biased policy will ultimately take the form of a war between two genders in the society. When this happen, all the historical facts found in many countries in middle east and far east in the post colonial era after the western power retreated from their colonies manifest that the patriarchal culture will revive and females will loose more.
4.5 ENCOURAGING ENJO-KŌSAI (援助交際 )
It appears that there is no systematic case study of young girls who are found engaging in Enjo-kōsai. Based on public released information, to the utter astonishment of most people, the activities of Enjo-kōsai as prostitution is mainly voluntary. However, there is a logical correlation between the voluntary prostitution and benevolent female privilege which penalizes males but waives the liabilities of young females in both the cases of consensual sex and reverse sexual harassment/assault. The unconditional exemption sends a wrong message to all young girls that female as a social group are not liable to any kind of wrongful sex behavior. (See Rmk. 10.1-10.2)
4.6 CONTRIBUTING TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF PORNOGRAPHIC INDUSTRIES
It is an interesting social phenomenon that legal pornographic industries are so prosperous and pathological in those countries claiming to have sound legislation for the protection of females. The logical rationale for the paradoxical correlation is actually simple. The female privileges which is perceivable early in the babyhood for males cause the identification problem in the socialization process from childhood through adulthood. When engaging in relationship with females in the real world becomes dangerous under a gender biased social context against males, young males are forced to solve their biological need with “free sex” in the virtual world of pornography before the computer screen which seems to be more safe in the short run but creates more problems in the long run. On the internet forums for young males, they express their eagerness for a relation with the opposite sex but cannot hide their fear and anxiety under the threat of female privileges in reality. On the contrary, they feel much freer when discussing their experience with pornography. As to adult males with more economic resources, "paid sex" is logically regarded as a safe outlet for their physiological need. The benevolent female privileges on which the reverse sex discrimination is based have intoxicate all females and in turn stimulate the development of pornographic industries.
4.7 INDUCTION OF LESBIAN AND HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR
Another side effect of intoxicating females is abnormal sex orientation. In a study report “What Causes Homosexuality?”, Family Research Council suggested that one of the causes for homosexual behavior was “child sexual abuse”
“A study in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy examined the past sexual experiences, sexual thoughts, and fantasies regarding the sexual contacts of 35 adult men who were sexually abused during their childhoods. The study found that among men, a history of homosexual child abuse was linked both to an adult homosexual orientation and to sexual attraction to children:
(See Rmk. 11.1 Family Research Council, What Causes Homosexuality?, pp28-29 (FRC is a non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C., She claims that her vision is a culture in which human life is valued, families flourish and religious liberty thrives.)) (http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF08L41.pdf)
As mentioned above, 46 percent of the abused men, as opposed to 12 percent of the nonabused men, defined their sexual orientation as either bisexual or homosexual. If the information is reliable, it can be logically inferred that prolonged sex discrimination against male or bully by female may also cause young boy to suffer from some kind of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) or phobia of females for losing confidence in females. When more males become homosexuals, a corresponding number of females are forced to either change their sex orientation (i.e. become lesbian) or remain single (become spinsters).
