Women who lie about rape?

bluegirl83 said:
BoyBlue_1985 said:
nijinsky's fetlocks said:
I can't quite see the logic here.
Clearly fake rape claims are an awful thing that can damage lives and reputations, but surely they shouldn't attract the same sentence as an actual rape?
Folk on here have falsely accused others of murder, but as far as I'm aware none of them are currently serving a life sentence.

I think if the law said knowingly making a false claim of rape would get you 20 years in prison then it would stop bitter twisted women using it as a weapon. A mate of mine had to emigrate thanks to some mega bitch accusing him. Even when it all came out as lies he was still beaten up in the area and disowned, starred at. he couldn't escape the tag even though it was all lies


I hope your friends doing better. This is what I was thinking. If there was a set sentence for false allegations then maybe it would be a deterrent.

There are very few crimes ( if any, factoring in tariffs on life sentences ) where there is a set sentence. And that's for a very good reason. No two crimes are the same. As I mentioned in an early post, many of the "false" rape claims mentioned in the report by the CPS were from women who had made a rape claim against a partner who had a history of violence against them. But later withdrew it. Should these women be subject to the 20 years set sentence?
 
tidyman said:
bluegirl83 said:
BoyBlue_1985 said:
I think if the law said knowingly making a false claim of rape would get you 20 years in prison then it would stop bitter twisted women using it as a weapon. A mate of mine had to emigrate thanks to some mega bitch accusing him. Even when it all came out as lies he was still beaten up in the area and disowned, starred at. he couldn't escape the tag even though it was all lies


I hope your friends doing better. This is what I was thinking. If there was a set sentence for false allegations then maybe it would be a deterrent.

There are very few crimes ( if any, factoring in tariffs on life sentences ) where there is a set sentence. And that's for a very good reason. No two crimes are the same. As I mentioned in an early post, many of the "false" rape claims mentioned in the report by the CPS were from women who had made a rape claim against a partner who had a history of violence against them. But later withdrew it. Should these women be subject to the 20 years set sentence?

Obviously in cases like this it is different. it's murky waters with rape cases anyway really, unless the judge and jury were present at the time it's one word against the other a lot of the time. Especially in cases like spousal rape. I'm just of the opinion that the accuser should be punished in some way, wether that's a custodial sentence, a fine and compensation to the accused or what, I don't know. (Not in cases like the ones you present where allegations are dropped due to lack of evidence or fear of repercussions from the woman, but cases where the woman has admitted that nothing happened at all)
 
SWP's back said:
tidyman said:
Even if there was it's still bullshit.
Why? A false rape accusation of rape can have just as long standing repercussions on a person's life as an actual rape can, if not more so, in terms of losing friends, family, career, not to mention the stigma attached to anyone, even if exonerated, that has had a rape allegation made against them. It can literally ruin a person's life.

Totally agree . An old friend of mine went through the trauma of being accused of rape after a one night stand . Silly girl fell asleep at his gaff, when she went home panicked and blabbed to her boyfriend that she was raped . He was put on remand for months , it was only the fact she split up with the boyfriend who turned out to be the controlling type that she admitted it was all a lie . She got 200 hour community service , my mate ended up an alcoholic and drank himself to death a few years later . Completely changed his character the whole episode he became aloof , angry, and paranoid . At 18 yrs of age he just couldn't handle the stigma , his sister used to tell us at Christmas after a few drinks he kept telling them he didn't do it . Didn't get the help that was required ,RIP
 
Markt85 said:
nijinsky's fetlocks said:
de niro said:
Pathetic.

No mate - it's just Mark's weird southern sense of humour.
I'm sure our female forumites will be laughing along with his rapier-like Wildean wit.
I for one won't be bothering pandering to the attention-seeking prat in future when he comes on here asking for advice.

FFS it was a joke !

I suppose you and de Niro were disgusted at David Brent where he shouts ''Theres been a rape up there '' during the Hotel sketch scene

the fact you think its funny is quite worrying.

