Megan McArdle, Columnist

You Can't Just Accuse People of Rape

Treating every rape accusation as true hurts the credibility of those trying to fight rape.

Students walk past the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house on the University of Virginia campus.

Photographer: Jay Paul/Getty Images
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Writing in the Washington Post about the University of Virginia rape case, Zerlina Maxwell asserts, "We should believe, as a matter of default, what an accuser says. Ultimately, the costs of wrongly disbelieving a survivor far outweigh the costs of calling someone a rapist."

Where to begin with this kind of statement?