CORRECTION:

In last Friday’s Crimson, the names of two letter writers were accidentally switched due to a production error. The letter “No Grounds to Question Duke Lacrosse Players’ Character” attributed to Leah M. Littman and Tracy E. Nowski was actually written by Joshua A. Barro and the letter “Portrayal of Rape Ignores Statistics and Misses Nuance” attributed to Joshua A. Barro was actually written by Leah M. Litman and Tracy E. Nowski. The letters with their correct authors are reprinted below. The Crimson apologizes to the letter writers and its readers for this serious mistake.


No Grounds To Question Lacrosse Players’ Character

To the editors:

In her column about Duke rape case (“Rushing to Rape,” Apr. 18) Lucy M. Caldwell ’09 describes the injustice that the now-exonerated indictees have faced. Unfortunately, she also chooses to offer unwarranted inferences about their moral character. She says they are “probably not the most respectable college students on the planet” and are “not likely” her kind of dating material.

Of course, statistically, they probably are not the most respectable college students on the planet. And Caldwell is correct to conclude that she cannot, from available data, ascertain their moral character. But that would be true of any people unknown to Caldwell. Why, in the case of Dave Evans, Reade Seligman, and Collin Finnerty, is it appropriate to speculate that they might be “sketchy”?

Such innuendo is not limited to columns in The Crimson. In the days since the charges have been dropped, the Boston Globe opened an editorial on the matter by noting that the once-charged players “may have been louts,” and the Washington Post wrote that they “were not paragons of virtue.” Why? Because they drank before they were 21 and attended a party with a stripper? Tens of millions of American people meet this description and do not have their moral worth called into question by newspaper editorial boards.

Even if we could make valid inferences about these men’s character, it would be none of our business. They are public figures only because of the actions of a corrupt District Attorney and his police, media and faculty enablers. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper has declared them to be “innocent,” and they deserve to return to normal, private life as much as possible. That includes having their private morality free from public scrutiny.

JOSHUA A. BARRO ’05


Portrayal of Rape Ignores Statistics and Misses Nuance

To the editors:

In her column “Rushing to Rape” (Apr.18) Lucy M. Caldwell ’09 falsely attributes mistakes made in the Duke “rape” case to the larger movement to raise awareness about sexual violence and its victims. Aside from generalizations and mischaracterizations she makes about Take Back the Night, Caldwell casts aside years of rigorous empirical findings and asserts that a woman can best protect herself against violence by taking responsibility for her own social and sexual behavior. Of course, actual research concluding that education on the prevalence, consequences, and forms of sexual violence is the most effective form of prevention would beg to differ, as would the many chaste, sober individuals who are raped. No matter what someone drinks, wears, or chooses to do, they do not ask to, nor should they expect to be raped; only a rapist can ultimately prevent a rape.

This being said, false accusations of rape, like any other crime, do occur, and at the same frequency as those of any other crime. But these false accusations are not motivated by morning after regrets; morning after regrets lead to awkward dining hall interactions—they do not generate the time and energy necessary to pursue a rape charge. Announcing you have been the victim of rape does not raise your social status; there is no special incentive to falsely claim you were a rape victim. Any false accusations of a crime have their victims. As Caldwell noted, it is indeed unfortunate that the Duke players lost a year of playing lacrosse and attending college. Perhaps they will be able to celebrate their innocence with another lacrosse party, where they will again be able to hire two strippers (requesting one white of course) and yell racial epithets so loudly a neighbor complains.

Finally, despite Caldwell’s claims, Take Back the Night is not the campus mechanism to organize prevention; the week exists to raise awareness and support victims of intimate violence. It is for these individuals that we should light candles at the vigil, especially because when they come forward as survivors, they will face Caldwell’s suspicious analogies to the false accusations at Duke and will be confronted with her doubts given her belief that not “all of these [incidents] actually constituted rape.” We suggest that Caldwell’s “victims of sexual violence politics” organize their own week and have their own candlelight vigil to raise awareness about the prevalence of false accusations. Otherwise, Caldwell, you can organize it.


LEAH M. LITMAN ’06

TRACY E. NOWSKI ’07