4.8 DETERIORATION OF THE IMAGE OF SOCIAL WORKERS AND POLICE OFFICERS
The denial to the existence of reverse sex harassment/assault per se is a sex discrimination behavior which prevents male victims from voicing out their grievances. In addition to the misconception of masculism, males seldom reveal their feeling as females. Therefore, the normal course of discovering an incident of sexual harassment/assault always starts from the conversation between the alleged female victim and social worker who is part of the formal organizational structure of low and middle class. As mentioned above in section 2.4.9, 3.3, 3.6, and 4.2, the unilateral information from the alleged victim may be false when she is dishonest and knows the rules of game. The social worker who has the obligation and statutory power to be a professional witness for the client will then become a conspirator of the false accuser. With their referral, the police may claim that they have sufficient evidence on hand. The neutrality as well as integrity of both of them are queried by the male victims. The distrust of social workers and police officers among males further prevent male victims from voicing out their grievance, thus forming a vicious cycle of gender biased image for social worker and police officers.(Rmk. 4.4-4.9)
END OF SECTION 4 References
Rmk 4.1 social workers registration board: Code of Practice for Registered Social Workers (http://www.swrb.org.hk/documents/cop2009_eng.pdf)
Ref4.2 social workers registration board: Guidelines on Code of Practice for Registered Social Workers (http://www.swrb.org.hk/Documents/guidelines%202009_eng.pdf)
Rmk 4.3 social workers registration board: Guidelines for Social Work Supervision (http://www.swrb.org.hk/engasp/supervision_c.asp)
Rmk 4.4 S. Alvin Leung (The Chinese University of Hong Kong ), Thomas Kin-Man Leung (University of Hong Kong ), Ella Po-On Chan (Hong Kong Baptist University), Ethical Counseling Practice: A Survey of Counseling Teachers in Hong Kong Secondary Schools , CUHK) (http://hkier.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/journal/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ajc_v10n1_71-94.pdf)
Rmk 4.5 Robert L. Gibson & Marianne H. Mitchell, Introduction to Counseling and Guidance, Macmillan Publishing Company, NewYork, Ch 14. Ethical and Legal Guidelines, pp. 461-463 (http://www.prenhall.com/gibson7/)
Rmk. 4.6 有無人憎呢個社工 (17歲弟被控與姊亂倫) - 休閒聊天 - 香港討論區 Uwants (http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=9745379)
Rmk. 4.7 香港人已經濫用左_強姦_ - 香港高登討論區 (http://forum5.hkgolden.com/view.aspx?message=4092269&type=BW)
Rmk. 4.8 覺唔覺得香港D社工好HiHi__ - 香港高登討論區 (http://forum8.hkgolden.com/view.aspx?type=CA&message=4044941&page=6)
Rmk. 4.9 17歲弟被控與姊亂倫 - 香港及世界新聞討論 - 香港討論區 discuss.com.pdf (http://news.discuss.com.hk/viewthread.php?tid=11978796)
5. RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 ABOLITION OF INVALID PRESUMPTION AGAINST ANY SEX ESPECIALLY MALE
Any presumption leading to the double standard against males or denial of reverse sex harassment/assault as mentioned in section 2.2 is invalid, unfair and unjust. The proposed amendment in the consultation paper to the definition of rape is claimed to rectify the gender bias so that either sex can be accused of rape. However, the emphasis on the sole liability of penetrator is still a patriarchal and gender biased concept which does not take into consideration of the biological feature of females in the attainment of sex enjoyment. If we can remove the gender biased presumption in domestic violence, it is totally groundless for us to keep this unscientific presumption in sexuality activities, especially those cases involving minors in which the male may more likely be on the weak and helpless side due to the males' time lapse in mental and physical development behind females. There is no reason except hypocrisy and political correctness that allows this prejudice keep harming the young male and intoxicating the young female in a civilized society. Therefore, “forcible sexual intercourse” as the definition of rape is a better representation of the concept of gender equality and sex autonomy for both sexes as it also recognizes the very existence of reverse sex harassment/assault. In some of the jurisdictions such as UK or Australia, even the female can not be charged of rape, if evidence proves that the female is the de facto victimizer, she can be charged of “aggravated assault” against a male victim. In Hong Kong, as illustrated in the previous sections, the police officers still stick to the concept of the former "Cap 213 the Protection of Women and Juvenile Ordinance" (prior to 1993)which did not recognize reverse sex assault.
