"Doubt" is a remarkable episode in that it's one of the few SVU ones that handles the issue of an assault accusation with real complexity. The episode's ending is brilliant, leaving it up to the viewer to decide guilt or innocence -- just as in real life, people will make judgments based not just on facts but on their biases and worldview. If they believe that the accused is always guilty, they will assume he did it. If they believe that victims can lie, they may not be so sure. Reality underscores the drama.
Depending on whose statistics and which studies people privilege, research shows false accusations can account for anywhere from 2% to 10% (some argue the numbers are higher). But even these numbers are challenging -- they almost always rely on data collected from individual police departments, which may be inconsistent in the recording, define assault in different ways, and not record allegations that are ultimately withdrawn. And this data doesn't count allegations that never make it to police, such as those in the workplace or in divorce hearings. The reality is there are no reliable, definitive statistics on false accusations. That makes each case unique, despite efforts to apply a one size fits all approach to adjudicating them or to cast aside the falsely accused as collateral damage, especially in the court of public opinion.
In "Doubt," SVU is presented with a Rashomon-like conundrum. A young woman accuses her art teacher of assaulting her. At first, the situation seems cut and dry -- superficially, she has all the physical signs of assault. But these wounds could also have been caused by consensual sex. Holes start to appear in the woman's testimony. Her facts are inconsistent and her behavior erratic. She has a history of profound emotional problems, and it appears she pursued a romantic interest in her teacher, not the other way around -- she may have been the aggressor. In the meantime, he's an unapologetic womanizer whose never been accused of assault before, and though he's broken no laws, he's violated his school's policy. Things get worse when the victim falsely accuses Stabler of assaulting her through inappropriate touching and later attempts suicide.
Is someone lying or is everyone just seeing events through their own lens -- a lens that might be distorted by mental illness, petty self-interest, or strident political views? Is truth getting lost in a sea of competing interests? These are meaningful questions, not just for television drama but for real life, where the concept of innocent until proven guilty may be lost in the rush to judgment. And are the police, whose job is to collect evidence that can be used in a trial, appropriately trained and qualified to do the complicated investigation?
My only reservation about the episode is that it relies on the weak crutch of Stabler separating from his wife to try to explain why he might be more aggressive toward proving the accuser is unreliable. That's a dumb TV trope that is unnecessary -- why can't Stabler simply doubt the accuser based on the issues presented in the story? Making Benson the accuser's defender also creates a neat -- and that's not a compliment -- gender division that's a little too convenient, though that could well mirror real life.
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