Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In the post #MeToo works you see a lot backlash and push-back to it. I have seen many posts before and far not more so after the Kavanaugh hearing about fake rape allegations and how they too should be criminalized. I often ask what it is and get stonewalled and have no response from the poster whom I ask what exactly is a fake rape allegation. I also don't understand why it is a problem. Most retorted rapes don't even get a conviction in the first place due to the sexual history of the raped being brought up, let alone smear that they lied at some point during the police investigation that the defense attorney could use.
I have two questions. First, what exactly is a fake rape allegation? Second, why do people think fake rape allegations happen as much as they do?
Why are people so concerned about the number? Because it's a charge that can destroy someone's life. For a national example see the Duke Lacrosse team.
No proof needed. Guilty without trial as far as people are concerned. There was even a thread here not long ago that advocated that very thing-- that we should just assume guilt.
We should all be worried about false allegations. It can happen to anyone at any time.
Imagine you have a nice date with a woman and you conduct yourself as total gentleman. The next morning the Police are at your door to take you down town because the woman claims she was raped and suddenly the ball is in your court to prove that you did not do it. It happens.
Years ago I was at a construction site as a sub contractor, the foreman was showing me around the site. Somewhere in the back some loser exposed himself to a young girl on her way to school. The next thing the cops showed up with the girl, lined up all the workers, I was off site then, and she picked out the foreman as the guy that did it even though he did not match the original description she gave, even though the other workers told the cops no way. It was later found out that there was a guy that ran from the job site and never returned. About a year later, after the foremans life was dragged through the mud the case went to trial and I was put on the stand to testify that he was showing me the site when the incident happened. After 2 days in court he was found not guilty.
A false charge can happen to anyone at anytime and suddenly you are on the defense.
There should be fines, restitution and possible jail time for people that make false allegations.
Why are people so concerned about the number? Because it's a charge that can destroy someone's life. For a national example see the Duke Lacrosse team.
No proof needed. Guilty without trial as far as people are concerned. There was even a thread here not long ago that advocated that very thing-- that we should just assume guilt.
I think a lot of that is due to so many people being so incredibly trusting in law enforcement today...if a police dept makes it public that they are looking for a guy that is wanted in connection to a sex crime or even when they arrest someone and say they are alleged to have committed this crime...too many people automatically jump to the conclusion that the police must be right, if they had enough to arrest him, he must be guilty!
I've taken about a dozen 'fake' rape and or sexual assault complaints as an on-call investigator, but never worked full-time in a sex offense unit. But here is what I have experienced:
As to why they made the complaint, most were from people who wanted just attention without regard to what they thought the system would do to whomever she (or he) named. Several times, the victim didn't name anyone, but rather reported it was just 'a stranger did this too me...' We called it 'look at me disease.'
Other times it was someone looking for revenge against a particular person, usually following the unhappy end of a dyad relationship. I recall one or two cases where the 'victim' was pregnant by way of an event that would not be well received within her family or culture. They had to explain it somehow.
I've taken far fewer actual rape or sexual assault complaints, and we worked those very aggressively. I locked up one rapist in a very close community and as soon as he was off the street, five more women came forward to detail how he had assaulted them. They were afraid to report him as long as he was out among them in the community. This case, and my experiences with false reports, inadvertently support the belief among many sex crimes investigators that 'only one in ten rape complaints are real, but only one in ten real rapes get reported.'
If that is so, the real crime is all the sex crime offenders who never get reported - or caught.
Why does it happen so often? In a country of 340 million, there are that many people looking for attention - or revenge in a former relationship (or lack thereof). Most of the ones I dealt with were sexually mature but emotionally very immature, a combination fraught with risk.
In the post #MeToo works you see a lot backlash and push-back to it. I have seen many posts before and far not more so after the Kavanaugh hearing about fake rape allegations and how they too should be criminalized. I often ask what it is and get stonewalled and have no response from the poster whom I ask what exactly is a fake rape allegation. I also don't understand why it is a problem. Most retorted rapes don't even get a conviction in the first place due to the sexual history of the raped being brought up, let alone smear that they lied at some point during the police investigation that the defense attorney could use.