I have never watched a david brent episode.
 
cockneycarparkm32 said:
SWP's back said:
tidyman said:
Even if there was it's still bullshit.
Why? A false rape accusation of rape can have just as long standing repercussions on a person's life as an actual rape can, if not more so, in terms of losing friends, family, career, not to mention the stigma attached to anyone, even if exonerated, that has had a rape allegation made against them. It can literally ruin a person's life.

Totally agree . An old friend of mine went through the trauma of being accused of rape after a one night stand . Silly girl fell asleep at his gaff, when she went home panicked and blabbed to her boyfriend that she was raped . He was put on remand for months , it was only the fact she split up with the boyfriend who turned out to be the controlling type that she admitted it was all a lie . She got 200 hour community service , my mate ended up an alcoholic and drank himself to death a few years later . Completely changed his character the whole episode he became aloof , angry, and paranoid . At 18 yrs of age he just couldn't handle the stigma , his sister used to tell us at Christmas after a few drinks he kept telling them he didn't do it . Didn't get the help that was required ,RIP[/


quote]

Jesus, how sad....
 
bluegirl83 said:
tidyman said:
bluegirl83 said:
I hope your friends doing better. This is what I was thinking. If there was a set sentence for false allegations then maybe it would be a deterrent.

There are very few crimes ( if any, factoring in tariffs on life sentences ) where there is a set sentence. And that's for a very good reason. No two crimes are the same. As I mentioned in an early post, many of the "false" rape claims mentioned in the report by the CPS were from women who had made a rape claim against a partner who had a history of violence against them. But later withdrew it. Should these women be subject to the 20 years set sentence?

Obviously in cases like this it is different. it's murky waters with rape cases anyway really, unless the judge and jury were present at the time it's one word against the other a lot of the time. Especially in cases like spousal rape. I'm just of the opinion that the accuser should be punished in some way, wether that's a custodial sentence, a fine and compensation to the accused or what, I don't know. (Not in cases like the ones you present where allegations are dropped due to lack of evidence or fear of repercussions from the woman, but cases where the woman has admitted that nothing happened at all)

In the rare cases where a totally false and malicous allegation is proved, a custodial sentence is the norm now. Again in my earlier post I highlighted a case where a woman who made a TRUE allegation of rape was jailed for 8 months after she was "persuaded" into withdrawing the claim by her partner.

No figures can possibly exist but it is generally accepted by everyone who has worked in the field, that there are huge numbers of rapes that go unreported every year. Any change in the law that would make this figure even higher would be a huge step in the wrong direction.
 
Many years ago a guy near me was accused by his babysitter of raping her.
She was about 18 and had a crush on him and tried it on as he took her back home. He knocked her back and she didn't like it. Got home all upset and told her Mum she'd been raped by him.

Police go and arrest him, his car gets vandalised his wife and kids get awful abuse every time they leave the house, kids can't go to school so they end up with home tuition. His wife can't go shopping locally and has to go miles away, his immediate family get loads of abuse from the locals and so on.

He is suspended from work, gets abusive phone calls etc.

Two weeks later the girl breaks down and admits it was all a lie.

Few months later the family has had to pack up and move miles away. Despite the withdrawal of the claim there were still some idiots who carried the abuse on, schoolkids won't let things like this go either. There were the morons with the 'where there's smoke there's fire' attitude.

A familys life ruined because the local slapper got knocked back. Lost their home, he had to change jobs, the kids weren't allowed contact with their old friends at the new home in case they said anything to the new neighbours, the guys family was regularly reminded about the claims at every opportunity.

The accuser got a warning about her future conduct.

Fair?
 
