False Claims of Rape
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By Jeremy Eugene Reed in General Published: Monday, 28 January 08 - 06:26 AM (GMT) |
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False rape claims. Let me start this conversation by stating that I know that some claims of rape are true. If someone has actually raped another, then there should be severe consequences. But that is not the focus of what I want to talk about today. Today, I want to talk about claims of rape that are false.
There are any number of motivations to make a false rape claim. To hide a consensual sexual encounter from a spouse or mate, to try and extort money, to try and harm a person you are mad at, or for many other reasons. There are commentators that would have us believe that there are very few cases where the claims of rape are false. This article by Wendy McElroy-See it here-http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,194032,00.html-takes what little concrete data there is and hypothesizes that as many as 1 in 4 rape accusations are false-that is, the wrong person is accused.
McElroy comes to this conclusion by reviewing FBI testing data. Out of 10,000 tests (where a suspect was named, and biological material was present and testable), 2000 were inconclusive, 2000 were not the suspect, and 6000 confirmed the accusation. These are chilling numbers. While there are no doubt some of these accusations that are truly mistakes where there was a rape, but the victim misidentifies the perpetrator. However, some of these accusations are acts of vengeance or hate or greed, or any number of other possibilities. One need not look far to find these cases. The Duke “rape” case may be the most well known of these false rape allegations. And while that case eventually had a positive result for the accused, let us not forget what the mere accusation cost them. The Duke lacrosse season was cancelled. All the Duke lacrosse players lost their ability to plat the sport, and most were rejected even when they attempted to go to other schools. And these are young men that were not even accused. For the actual accused, they were forced out of school, had to spend huge sums of money on their legal defense, lost job opportunities, had to deal with hatred being directed towards them from much of the community, and untold other indignities. And even now, after it has become clear that these young men did not commit the crime of which they were accused, and the attorney general of
This is why the false allegation of rape is such a terrible act. Even if exonerated, the reality is that even being accused of rape can and often does ruin the life of the accused. And what to do about those who cannot afford to bring significant legal talent to bear on the bogus prosecution, or who are unable to prove their innocence for other reasons. Rape is a crime that once an accusation is made, it really is more a situation of guilty until proven innocent than presumed innocent.
When false claims are discovered, there should be a rigorous investigation about the motivation for the false identification. If the mistaken ID was truly an error, then no further action is needed. I do not support the punishment of those who have been truly victimized and make a mistake. But in those cases where it can be shown that the accusation was made for nefarious reasons-for the possibility of a settlement in a civil suit, to harm someone the accuser is mad at, to simply gain attention, then there should be severe penalties. While making a false report remains a crime, it is the rare instance where an accuser is charged after making a false allegation.
Tell me what you think. If you have a story of a false rape accusation, please post it in the comments section, or contact me and I will post it for you. This is an important issue, and I look forward to your input.