5.2 STRICT ADHERENCE TO THE PRINCIPLE OF PROCEDURAL JUSTICE
The principle of procedural justice was illustrated by Lord Hewart CJ in his famous saying that "Justice should not only be done but should be manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done". The principle is established on two more fundamental beliefs, namely "the end does not justify the means" and "the principle of caution". When the "end" is controversial, the principle of procedural justice is more important in ensuring that justice is not denied to some persons who are discriminated for irrelevant reasons. The feeling of being great and just as a white knight bearing the mandate of protecting the female is by nature prejudicial and tends to pervert the judgment of a professional in dealing with sexuality cases. In normal circumstances, males are not given the fair chance as females to address their grievance or defend for sex allegation in the whole course from the discovery of case through judgment. The special favor to the alleged female victim and and extreme kindness to the female false accuser or sex offenders have caused innocent male to suffer from drastic but unnecessary pain and loss. Measures to deter false accusation must be incorporated in the investigation process in light of the increasing abuse of sex allegation as an alibi or a means for attacking a male. In particular, under the threat of selective prosecution, the young males being penalized under the superintendent program are most probably the victims of the violation of procedural justice. Examine the current protocol with the principle of procedural justice and the adherence to it is imminent.
Again, in this aspect, the expertise and professional ethics of the social workers, psychologists and police are important. The legal rights of both the alleged victim and the alleged victimizer must be well protected with tactful skill in an unbiased manner. Mr Bruce Gross gave the following remark in his article:
“Yet, considering the unique challenges of trying and defending rape cases combined with the potential costs to the falsely accused, being able to assess the credibility of the alleged victim takes on special importance. Inconsistencies in the accuser's complaint should be confronted gently and respectfully, with awareness of the fact that true victims may distort or even lie out of embarrassment or shame.” (See Rmk 5. 11 Bruce Gross, PhD, JD, MBA False Rape Allegations: An Assault On Justice) (http://www.theforensicexaminer.com/archive/spring09/15/)
5.3 EFFECTIVE MEASURES TO CURB SELECTIVE EXECUTION OF LAW OR PROSECUTION AGAINST MALES
In reality, the most annoying and frustrating fact is that neither the wording of the ordinances nor the judgment of the judiciary was found violating the principle of gender quality. The justice is undermined by the government departments outside the hall of Legislative Council or courtroom in the name of law enforcement and preservation of ethical value. With all the above mentioned prejudicial presumptions and gender-biased practice or policy against males, only males have been penalized or prosecuted in the past. Some of them may be the victim of selective prosecution or false accusation in light of the double standard in treating the evidence from different sexes. So far it seems that both the legislation and judiciary have done nothing in the past and can do nothing in the future with the reverse sex discrimination by the government departments under the system of separation of power. The justice cannot be done without effective measures to ensure that the law is faithfully and undoubtedly enforced.
5.4 RECTIFICATION OF MISIDENTIFIED CASES
On account of the double standard and selective prosecution policy, even the males convicted guilty by the court may be innocent or victim of reverse sex discrimination as in the case of “Commonwealth v. Bernado”. In addition to those young males who are coerced with unjust means to confess under the superintendent program, the cases of these males deserve review and rectification if they are found to be really the victims of gender biased practice or policy so as to restore the integrity of the legal system. The experience of the “Innocence Project” in USA, which has freed 301 wrongfully convicted people in prison since 1992, is worthy of our consideration and imitation. (See Rmk. 5.8-5.9)
5.5 THE ROMEO AND JULIET LEGISLATION AND THE RECOGNITION OF THE LIMITS OF LAW AS A SUBSTITUTE OF ETHICS
Many law professionals and political activists always advocate the principle of "rule of law". When the message goes down to the level of operation, it is attenuated into the principle of "rule by law". Even worse is that law is propagated among law novices as an all mighty means that is capable of replacing ethics or religion and judge as the all mighty god being capable of solving all kinds of mankind problems. The misconception gradually mutates into the “pan legalism” or “fundamentalism of law”. On the contrary, wise judges and law practitioners now and in the history have always demonstrated that they understand the limits of law very well. (Rmk 5.4Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: The Limits of Law, First published Mon Feb 27, 2006 (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/law-limits/))
