“Alleged victim”

There are so many things wrong with the phrase above, and we see it constantly in coverage of sexual assault cases… but only sexual assault cases.

It’s been one of my pet peeves for many years, but it came to mind because of a Boston Globe piece about the Kevin Spacey investigation last month. The Globe was digging into court filings on Spacey’s indecent assault charges, alleging he fondled a then-18-year-old busboy against his will. Their initial headline called him an “alleged victim.”

In the hour it took me to research and write about the phrase, the Globe rewrote the headline and lead to call him “accuser” and switched to “alleged assault.” Progress?

Those charges have since been dropped…. and in the coverage, once again news stories have resurrected the phrase “alleged victim.”

The Spacey case is important because the actor is a public figure, and because the allegations against him blew up the #metoo discussion and highlighted the fact that sexual harassment and assault isn’t just something that men do to women. Journalists have gone to great lengths to avoid naming the young man — as is appropriate — and then have listed family connections that ostensibly identify him anyway. That essentially defeats the purpose of shielding victims, as recommended in the SPJ Code of Ethics. We have done better work, as a profession.

But my real issue is with the phrase “alleged victim,” which is constantly used by all branches of the news business and needs to die.