<B>By Pauline ETIENNE</B>

There?s obviously something wrong somewhere. Violence is getting anchored in society and the authorities appear to have increasing difficulty to deal with it. Recently, we felt we had reached the height of horror: a teenager was accused of raping a 60 or so year-old woman. The lady could have been his grandmother. How disrespectful one can be to reach such an extreme? When you no longer respect the older generation, it is a sign that society is undergoing major difficulties because it is a sign that there are no limits and anyone feels he can do anything.

Rape has become almost a common feature ? so much so that it is now a regular feature in the press. There is practically no single week when one girl does not accuse her father, brother, father-in-law or neighbour of sexual abuse? However, there are cases which smell of revenge.

A girl who ran away from home to go and live with her boyfriend suddenly wakes up one morning and goes to the police with rape allegations against the same boyfriend. Don?t get me wrong! Sadly enough, rapes can occur between two persons involved in a relationship ? even a married couple can face such problems. But there are cases where girls are obviously only taking revenge against boys who have just ditched them?

But they must be reminded that justice is not to be used to such ends. There are very serious cases of rape or sexual abuse on women who lived traumatising experiences and who feel their only chance of recovering would be to punish their ?torturers?. What would happen to these women if judges and magistrates just did not take them seriously and sent them back home when they come and confide into them?

Those eager for personal revenge take the risk of discrediting the true victims. Through such irresponsible actions, they are just putting discredit on all those women who often remain silent and who need so much courage to come to the forefront and relate their sufferings. By dint of ?crying wolf?, no one will end up believing other cases of rape.

This is particularly true in the case of sexual abuse occurring during a relationship because these rapes or abuse are already hard to prove for the victims. Moreover, such victims are very shy to admit that they have been abused by the ones who were supposed to take care of them. There are even fewer chances that they finally come out of their silence if they know they have little chance of being heard or believed.

Revengeful girls should really take their time before making false allegations because their actions can have disastrous consequences on the work of the authorities and non-governmental organisations to make victims talk and realise that justice is trustworthy? And rapists and criminals would then think that they can cause harm without ever being punished for their crimes.