Consensual sex is an ethical issue more than a criminal issue for the lack of criminal intent, legal means is not the adequate tools to solve the problem. As to consensual sex between adults, gender biased law, practice or policy gives rise to false accusation by females who regret for some sort of reasons. As to consensual sex between minors, their behavior should not be adored but it does exist. The law which criminalizes the sex activities with underage children stems from the premises that underage children are incapable of protecting themselves against the molester by adults. However, the law becomes logically ridiculous when both participants are underage as mentioned in section 2.3 and 3. Labeling a child as sex offender at such young age is inhuman and inadequate. The Romeo and Juliet Law, which exempts the criminal liabilities of underage children in consensual sex, is therefore a second best approach in dealing with these cases. In some jurisdictions such as many states in USA, the law makers have initiated the Romeo and Juliet Legislation in recent years. In some jurisdictions like Ireland, Romeo is not so lucky as Juliet as the legislation simply refute the possibility of female sex offenders under 17 and penalize the male regardless of his age. The policy is under severe criticism by the public on account of its logical absurdity which implies that a female is granted the legal right to harm others just because she is also harming herself in the course by exposing herself in the risk of pregnancy. In Hong Kong, except rape, though the law is explicitly expressed in gender neutral terms disapproving underage sex, the law enforcement department is actually executing the Juliet law as Ireland based on the factual information released by the judiciary and the police. Both the logical reasoning and empirical evidences have proved that the gender biased policy is unable to deter underage sex but encourage more young girls to play a more active and aggressive role in sex. Hence, we either have a Romeo and Juliet law or totally disapprove it. But for sure, it only means injustice if enforcing the “Juliet Law” only.
Early in 1998, a female researcher Ms Kwan Hang-kay gave the the following opinion and made a number of queries to the law makers in her research paper:
“"Why is underage consensual sex illegal if the contraceptive measures is guaranteed ?" This question was asked by a girl, an adolescent consumer. This kind of query perhaps not only occupied the brain of the girl. This complicated issue involves social norms, expectation, power control, psychological justification and requires legal settlement. A legal definition would be useful to settle disputes and impose punishment. We need to face the challenge of the new generation. We are told that the law reflected the society. Nevertheless, what is also true is that the laws has to be changed according to times, the development of the society, but when should it happen ? Who are the active participants has to be in this process ? Will the professionals in juvenile justice system take into account the consumers' view of the adolescents ?” (Rmk
to Rmk. 5.10. 關幸姬:
An exploratory study of adolescent attitudes towards laws prohibiting
underage consensual sex, 1998 HKU Scholar Hub )
In cases of reverse sex harassment/assault involving underage female perpetrators, mistaking a female sex offender as “Juliet” and male victim as “Romeo” is an unforgivable mistake. The only girl among 34 identified sex perpetrators being penalized under the “superintendent discretion program” as disclosed by the ELCHK(信義會) in Nov, 2012 illustrates that the prevailing law may not be gender biased but the faithful execution of law is not guaranteed for some untold reasons. In this sense, The “Romeo and Juliet Law” may ease the harm to a young male victim to a certain extent in the case of reverse sex harassment/assault which is supposed to be misidentified and misreported as consensual sex for reason of political correctness.
5.6 MEDIATION PRECEDING THE PENALTY DECISION OR PROSECUTION REGARDING UNDERAGE CONSENSUAL SEX
Some NGOs such as the ELCHK organize some kinds of meeting between the families of two parties in cases of underage sex after the young male is convicted and penalized. They call the meeting a “conciliation meeting” or “settlement meeting (和解會議)”. The name with respect to the nature of the captioned meeting is very often absurd as it will be a subsequent injury to the young male if he is forced to bear all the liabilities on account of the gender biased policy in consensual sex or he is actually a victim of reverse sex harassment/assault. Without doubt, the relationship between the two youths and their families were all reported broken up after the meeting because the settlement was not fair. If one of the social function of the law and its enforcement is teaching the general public a righteous concept they entails, the laws regarding sexuality and equal opportunity and their enforcement fail to accomplish their prescribed goals, especially in juvenile sex. The convicted young male and his family can hardly be convinced by the rationale behind the judgment and settlement. The over 90% vote against the Irish Supreme Court judgment is a proof. The growing number of Enjo-kōsai and underage sex reported to be consensual in Hong Kong is another. Any confession made by the parents of the young male is just a pragmatic decision under the unfair legislation or law enforcement practice or policy against males. Therefore, a genuine mediation process involving social workers, SWD officers and police officer preceding the coercive confession or prosecution is recommended to the underage consensual sex. Supervision order or some kinds of non-criminal penalties administered by the SWD instead of criminal prosecution or penalties that will ruin the future of a youth (mainly the young male now) may be imposed on the perpetrator regardless of his/her gender. In the process, all parties must be cautioned not to make any false statement or they will face much more serious consequence . On the other hand, the government must maintain neutral stance and take effective measures to prevent false allegation from taking place. When girls and their parents are taught the righteous concept that females must bear some kind of liabilities based on the principle of gender equality, both of them, especially girls, will be more well disciplined.
