Alternative take: Neil Stevenson, from Edinburgh, on attitudes to rape

Published on 16/10/2008 22:04

THE problem with our understanding of rape has just been exacerbated by a crude and feminist interpretation of the issues by someone who should know better. The lord advocate, Elish Angiolini (Debate & Opinion, 16 October), like most commentators and virtually all media coverage, fails to talk about male-on-male rape, and therefore tries to pretend this is about society's attitudes to women, when it is not; it is an "ungendered" attitude to risk and behaviour.

If a young man dresses provocatively, walks into a gay club, flirts with a gay man, goes home with him and then claims rape – juries, judges and prosecutors would have exactly the same issue about understanding what has taken place and who is to blame. Furthermore, the victim would be far less supported and understood by Ms Angiolini's organisation, the police or the many charities that support female victims of rape (most of whom turn away male victims).

Groundbreaking work has been adopted in other jurisdictions, where real understanding has been developed with judges, prosecutors and police by using the "lens" of male rape to re-examine this issue in a different light. Why have these benefits not been delivered here?

Because, I would suggest, people are focusing on "women", not on the crime of someone forcing sex on another, and certainly not the taboo of male rape.