I am specifically talking about rape or sexual assault, but is there any reason that the penalty for falsely accusing someone of this crime should not be at least as stiff as the penalty for being convicted of it?

Is there context for this, or is it just an abstract question?

He is asking for a friend.

Was looking at red flag laws and wondered about false accusations. Some of the red flag laws statethe accuser is subject to perjury charges. However, perjury convictions are rare due the requirements of proving the charge. No doubt a fake accuser of rape “could” be charged but conviction?

In the Tawana Brawley case she was successfully sued but not charged. Crystal Magnum of the Duke Lacrosse case was neither charged with perjury or sued. She’s currently in jail for other crimes.

Both cases show how difficult it is to punish a false accuser. Tawana Brawley lost her case by not showing up. However, while the $185,000 award dates from the mid 1990s, it wasn’t until 2012 that she paid any money. That required a judge to garnish her wages. As case of winning the lawsuit but never getting the money.

Last Tacoma a murder case where several particupentsagreed to testify against another. At trialthey allchanged their stories and accused another man. Even with the recorded lies in the record, the prosecutor declined to file perjury charges.

Your thread title is vague.

The idea that someone making a false accusation of rape would be subject to the same consequences as someone convicted of rape.. that is patently ridiculous.

Filing a false report, lying under oath, there are consequences for all these things, as well as the opportunity to be sued by the person who was falsely accused.

It’s just a question that I was pondering after reading about Patrick Kane’s accuser. I’m not sure what the penalties would be. It seems to me that it should be stiff considering how damaging it can be.

Yes Arc, the title is vague, my apologies.

Those that willfully, and with malice, filing false reports shall be set on fire with a highly flammable accelerant and put out with a dull ice-pick.

But trying to make it stick, will be difficult, given the sharpness of the point as originally presented.

My husband (a police officer) & I just briefly talked about this tonight. He said anyone hardly ever prosecutes false allegations of rape because it is hard enough to get actual rape victims to report them. If the victim is afraid people won't believe them, that they may even get prosecuted, they are less likely to report actual rapes.

As mentioned above, False Reporting is its own offense and at least in my jurisdiction is a felony regardless of the nature of the false allegation. There are offenses where that charge is almost never used for concern of making legitimate victims fearful of coming forward. One of those situations is sexual assault complaints. It’s not that it NEVER happens, but I’d have to have overwhelming evidence before I’d even consider it.

Very few rape allegations are false, but they happen often enough that investigators must be sensitive to the possibility. Rape is a terrible crime that should be severely punished. Rape allegations are second only to homicide in mobilizing intense law enforcement activity. Once the allegation is made, it takes on a life of its own. The life-long impact of rape allegations are devastating to the accused, even when proven innocent. Innocent men have been shot, imprisoned, ostracized, lynched, or worse on the strength of false rape allegations. On the other hand, in many instances where the male is not prosecuted or convicted it does not mean the rape did not occur; it just means there was insufficient evidence to convict. That's an important distinction to make when looking at the numbers.

The person making the allegation should understand the consequences to the accused but some are too stupid or stoned or naïve to understand the implications. Or they were coached into making the allegation by outside influencers. I can cite several examples where a recounted consensual encounter was turned into a sexual battery by the opinions of others. It is extremely difficult to sort out the case where he says it was consensual and she says it was not, when all you have is "he said-she said" testimony and there is no other evidence.

The real villain is the complainant who makes the false allegation with malice, for revenge or sympathy or remuneration, while fully intending to bring horrible consequences down on the accused. That complainant needs to feel the full wrath of the justice system. Again that rarely happens due to lack of evidence to prove the individual knowingly made a false complaint.

Again false allegations of rape are rare, but they happen and the idea that "you must believe her" is BS.

quote:

Originally posted by MagicHorse:
My husband (a police officer) & I just briefly talked about this tonight. He said anyone hardly ever prosecutes false allegations of rape because it is hard enough to get actual rape victims to report them. If the victim is afraid people won't believe them, that they may even get prosecuted, they are less likely to report actual rapes.

That’s not the fault of those unjustly accused. The fault lies with those fabricating a crime & accusing someone.

Those filing false charges on someone should themselves be subject to the same sentence, if they knowingly filed false charges. IMO.

Let's consider the most obvious recent case of Blasey-Ford and Kavanaugh.
There is not only no penalty for the accusation, which had absolutely zero corroborating evidence, but Blasey-Ford will be a hero to the Left for the rest of her life: book deals, movie deals, speaking tours, fame prestige.

Recall that Anita Hill has made a life-long career about of her allegations.
These are most obviously extreme cases, but it it seems like there are many actual incentives to make false accusations so long as it is so completely baseless that there is also no way to corroborate the crime itself (so the accusation can't be proven false).

In my jurisdiction filing a false report is a simple misdemeanor. As a former sex crimes detective I can't tell you how often the allegation of sexual assault is complete crap. It depends on who you talk to and how they evaluate the false report claims but In my 25 years of law enforcement 80+% are false. False meaning no charges will or should be filed. Of that 80% i'm referencing half of that is false bull shit claims and these people should be put in jail/prison for reporting their insane claims. The other half of that 80% were people who didn't understand the law or who were pushed into reported a sexual assault usually by a rape advocacy group or friends. Understand my beliefs have been determined by policing in a city with a middle to upper class citizens. Perhaps it's lower in other wealth groups.