BoyBlue_1985 said:
nijinsky's fetlocks said:
bluegirl83 said:
Was talking about this with a friend a couple of weeks ago. She had an old friend from when she was younger who had a one night stand and then the next week when the lad didn't remember her accused him of assaulting her. They all disowned her for it. In my opinion the person making false allegations should get the same custodial sentence as what the accused would have got if found guilty. False accusations can ruin lives, you'll always have the stigma attached to you and people with the mindset of there's no smoke without fire.

I can't quite see the logic here.
Clearly fake rape claims are an awful thing that can damage lives and reputations, but surely they shouldn't attract the same sentence as an actual rape?
Folk on here have falsely accused others of murder, but as far as I'm aware none of them are currently serving a life sentence.

I think if the law said knowingly making a false claim of rape would get you 20 years in prison then it would stop bitter twisted women using it as a weapon. A mate of mine had to emigrate thanks to some mega bitch accusing him. Even when it all came out as lies he was still beaten up in the area and disowned, starred at. he couldn't escape the tag even though it was all lies

By setting a 20 year tariff for a false allegation you would really have to set a minimum 20 year tariff for a "not guilty" plea when you end up being found guilty. i.e. you could not reasonably treat one lie more severely than the other.
 
Markt85 said:
There punishment should be rape.
???? only if they like west ham mate.


the sentence for a charge of rape should be passed on to the girl proved of making false accusations, that should do it. i ve heard of a few stories like this where the police were on a wild goose chase for nothing all because a girl was skipping school. shame!
 
corky1970 said:
de niro said:
Markt85 said:
FFS it was a joke !

I suppose you and de Niro were disgusted at David Brent where he shouts ''Theres been a rape up there '' during the Hotel sketch scene

the fact you think its funny is quite worrying.

I have never watched a david brent episode.


each to their own mate

dont be offended for offended sake , ive seen a lot worse on here

leave the guy alone ffs


Probably doesn't like gooners.
 
Problem with setting a 20 year tarriff or a "rape like" sentence for making a false rape accusation is that the accuser is less likely to admit its false if they know the are going to spend 20 years in prison ..... so the poor innocent accused would have to go through the judicial system to prove his innocence with the chance they could be found guilty.
 
SWP's back said:
tidyman said:
SWP's back said:
Why? A false rape accusation of rape can have just as long standing repercussions on a person's life as an actual rape can, if not more so, in terms of losing friends, family, career, not to mention the stigma attached to anyone, even if exonerated, that has had a rape allegation made against them. It can literally ruin a person's life.

Ok, I'll change it to, in my opinion it is bullshit. And as far as I'm aware there are no precedents in law for people been sentenced in this way. So I don't think I'm alone in thinking it's a stupid idea.

It seems like everyone's got a best mate who's been falsely accused of rape. I'm not accusing anyone on here of lying but these claims are that rare that either everyone must have the same best mate or there's an exceptionally disproportinate number of those rare cases that are known about to people on here.
It is rare that they are called "false" in the sense we are talking about but there are thousands that don't lead to a conviction every year.

Though a bit of googling shows the conviction rate is up to 63%.

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/apr/23/rape-conviction-rate-high" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/ ... -rate-high</a>

I thought it was a lot lower than that.

That's basically a cut and paste article of a CPS 'feel good' press release.
Here's the actual CPS statement:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/latest_news/dpp_announces_new_conviction_rate_in_rape_and_domestic_violence_cases/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/latest_news/ ... nce_cases/</a>

The figures at the bottom show that the conviction rate hovers around the 60% mark, but that it should be noted is a percentage of prosecutions, not a percentage of complaints. A very substantial number of complaints lead to an accused being arrested and interviewed but not then prosecuted.

Also, that figure includes cases where a conviction has been not of rape but of an alternative offence. As a generality, it is widely reckoned that a pitifully low percentage of rapes actually result in a conviction for rape.