I have two questions. First, what exactly is a fake rape allegation? Second, why do people think fake rape allegations happen as much as they do?
Its pretty obvious what fake rape allegations are.
It seems recently too many people rely on emotion instead of actual facts and statistics So they hear of one case and it hits a nerve and suddenly they are parroting headlines. From there they become consumed and begin extrapolating until they are convinced its an epidemic of mass proportions. And the sky is falling.
I've taken about a dozen 'fake' rape and or sexual assault complaints as an on-call investigator, but never worked full-time in a sex offense unit. But here is what I have experienced:
As to why they made the complaint, most were from people who wanted just attention without regard to what they thought the system would do to whomever she (or he) named. Several times, the victim didn't name anyone, but rather reported it was just 'a stranger did this too me...' We called it 'look at me disease.'
Other times it was someone looking for revenge against a particular person, usually following the unhappy end of a dyad relationship. I recall one or two cases where the 'victim' was pregnant by way of an event that would not be well received within her family or culture. They had to explain it somehow.
I've taken far fewer actual rape or sexual assault complaints, and we worked those very aggressively. I locked up one rapist in a very close community and as soon as he was off the street, five more women came forward to detail how he had assaulted them. They were afraid to report him as long as he was out among them in the community. This case, and my experiences with false reports, inadvertently support the belief among many sex crimes investigators that 'only one in ten rape complaints are real, but only one in ten real rapes get reported.'
If that is so, the real crime is all the sex crime offenders who never get reported - or caught.
Why does it happen so often? In a country of 340 million, there are that many people looking for attention - or revenge in a former relationship (or lack thereof). Most of the ones I dealt with were sexually mature but emotionally very immature, a combination fraught with risk.
Yet all reports indicated false rape reports are rare among the reported rapes. And the number one culprit is young or teenage girls trying to get out of some trouble they got themselves into.
In the post #MeToo works you see a lot backlash and push-back to it. I have seen many posts before and far not more so after the Kavanaugh hearing about fake rape allegations and how they too should be criminalized. I often ask what it is and get stonewalled and have no response from the poster whom I ask what exactly is a fake rape allegation. I also don't understand why it is a problem. Most retorted rapes don't even get a conviction in the first place due to the sexual history of the raped being brought up, let alone smear that they lied at some point during the police investigation that the defense attorney could use.
I have two questions. First, what exactly is a fake rape allegation? Second, why do people think fake rape allegations happen as much as they do?
It's a problem because the person falsely accused is arrested, thrown in jail, will very likely have a huge bail put on them which most won't be able to afford so they stay in jail, will quickly lose their job, immediately everyone who knows the person will hear of the accusation and some will jump to conclusions and assume the person is guilty, regardless of the outcome of a trial. Marriages and families can be destroyed, lose their homes because they can't pay the mortgage, and have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to defend themselves.
And that's assuming they are aquitted of the crime, but there are plenty of cases where innocent people have been imprisoned for years. In 2002, 17 year old Brian Banks was wrongly convicted of rape, spent five years in prison, and had a promising pro football career destroyed. https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...icle-1.2090727
We need strong laws against false accusations of rape, sexual assault, and "hate" crimes, with penalties identical to the crime they claim was committed.
It's a problem because the person falsely accused is arrested, thrown in jail, will very likely have a huge bail put on them which most won't be able to afford so they stay in jail, will quickly lose their job, immediately everyone who knows the person will hear of the accusation and some will jump to conclusions and assume the person is guilty, regardless of the outcome of a trial. Marriages and families can be destroyed, lose their homes because they can't pay the mortgage, and have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to defend themselves.
And that's assuming they are aquitted of the crime, but there are plenty of cases where innocent people have been imprisoned for years. In 2002, 17 year old Brian Banks was wrongly convicted of rape, spent five years in prison, and had a promising pro football career destroyed. https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...icle-1.2090727
We need strong laws against false accusations of rape, sexual assault, and "hate" crimes, with penalties identical to the crime they claim was committed.