END OF SECTION 5 REFERENCES
Rmk. 5.1 Wikipedia: Rule of Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_law)
Rmk. 5.2 Adil Ahmad Haque, Lawrence v. Texas and the Limits of the Criminal Law, Harvard University (http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/crcl/vol42_1/haque.pdf)
Rmk 5.3 Everyday Thomist: Cyberbullying and the Limits of Law, Posted October 1, 2010 (http://everydaythomist.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/cyberbullying-and-the-limits-of-law/)
Rmk. 5.4 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: The Limits of Law, First published Mon Feb 27, 2006 (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/law-limits/)
Rmk. 5.5 Bruce Gross, PhD, JD, MBA False Rape Allegations: An Assault On Justice, (http://www.theforensicexaminer.com/archive/spring09/15/)
Rmk. 5.6 uslegal.com: Romeo and Juliet Law-Law and Definition (http://definitions.uslegal.com/r/romeo-and-juliet-law/)
Rmk. 5.7 Wikipedia: Statutory Rape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_rape)
Rmk. 5.8 Innocence Project (http://www.innocenceproject.org/)
Rmk. 5.9 Wikipedia: Innocence Project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Project)
Rmk. 5.10 Kwan, Hang-kay; 關幸姬: An exploratory study of adolescent attitudes towards laws prohibiting underage consensual sex, 1998 HKU Scholar Hub, (http://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/29606/3/FullText.pdf?accept=1)
Rmk 5.11 Bruce Gross, PhD, JD, MBA, False Rape Allegations: An Assault On Justice, (http://www.theforensicexaminer.com/archive/spring09/15/). 6. CONCLUSION
We are living in an ever changing world. Half century ago, females as a social group were being oppressed and exploited by males. A few forerunners stood up and taught us the principles of equality and human rights for all people. In late 70s and 80s, people tried to remedy the patriarchal society by enhancing the public awareness of the need of justice for the female victims of sex harassment/assault by males while both the non-reporting and false allegation were frustrating workers rendering supporting services to them in the process. Reverse sexual assault was far beyond the imagination of people then. In late 80s and 90s, the social status of females was greatly improved. They were given more or less the equal chance to receive education which in turn enhanced their political and economic power. Reverse sex discrimination began to go beyond the line of equitableness and mutated into unjust discrimination against males in some areas. For hypocritical and political reasons, the society refused to take it serious. In late 90s, 2000s and 2010s, reverse sex harassment/assault was no longer uncommon especially among youths. The legislators were actually alert to the social change and started to make law reform since 1993. However, the law enforcement departments remained conservative and refused to adapt their gender biased policy made almost a century ago to the new environment. The facts has proved that the penalizing-the-male-only policy fails to accomplish its goal of curbing unhealthy juvenile sexual activities. Number of cases initiated by young girls keeps growing as the law executor has virtually waived all the liabilities of young girls unconditionally in irresponsible sex activities and thus further encourages young girls to indulge in sex enjoyment without any fear of legal sanction. Some of the reverse sex harassment/assault cases were suspected to be misreported as consensual sex. The unfair and unjust discrimination against males may cause some kinds of drastic psychic complex such as hatred, anger, antipathy or phobia against females and the establishment of society among males. Without proper supporting services but further suppression from the law enforcement department for the denial of the existence of reverse sex harassment/assault, a certain proportion of them may retaliate in an unpredictable way.
