PD Editorial: A case study for why women don’t report sexual assault

Any job candidate today knows that a background check is just part of the process. And for good reason. Hiring managers say they frequently discover serious discrepancies between what applicants say about themselves and what turns up in the inquiries.

So why should there be any difference between the need to check the background of a job candidate and that of a candidate for elected office?

Defenders of Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who’s facing allegations that he had a sexual encounter with an underage girl nearly 40 years ago in addition to encounters with other young women, seem to think that there’s a difference - or at least there should be for their candidate. They argue that raising questions about Moore’s past so close to the election must be politically motivated. And for that reason, they say these women are not to be believed.

Baloney.

Election season is not a questionable time to raise issues like this about a candidate. It’s the exact time. And the questions about Moore’s history of seeking relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s are very disturbing. Equally disturbing are the lengths that supporters of Moore, including Steve Bannon’s Breitbart News, have gone to discredit his accusers.

The women who originally spoke to Washington Post reporters all say they were approached to tell their stories. They did not go to the Post. They are not seeking monetary damages. They are not writing books. In fact, the 14-year-old, identified as Leigh Corfman, now 53, says she has voted for Republicans in the past three presidential elections, including voting for Donald Trump a year ago.

Nonetheless, Bannon reportedly has sent three Breitbart reporters to Alabama in an attempt to discredit Moore’s accusers, including digging into Corfman’s own checkered past. Corfman said she was concerned that her background, which includes three divorces and some financial troubles, would be used against her in efforts to undermine her credibility. But she told her story anyway.

Is it possible she and these other women are lying? Yes, it’s always possible. But it’s not probable, and it’s not common. Studies show that only between 2 and 5 percent of reports of sexual assault are found to be false.

It’s also improbable given the level of detail that these women, including that of a fifth woman who came forward on Monday, are offering and the consistencies in their stories and those, including friends and family members, who have corroborated them.

What’s more likely is that these women are telling the truth and are now experiencing the kind of vilification that many women in similar situations fear would occur if they report being a victim of sexual assault, particularly at the hands of someone well known and powerful. It’s one of the reasons that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, some 70 percent of sexual assault cases in the nation are not reported to authorities. We imagine that’s particularly true when one of the “authorities” is the alleged attacker himself.

Moore needs to step aside, and his defenders need to call off their dogs. The attacks on these women are reprehensible.