6 Comments so far: |
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| Rape vs. Sexual Assault | Matthew Kring | 03/13/08 |
| The main differenct between sexual assau (...) | Jeremy Reed | 03/21/08 |
| punish liars | Shala | 09/09/08 |
| The Ends Justify the Means | ART | 03/14/09 |
| An open invitation | Robert | 06/14/09 |
| Hindu Wife accuses Hindu Husband of Rape (...) | Hindu Man | 11/07/09 |
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Top | Reply to this Title: Rape vs. Sexual Assault Author: Matthew Kring Date Posted: 13 Mar 2008 06:20 PM (GMT) Do you know if these statistics are exclusive to rape or all kinds of sexual assualt? Is their a legal difference between rape and sexual assault? I know when I am educating young men I talk very specifically about the differences between sexual assault and rape but I can't remember if there is a difference in the legal definition or not. Don't get me wrong, I know being raped is emotionally devastating. But it must be also emotionally devastating to be falsely accused of rape, and in fact these falsely accused are victims too and need to be advocated for, which is why I like what your doing with the blog. The sad thing is that those who falsely accuse victimize those that have actually been assaulted. |
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Top | Reply to this Author: Jeremy Reed (http://mrmensrights.terapad.com/) Date Posted: 21 Mar 2008 07:14 PM (GMT) The main differenct between sexual assault and rape is the element of penetration-so all rapes are sexual assaults, but not all sexual assaults are rapes. (Simplistic, but essentially true.) I am not sure what cases the data was culled from, other than all of the cases had biological evidence that could be tested. While this can occur in cases without penetration, it is likely that the vast majority of these cases would be classified as rapes. |
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Top | Reply to this Title: punish liars Author: Shala Date Posted: 09 Sep 2008 07:22 AM (GMT) A false claim of rape is, in fact, a much worse crime than most rapes. The damage is permanent, and society will continue to enable the crime to continue for decades. Any other crime victim receives sympathy; the victims of false accusations continue to be discriminated against and shunned for the rest of their lives. I think that most women who make up false claims of rape-- not merely misidentifying, but just making everything up, like in the Duke Lacrosse case-- are people who have been lying for a very long time, and who will almost certainly have falsely accused other people in the past. As such, it would be easy enough to expose most false accusers for what they are, if the legal system had any interest in doing so. As is, many in the system simply pretend that false accusations don't exist.
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Top | Reply to this Title: The Ends Justify the Means Author: ART Date Posted: 14 Mar 2009 06:26 PM (GMT) I never thought things would come to this extreme, but the growing phemomenon of false rape, date-rape, molestation, fondling, etc., are a natural outgrowth of the infantilization of women in the US since the late 1970s. That is, those who hijacked feminism discovered in the 1980s that feminist ideals which suggested that everyone's, particularly females', feelings have to be taken seriously, could be altered into 'any feeling that a female has, regardless of its merit, has to be pre-eminant in judging any situation where there was reported wrong doing'. Look at the whining nation the US has become--everyone is a victim (except for white males) and everyone is 'special'. There are scores of 40 year-olds living at home, and no one takes responsibility for anything. In the world that women have created for themselves and men have surrendered to, one in which 'you can't argue or criticize or judge me' has become the hallmark--why wouldn't some women just take this to its logical extreme: 'Now I can lie and even destroy others' lives, and while I might not get what I an conniving for, I also won't ever be punished'. At the same time, such women, just as is the case for all abusers, actually despise their victim men for being so gullable and stupid, and most of all, for just 'taking it'. It is no coincidence that as we in the US train young boys to be self-hating inconsequential wimps, the marriage rate goes ever downward and something like 80% of women say they wouldn't marry the same man again. Any man who marries in the US is out of his freakin mind; it's like signing your life away. Disgusted and ashamed of my own culture and my own species. |
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Top | Reply to this Title: An open invitation Author: Robert Date Posted: 14 Jun 2009 12:41 PM (GMT) The false rape society feature reports of false rape accusations. It is a site I believe some of you might find interesting. The site was started by a U.S. based attorney. It is a refreshing and eyeopening site with excellent discussions concerning the growing epidemic of false rape and sexual assault accusations ,as well as other highly important topics. |
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Top | Reply to this Title: Hindu Wife accuses Hindu Husband of Rape Author: Hindu Man Date Posted: 07 Nov 2009 07:41 AM (GMT) I am a victim of false rape charges. I and my wife are are Hindu couple who married in a temple in India. We have been happily married for 12 years. Couple of months back, my wife filed a police complaint of rape. Police came to the home and interviewed me and her separately and determined that it was a civil case. I was devasted by the accusation. I was shocked. I didnt have a clue of why my dear wife would do this. I decided to investigate the matter myself and found my wife to be having an affair with another man in her office. I caught them red handed. I have 2 kids ( 7 and 4 ) and pray that no man is falsely accused of rape. Rape, I beleive is next to murder. 25 years jail time. God Bless
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