Friday, March 18, 2022

Ghislaine Maxwell Juror Lied

The NY Times reports:
For one thing, sexual violence is extremely pervasive. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five American women will experience rape or attempted rape at some time in her life, to say nothing of other sorts of assault. One in four American men will experience some form of sexual violence, including rape, coercion or unwanted sexual contact.
I have gotten used to these exaggerated figures, but this stands out, because it implies that men have been victims more than women.

However, I chased down the sources, and they do not say that at all. The source says:

About one in four male victims of completed or attempted rape first experienced it between the ages of 11 and 17.
That may be bogus also, so don't take it too serously. I am just noting some of the ideological errors.

The paper takes statements about girls and boys, and converts them to being about women and men. It takes past tense statements, and converts them to future tense. It conflates rape, which has a legal definition, and attempted rape, which could be almost anything. And it converts "one in four male victims" to "One in four American men".

The relevants is to recent juror misconduct:

During jury selection for the high-profile sex crimes trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, a confidential questionnaire presented by the court asked potential jurors, “Have you or a friend or a family member ever been the victim of sexual harassment, sexual abuse or sexual assault?” Juror No. 50 checked the box for “no.” After the trial, Juror No. 50 revealed that, during deliberations, he told his fellow jurors that he had been sexually abused as a child and for years had kept this abuse a secret. The court must now decide whether Juror No. 50’s failure to tell the truth requires invalidating Ms. Maxwell’s convictions and granting her a new trial.
People have some funny beliefs about child sexual abuse. I am not sure why this guy's personal experience should have influenced the jury. Maxwell could have gotten an unfair trial.

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