Placement of the burden of proof on the disempowered

A special form of this problem for shifting the onus of proof onto the victim is the practice called decoupling. Decoupling involves a set of propaganda techniques denying the crime while deploring the conditions or circumstances that caused the perpetrators to commit the crime. Thus, decoupling throws blame onto the victim while it denies guilt.

In many traditional societies, the burden of proof in the case of sexual assault is placed on the woman. In Pakistan, the law known as the Hadood Ordinance stipulates that a woman's charge of rape can only be substantiated if the testimony of four adult male Moslem witnesses is obtained. If the woman is unable to substantiate her claim successfully, she may be charged with adultery and subject to corporal punishment or imprisonment.

1. Even if adequate proof is lacking on the causes of environmental and other dangers, doubt should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent them.

1. Blaming victims

1. Violence against women
2. Lack of indigenous environmental rights
3. Inadequate evidence to convict known offenders
4. Inadequate assistance to victims of abuse of power
5. False evidence

1. Unproven relationships among problems
2. Politicization of health standards
3. Official disregard for people as human beings
4. Jurisdictional conflict among academic disciplines
5. Irresponsibility towards future generations
6. Inadmissability of evidence from other jurisdictions
7. Fragmentation of evidence
8. Employment at risk through elimination of industrial pollution
9. Destruction of scientific records
10. Abuse of public trust by statutory professions

1. Violence by fanatical environmentalists
2. Restrictive regulations for disposal of nuclear waste

1. Resisting domestic violence
2. Requiring proof of abuse
3. Reducing entrenchment of vested interests
4. Placing burden of proof on victims of environment pollution
5. Placing burden of proof on the victim
6. Placing burden of proof
7. Giving benefit of doubt to vested interests
8. Giving benefit of doubt
9. Exposing entrenchment of vested interests

1. Vulnerability
2. Vested
3. Pollution
4. Overburden
5. Doubtfulness
6. Displacement
7. Burdensomeness
8. Abuse