I have spoken with many sex crimes detectives about this very issue over the years including Military investigators. The number of false reports seemed pretty consistent with most investigators saying the false report rate is anywhere from 75-90%. Speaking with female sex crimes investigators was also very interesting they tended to put the false report rate higher than most men.

Yeah, false reports happen a lot. Writing the so called victim a ticket for filing a false report is insane when the real victim comes in for his interview and he is shaking and sobbing because he thinks he made some mistake that might be sending him to prison.

quote:

Originally posted by gw3971:The number of false reports seemed pretty consistent with most investigators saying the false report rate is anywhere from 75-90%. Speaking with female sex crimes investigators was also very interesting they tended to put the false report rate higher than most men.

That's really high...

An often quoted study on the subject is "False Allegations of Sexual Assault: An Analysis of Ten Years of Reported Cases,” D. Lisak et al, 2010, indicates that 2-10% of sexual assault reports are false. A National Criminal Justice Research Service (NCJRS) is critical of the Lisak report's conclusions. Again there is a significant difference between a false report, and a report that cannot be substantiated for criminal prosecution.

quote:

Originally posted by gw3971:
In my jurisdiction filing a false report is a simple misdemeanor. As a former sex crimes detective I can't tell you how often the allegation of sexual assault is complete crap. It depends on who you talk to and how they evaluate the false report claims but In my 25 years of law enforcement 80+% are false. False meaning no charges will or should be filed. Of that 80% i'm referencing half of that is false bull shit claims and these people should be put in jail/prison for reporting their insane claims. The other half of that 80% were people who didn't understand the law or who were pushed into reported a sexual assault usually by a rape advocacy group or friends. Understand my beliefs have been determined by policing in a city with a middle to upper class citizens. Perhaps it's lower in other wealth groups.

I have spoken with many sex crimes detectives about this very issue over the years including Military investigators. The number of false reports seemed pretty consistent with most investigators saying the false report rate is anywhere from 75-90%. Speaking with female sex crimes investigators was also very interesting they tended to put the false report rate higher than most men.

Yeah, false reports happen a lot. Writing the so called victim a ticket for filing a false report is insane when the real victim comes in for his interview and he is shaking and sobbing because he thinks he made some mistake that might be sending him to prison.

Two questions for you.

First - the numbers you are citing, do they pertain to a particular type of sex crime, or are you claiming that across the board 75-90% are false? In other words, can you break this down between sex crimes against children, vs. stranger rape, vs. acquaintance rape?

Second, do you shit can all of the cases you believe to be "false" before submitting them to the prosecutor for review? Or are you required to submit all allegations and they decline to charge that high of a percentage of what you submit?

Not directed at gw3971 specifically - in this realm it is important to keep in mind that you would be charging the person with false report of a felony. This means that they are cloaked with the presumption of innocence, and their guilt has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In other words, you would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the underlying crime they are reporting did NOT occur in order to prove their report was false. This contributes to why this crime is not often charged.

quote:

Originally posted by Palm:

quote:

Originally posted by gw3971:
In my jurisdiction filing a false report is a simple misdemeanor. As a former sex crimes detective I can't tell you how often the allegation of sexual assault is complete crap. It depends on who you talk to and how they evaluate the false report claims but In my 25 years of law enforcement 80+% are false. False meaning no charges will or should be filed. Of that 80% i'm referencing half of that is false bull shit claims and these people should be put in jail/prison for reporting their insane claims. The other half of that 80% were people who didn't understand the law or who were pushed into reported a sexual assault usually by a rape advocacy group or friends. Understand my beliefs have been determined by policing in a city with a middle to upper class citizens. Perhaps it's lower in other wealth groups.

I have spoken with many sex crimes detectives about this very issue over the years including Military investigators. The number of false reports seemed pretty consistent with most investigators saying the false report rate is anywhere from 75-90%. Speaking with female sex crimes investigators was also very interesting they tended to put the false report rate higher than most men.

Yeah, false reports happen a lot. Writing the so called victim a ticket for filing a false report is insane when the real victim comes in for his interview and he is shaking and sobbing because he thinks he made some mistake that might be sending him to prison.

Two questions for you.

First - the numbers you are citing, do they pertain to a particular type of sex crime, or are you claiming that across the board 75-90% are false? In other words, can you break this down between sex crimes against children, vs. stranger rape, vs. acquaintance rape?

Second, do you shit can all of the cases you believe to be "false" before submitting them to the prosecutor for review? Or are you required to submit all allegations and they decline to charge that high of a percentage of what you submit?

Not directed at gw3971 specifically - in this realm it is important to keep in mind that you would be charging the person with false report of a felony. This means that they are cloaked with the presumption of innocence, and their guilt has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In other words, you would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the underlying crime they are reporting did NOT occur in order to prove their report was false. This contributes to why this crime is not often charged.

Crimes against children are not included in my experience sample of 75-90% only adult victim sex crimes and remember half of the declined cases(75-90%) are bs false allegations. The other half were women being prodded into making the allegation or not understanding the law. Now with children they are victims or they have been coached to be victims and it's pretty easy to tell when it's the latter. Being a child victim isn't anything any a kid would want to report. We have a special interview technique for child victims called forensic interview.

We never "shit can" any case. We don't prejudge any witness either. While we are all aware of the high false allegations we are also very aware that the next case could be the real deal. All allegations are referred to the D.A. after the investigation is complete. They determine either charges are filed or dismissed or if they request further investigation but they make the determination in the end.