The gender biased law, practice or policy in dealing with sexuality cases is absolutely unfair, unjust, unlawful, unconstitutional and failing in the accomplishment of its own goal as illustrated above. If the government or social services providers are willing to explore the truth beneath the records without prejudice, they may hear more untold stories from young males about how coerced, passive or helpless male victims in sexual activities were misidentified and labeled as sex offenders for their whole life whereas female perpetrators or false accusers were treated and protected as victims just because of their genders privileges.
This article is not intended for demonizing any females or denying the fact that males account for the majority of sex offences but telling the truth that reverse sex discrimination is equally evil as sex discrimination and now reverse sex harassment/assault is not remote to us. Reverse sex discrimination mainly stems from the benevolent female privilege which is regarded as a means to compensate females who had lost ability to compete on equal term in the past or neutralize their competitive disadvantages caused by past discrimination. Now its prevalence is no longer justified in the current socio-cultural context but wrecking the rational and ethical basis of feminist movement. The reverse sex discrimination against males of low and middle class cannot remedy the exploitation and oppression of females by the wealthy and upper class. People supporting benevolent female privileges for whatever reasons are short sighted or narrow sighted. When they set females, especially underage females, above the law, they are undermining the justice. When a male victim of reverse sexual assault is wrongfully convicted guilty for gender biased law, practice or policy, we should feel shameful for claiming that we have a fair and just legal system and denouncing the religion and culture of those places where female survivors of sexual assault are discriminated by the society. At least their law penalize the victimizer. If no body can give a good reason to convince those males who are both the victims of sexual assault and gender discrimination, some day somehow the repercussion will cause the society as a whole to pay off their overdoing in the rectification of sex discrimination against females.
END OF SECTION 6 - END OF MAIN CONTENT - TABLE OF REFERENCES (by Category)
Ref. 1. Superintendent Discretion
Ref. 1.1 倪錫欽 (2004). 闡釋警司警誡令青少年跟進服務之發展 (http:// web.swk.cuhk.edu.hk/uploads/research/ebooks-ngaisy.doc )
Ref.2. Double Standard
Ref. 2.1 2.1 吳惠貞: 探討涉及未成年性罪行的裁判與公義, 護苗基金(ECSAF) pp19-25, pp43-44 (http://www.ecsaf.org/images/upload_images/file/Research%2003_2009.pdf)
Ref. 2.2 林可欣, 竺永洪(2005-2006): 未成年人司法保護之實踐﹕「恢復性公義」於香港「警司警誡」個案的應用成果, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hong Kong (ELCHK信義會)
Ref. 2.3 明報: 新東調查：青年性罪行女方多同意, 少女短訊問「想唔想試」, 2012 (http://www.mingpaohealth.com/cfm/news3.cfm?File=20121107/news/gop1.txt)
Ref. 2.4 明報:性罪行個案趨年輕化, 報道節錄, 文章日期：2011年12月15 (http://life.mingpao.com/cfm/language3.cfm?File=20111215/language01/gfm6_er.txt)
Ref. 3 Precedents – USA
Ref. 3.1 COMMONWEALTH vs. BERNARDO B., a juvenile. (Suffolk. November 3, 2008. - February 6, 2009. ) (http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ma-supreme-judicial-court/1417774.html)
Ref. 3.2. Bostom.com: SJC: Boy accused of statutory rape may be victim of sex discrimination (http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/02/boy_accused_of.html)
Ref. 3.3. By Renée M. Landers: Sexual Activity Between Minors, Prostitution, and Prosecutorial Discretion: What Difference Should Age and Sex Make? (http://www.bostonbar.org_pub_bbj_bbj0506_09_bbj0506.pdf)
Ref. 4. Precedents – Irish
Ref. 4.1. MARY CAROLAN: Boy loses challenge to underage sex laws, Irish Times- Feb 24- 2012 (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0224/1224312311250.html )
