ABSTRACT
Rape is the only crime involving adults in which the accuser can keep her name secret, by tacit agreement of the press, backed in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina by the law. An accusation of rape can be used anonymously to blackmail or hurt the accused. In Britain the same courtesy is extended to a man accused of rape, which is a little fairer— though it means that an alleged rapist is granted a privilege the law does not grant to an alleged murderer or burglar but there is no pressure in America from ''masculinists" to extend anonymity to the accused. Rape, unusually among crimes, shames its victims, who are made to feel that they have invited the crime. America should stick to a voluntary code of anonymity for victims of alleged rape, while encouraging them to tell their stories of their own volition.
