This is dodgy-weavy journalism, and it revolts my sense of truth to the core. The word "alleged" carries a lot of emotional baggage, one item of which is the assumption that the "allegation" is never true.
"Alleged" is a word that belongs in police and/or forensic reports that cannot, before the trial, be seen to make a definite statement about guilt or lack thereof. But that is specialised technical language in a limited, narrow context; journalists have no excuse.
I can understand the use of the term "sex attack" if the particulars are unclear (e.g. victim found with underclothes dissheveled but the memory of what actually happened obliterated by drugs or head trauma), but even then something better is required as and if the situation clarifies itself.
no subject
This is dodgy-weavy journalism, and it revolts my sense of truth to the core. The word "alleged" carries a lot of emotional baggage, one item of which is the assumption that the "allegation" is never true.
"Alleged" is a word that belongs in police and/or forensic reports that cannot, before the trial, be seen to make a definite statement about guilt or lack thereof. But that is specialised technical language in a limited, narrow context; journalists have no excuse.
I can understand the use of the term "sex attack" if the particulars are unclear (e.g. victim found with underclothes dissheveled but the memory of what actually happened obliterated by drugs or head trauma), but even then something better is required as and if the situation clarifies itself.