Ref. 4.2 thejournal.ie, Poll: Should laws on underage sex be the same for boys and girls?, www.theJournal.ie
Ref. 5. Myth About Sex Assault On Male
Ref. 5.1. 1in6.org, Myths & Facts
Ref. 5.2. Men and Sexual Trauma, NATIONAL CENTER FOR PTSD, Department of Verterans Affairs, USA (http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/men-sexual-trauma.asp)
Ref. 5.3 Michael Amherst: Rape is not just a women's issueguardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 7 March 2 01 0 1 1 .00 GMT (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/17/stern-review-male-rape )
Ref. 5.4 Brian Kassar, Psy.D.: Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, Men Stopping Rape Program, Director Counseling & Psychological Services, MontanaStateUniversity (http://www.scu.edu/wellness/topics/family/malesexabuse.cfm)
Ref. 5.5 Karyl McBride, Ph.D.: Why Boys Do Not Tell About Sexual Abuse, Published on November 12, 2011 i n The Legacy of Distorted Love
Ref. 5.6 BBC News: Russell Joslin death: BBC bosses 'could have done more' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-20079460)
Ref. 5.7 David Icke.com: Sexual harrassment investigation at the BBC (http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=226699 )
Ref. 5.8 am730: 鐵漢有口難言, 性騷擾無人信 24/10/2012 (http://www.am730.com.hk/article.php?article=126597)
Ref. 6. Definition & Law Reform
Ref. 6.1 Rape by Gender, Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_by_gender)
Ref. 6.2 BBC News: Assange case: How is rape defined? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19333439 )
Ref. 6.3 Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriarchy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_discrimination
Ref 6.4 American Heritage Dictionary (http://www.ahdictionary.com/)
Ref 6.5 Oxford English Dictionary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary)
Ref 6.6 World Health Organization (WHO) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization)
Ref 6.8 (http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2008/02/09/faq-female-privilege/ )
Ref 6.9 United Nations Population Fund (http://www.unfpa.org/rights/)
Ref 6.10 Stern Review- a report by baroness vivien stern cbe of an independent review into how rape complaints are handled by public authorities in england and wales , March, 2010 (http://beneaththewig.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Stern_Review_acc_FINAL4.pdf )
Ref. 7. Female offender
Ref. 7.1 Loree Cook‐Daniels, Female Perpetrators and Male Victims of Sexual Assault: Why They are so Invisible
Ref. 8. False Allegation
Ref. 8.1 False Allegations - Wrongful Accusations of Rape (http://suite101.com/article/false-allegations-a21219)
Ref. 8.2 False accusation of rape, Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_accusation_of_rape )
Ref. 8. 3: Bruce Gross, PhD, JD, MBA False Rape Allegations: An Assault On Justice, (http://www.theforensicexaminer.com/archive/spring09/15/)
Ref. 8.4: False allegations of sexual harassment, domestic violence and rape (http://www.manwomanmyth.com/women/false-allegations-of-sexual-harassment-and-rape/)
Ref. 8.5香港網絡大典: 港女對「強姦」、「非禮」的運用 (http://evchk.wikia.com/wiki/港女對「強姦」、「非禮」的運用)
Ref. 9 Code of Practice
Ref. 9.1 state of michigan governor’s task force on children’s justice and department of human services: forensic interviewing protocol (http://www.traversecityfamilylaw.com/Documents/FIA-Pub779_13054_7.pdf)
Ref. 9.2 University of Pretoria: Ch5 A Forensic Interview Protocol for Social Workers, (http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08112008-153723/unrestricted/05chapter5.pdf)
Ref. 9.3 Yahoo! 新聞香港:懲教員_不造假會受壓迫 (http://hk.news.yahoo.com/懲教員-不造假會受壓迫-212427923.html)
Ref 9.4 social workers registration board: Code of Practice for Registered Social Workers (http://www.swrb.org.hk/documents/cop2009_eng.pdf)