Ok now why are they fake accusations and what exactly is a fake one? Is it that the wrong guy was named? Is it fitting a profile? Is it a case of date rape where the accuser is in an inebriated state that clouds memories? Is it that was built upon he said, she said? I find many are quick to say an accusation is fake but can't quantify what makes it fake. I've asked in this and other threads and people can say why it is a problem but cannot define it. If we can define it, maybe we can figure out why so many rape cases don't result in justice for the victim.
In the post #MeToo works you see a lot backlash and push-back to it. I have seen many posts before and far not more so after the Kavanaugh hearing about fake rape allegations and how they too should be criminalized. I often ask what it is and get stonewalled and have no response from the poster whom I ask what exactly is a fake rape allegation. I also don't understand why it is a problem. Most retorted rapes don't even get a conviction in the first place due to the sexual history of the raped being brought up, let alone smear that they lied at some point during the police investigation that the defense attorney could use.
I have two questions. First, what exactly is a fake rape allegation? Second, why do people think fake rape allegations happen as much as they do?
It's such a minefield of a topic. First, it's extraordinarily emotional, and understandably so. At the same time, because it's such a private and sensitive crime, one that is most often done in private and cuts to the very heart of the victim's emotional well-being, the burden of proof is difficult.
You mentioned the Kavanaugh hearings. There are millions of people who believe Kavanaugh is guilty of some kind of sexual assault when he was a teenager. There are millions more who think that Ford either made everything up whole cloth or has incredibly unreliable memory.
Throughout the entire nightmare, I couldn't choose a side to believe. Why? Because the evidence was so sketchy. Ford couldn't remember the house, the street, the date, or even the year this incident took place. Her supposed witness, her lifelong friend, completely denies being at the party in question or ever having met Kavanaugh in the first place.
If we are a society of laws, and those laws are based on evidence, then the accusations against Kavanaugh wouldn't make it past a grand jury even if the statute of limitations weren't in effect. There is simply no possible way to arrive at the truth on what happened.
Yet, there was a huge upswell of rage at the nominee. You know that hashtag, #Ibelieveher? I wanted to ask the question, 'Why do you believe her?' and 'What is your basis for believing her?' I remember having one conversation with a woman who literally felt Kavanaugh should be prosecuted because she had been sexually assaulted in her past and therefore any man accused of it is automatically guilty. She actually said that.
It didn't help that other women such as Judy Munro-Leighton and Julie Swetnick came forward to accuse Kavanaugh of outright rape--not just sexual assault--and were later exposed as frauds. Both admitted that, because the political stakes were so high they wanted to add their false allegations to Ford's in order to tip the scales. Those two woman are being prosecuted right now.
But there have been plenty of famous false accusations. The Duke Lacrosse Team. That fraternity in Virgnia. The Scottsboro Boys. And then there are the garden-variety liars that don't become famous. Take your pick: https://thoughtcatalog.com/janet-blo...y-they-did-it/
Unfortunately, this is not as uncommon as one would like to think. I have a friend who is a family law attorney. According to her, this is a not uncommon in messy divorces, especially when the question of child custody is being contested. It is not rare for a woman, for example, to suddenly accuse a man of sexually molesting his children in order to keep him away from them, even when those accusations are found later to be untrue or dubious. The default in the courts is to protect the kids, which means protecting the kids from their accused father, who is often quite blameless.
I mean, a rape or sexual assault accusation is the criminal equivalent of an atom bomb. It lays waste to everything, from a person's reputation to the rules of evidence. What's more, it boils down one person's word against another, unless the victim goes to the hospital immediately for the collection of evidence.
All that being said, someone is going to misread what I've written as excuse making or trivializing sexual assault and rape. Nothing could be further from the truth. These are heinous crimes that deserve the most severe punishment we can mete out. But the important thing is the swift accumulation of evidence in a way that's the least humiliating and traumatic to the victim.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
