It’s a very informative documentary made by an investigative journalist who uncovered hundreds of cases in America of young women who were systematically disbelieved when reporting rape and sexual assault to the police. The film shows the outrageous response from officers, often during the woman’s interview, where the police find any excuse to prosecute her rather than the perpetrator. Officers describe on camera how they routinely lie to victims about evidence they claim to have, known officially as a ‘ruse’, in order to bully the woman into retracting her report.

We see exceptional footage from inside police stations of young women being pressed into retracting reports of rape, and some are then jailed. The police further punish women by releasing details of their 'false allegation', name and photo to the media, such as local papers and college website where they are studying, encouraging a public witch hunt. Those featured are mainly in Southern States.

This film boldly criticises police policy and practice and concludes with successful legal actions that some of the women took, overturning their convictions and winning compensation for their suffering. One woman featured tragically took her own life.

After the film, we spoke on a panel with other prestigious lawyers and campaigners about fighting these cases in the UK and the US, and a lively discussion followed.

Speakers: Camile, Gail, Lisa A, Janey, Lisa L, Elizabeth

Speakers included: survivor Gail Sherwood, who was jailed for 18 months on questionable evidence after police failed to identify her serial stalker and rapist. Elizabeth Cronin a former prosecutor and Bureau Chief at the New York State Office of Victim Services. She said her Office did not bring such prosecutions on principle. She said that American cops need training, including about how trauma can impede a victim’s memory and that this should not be used against them as evidence of lying. She also wouldn’t prosecute victims of domestic violence or remove their children.

Lisa Longstaff of WAR, said they had long fought similar injustices in the UK. She described the organisation’s 25-year campaign to stop the authorities from prosecuting women and how it defended victims affected. WAR’s research on nearly 200 UK prosecutions of women showed a significant fall in recent years (from 40 in the year 2010 to one or two a year in the 2020s), but sentences for those convicted were dramatically higher today than 10 years ago. Those prosecuted were from particularly vulnerable sectors of women. She said that while police clearly need training, it was not enough to change entrenched behaviour given the prevalence of rape, misogyny and racist violence by police officers which has long had impunity.

Janey Starling of Level Up spoke of campaigning to end the imprisonment of young mums who are pregnant. She had witnessed women being prosecuted after being manipulated into crime by violent partners, and that showed most women are both victim and suspect. She was furious at a government Bill to quash hard won new Sentencing Guidelines to take a woman’s age, race and pregnancy into account before sending them to prison.

Camile Py, a UCL student rep. of the UCL Women’s Network, spoke about developments in her native France after the Pelicot case, and the worrying trend by the State to remove children from mothers after they reported a husband for child abuse, another injustice WAR challenges in the UK.

The event was moderated by law professor Lisa Avalos who has been collaborating with WAR after we alerted her to this issue, and has given expert evidence in court. She appears in the film and is currently in the UK writing a book about such prosecutions.

People at the event were appalled by the film’s revelations and inspired by the campaigns and professionals challenging these horrific injustices.

The event was jointly organised by WAR and the UCL Gender and Feminisms Research Network. Contact WAR if you’d like to organise a screening and panel discussion.

Read the impressions of a survivor working with us below.

"Victim/Suspect" – We Are Not Imagining This

Watching Victim/Suspect felt like being hit with a familiar kind of grief, the one that comes when truth is not only denied but punished. It made me feel sick, furious, and helpless all at once. Not because the stories were shocking, but because they were predictable. Because any one of us could be next.

The message is clear: we are in control, we control the narrative, and if you try to reclaim your own, we will crush you for it.

As a survivor, I know what it means to carry something like this in your body, in your breath, in your daily life. As a feminist, I’ve spent years speaking out, protesting, and building spaces of resistance and healing. And still, I wasn’t prepared for the cold violence of what this film reveals.

You can do everything “right.” Report to the police. Cooperate. Tell your story. And you can end up prosecuted. Accused. Caged. Because the system doesn’t want truth. It wants silence. And when it can’t get silence, it demands submission.

The women in this documentary went to the police for protection. What they found instead was a new form of violence. They were interrogated, manipulated, coerced into recanting. Their trauma was turned against them. They were re-victimised by those meant to help.

This isn’t about a few “mistaken” cases. This is a systemic pattern. A deliberate lesson:

Don’t speak up. It will cost you.

It reminded me of something every survivor knows deep down but doesn’t always have the words to say: The process of seeking justice can become a second assault. It can strip you of your voice, your dignity, your faith in the world.

I thought I couldn’t be more enraged. I thought I was past the point of surprise. But this film reminded me that patriarchy always has a new weapon. Another way to say: You don’t matter. You don’t get to speak.

The system is working exactly as it was built to: To discourage. To humiliate. To silence.

To make examples of the women who dare to report rape, sexual assault, abuse.

To let the rest of us know, we are watching you. We are waiting to break you next.

What stayed with me after the credits rolled wasn’t just rage, it was a deep sense of urgency.

Because this is happening.

And it’s working.

And it is terrifying.

As a survivor, I’m tired.

As a feminist, I’m enraged.

But as a woman, I refuse to be silent.

This film reminded me of why we fight, not just for ourselves, but for every girl and woman who’s been told: “You must be lying.”

To those who watched this film and felt helpless, don’t stay there. Let your anger move you.

Believe women, especially when it’s uncomfortable.

Demand better from the justice system, the police, the media.

Name what’s happening, this isn’t a glitch. It’s by design.

Speak out, even when they try to shame or discredit you.

Support survivors, not with pity, but with power.

Because silence is not neutrality. It’s complicity.

And I refuse to be complicit.

@Mcfemininja