Ref 9.5social workers registration board: Guidelines on Code of Practice for Registered Social Workers (http://www.swrb.org.hk/Documents/guidelines%202009_eng.pdf)
Ref 9.6 social workers registration board: Guidelines for Social Work Supervision (http://www.swrb.org.hk/engasp/supervision_c.asp)
Ref 9.7 S. Alvin Leung (The Chinese University of Hong Kong ), Thomas Kin-Man Leung (University of Hong Kong ), Ella Po-On Chan (Hong Kong Baptist University), Ethical Counseling Practice: A Survey of Counseling Teachers in Hong Kong Secondary Schools , CUHK) (http://hkier.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/journal/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ajc_v10n1_71-94.pdf)
Ref 9.8 Robert L. Gibson & Marianne H. Mitchell, Introduction to Counseling and Guidance, Macmillan Publishing Company, NewYork, Ch 14. Ethical and Legal Guidelines, pp. 461-463 (http://www.prenhall.com/gibson7/)
Ref. 10 Pornography
Ref. 10.1 北美新浪: 警五大援交網籲少女惜自尊 (http://dailynews.sina.com/bg/chn/chnoverseamedia/chinesedaily/20090427/0518189969.html) Ref. 10.2 明光社: 貞操有價. (http://www.truth-light.org.hk/article/title/n1030)
Ref. 11 Homosexuality
Ref. 11.1 Family Research Council, What Causes Homosexuality?, pp28-29 (FRC is a non-profit organization located in Washington, D.C., She claims that her vision is a culture in which human life is valued, families flourish and religious liberty thrives.) (http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF08L41.pdf)
Ref. 11.2 Paul Cameron, Ph. D., What Causes Homosexual Desire and Can It Be Changed? (http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron3.html)
Ref. 12 Image of Social Worker and Police Ref. 12.1 有無人憎呢個社工 (17歲弟被控與姊亂倫) - 休閒聊天 - 香港討論區 Uwants (http://www.uwants.com/viewthread.php?tid=9745379) Ref. 12.2 香港人已經濫用左_強姦_ - 香港高登討論區 (http://forum5.hkgolden.com/view.aspx?message=4092269&type=BW) Ref. 12.3 覺唔覺得香港D社工好HiHi__ - 香港高登討論區 (http://forum8.hkgolden.com/view.aspx?type=CA&message=4044941&page=6) Ref. 12.4 17歲弟被控與姊亂倫 - 香港及世界新聞討論 - 香港討論區 discuss.com.pdf (http://news.discuss.com.hk/viewthread.php?tid=11978796)
Ref. 13 Limits of Law
Ref. 13.1 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Limits of Law, Stanford University (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/law-limits/)
Ref. 13.2 Wikipedia: Rule of Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_law)
Ref. 13.3 Adil Ahmad Haque, Lawrence v. Texas and the Limits of the Criminal Law, Harvard University (http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/crcl/vol42_1/haque.pdf)
Ref 13.4 Ref. Everyday Thomist: Cyberbullying and the Limits of Law, Posted October 1, 2010 (http://everydaythomist.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/cyberbullying-and-the-limits-of-law/)
Ref. 13.5 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: The Limits of Law, First published Mon Feb 27, 2006 (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/law-limits/)
Ref. 13.6Innocence Project (http://www.innocenceproject.org/)
Ref. .13.7 Wikipedia: Innocence Project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_Project)
Ref. 14 Romeo and Juliet Law
Ref. 14.1 uslegal.com: Romeo and Juliet Law-Law and Definition (http://definitions.uslegal.com/r/romeo-and-juliet-law/)
Ref. 14.2 Wikipedia: Statutory Rape (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_rape)
OTHER REFERENCES
The Government Response to the Stern Review:
Double standards: False accusers shouldn't apologize, but teen males convicted of statutory rape for having sex with teen girls must, false rape society, community of the wrongly accused (http://falserapesociety.blogspot.hk/2010/01/double-standards-false-accusers.html )
Austin Sarat, Lawrence Douglas, and Martha Merrill Umphrey (eds)., THE LIMITS OF LAW, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005. 336pp. ISBN: 0-8047-5235-4.
END OF TABLE OF REFERENCES
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