These are worth a look:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/nigel-hawkes-is-our-rape-conviction-rate-really-so-poor-2082709.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 82709.html</a>


<a class="postlink" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/100000-assaults-1000-rapists-sentenced-shockingly-low-conviction-rates-revealed-8446058.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/cr ... 46058.html</a>

NB in particular the statistic that an average of 15,670 rapes are reported annually to police, and bear in mind the CPS figure that there were 3,692 prosecutions for rape last year, resulting in 2,333 convictions.
 

The truth about women 'crying rape'


The idea of women 'crying rape' exists everywhere from EM Forster to Hollyoaks. But why? In real life, false allegations of rape are incredibly rare

Eva Wiseman
The Observer, Sunday 31 March 2013

Joseph-and-Potiphars-wife-008.jpg

Joseph and Potiphar's wife by Tintoretto


There's this idea that a false allegation of sexual assault is the one weapon that shamed women wield. Men have fists and cash and the threat of death; women have this. A shy call to 999 on a Monday morning that leads to the slow sirens of police arresting her ex at work, a sorry officer shielding his head as he falls into the car.

It's a story we know by heart. One that's been acted out for us under stage lighting, read out loud as we fall asleep, one that's been Biroed on to our skin so many times it has entered our blood memory. In high and low culture, in literature and soaps. In To Kill a Mockingbird and A Passage to India and Of Mice and Men. In the cartoon South Park and the film Wild Things. In the Bible, where Potiphar's wife accuses the slave Joseph of raping her after he refuses her advances – Tintoretto painted her ripping off Joseph's clothes; Rembrandt painted her telling her husband. Joseph stands in semi-darkness; she is bathed in calm white light. In The Graduate Mrs Robinson tells her daughter that Ben raped her in order to halt their relationship. On Hollyoaks, an experiment two years ago where they invited viewers to form a "jury" to decide whether Gilly had raped Jacqui resulted in them finding him not guilty; the current storyline sees Kevin falsely accusing Brendan of sexually attacking him. In Dexter, a subplot sees Dexter's colleague Batista being accused of rape after consensual sex. In Ian McEwan's Atonement, a confused witness falsely accuses Robbie of raping her cousin. And on and on. In Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn's best-selling new novel, the protagonist (spoiler, irritators) makes two false rape claims: one an act of revenge, and the second to account for a murder. Plan B's album The Defamation of Strickland Banks is the story of a soul singer wrongly convicted of rape.

It's a trope that exists because it's powerful – it moves on stories and confuses the reader, and builds sympathy in a raw and painful way. It's a plot device that works, but one that should be questioned. As blogger Jennifer Kesler pointed out, comparing rape on TV to that of murder: "No one ever thinks: maybe the murder victim wanted to die, maybe it was a consensual death." And while TV's "murder is bad" message remains, it perpetuates an idea that rape can be complicated. That women lie.

But it's fiction. It's fiction. When real occasions of false allegations are published, they're news for the same reasons – they're lurid and exciting, and they make you feel something. But they're news because they are so rare. The Daily Mail specialises in perpetuating this narrative, with stories such as "The rape lies that ruined our lives" – it used the phrase "cried rape" in 54 headlines over the past year. Headlines such as "Wicked women who cried rape trapped by three-in-bed photos" reveal women to be the scheming harridans they always suspected, harridans who use their sexuality as a weapon, whose power lies solely in their body. These were real cases of false allegations, but the idea that it is a widespread problem, a weapon women use, is fiction.

The recent Crown Prosecution Service study found that the cultural idea that false rape allegations are prevalent is itself false; it reports that over a 17-month period there were 5,651 prosecutions for rape but only 35 for false rape allegations. And in the cases involving people under 18, almost 40% of the claims originated with their parents, which reduces the number of false allegations from "victims" even more. The recent Steubenville rape trial, where an unconscious teenager's assault was recorded and celebrated by bystanders, had a postscript: the arrest of two girls who threatened the victim after the guilty verdict came down. It brought a number of disturbing truths to the surface. Including the fact that, when the world is not on the side of the victim, other women will play along with rape culture in order to feel safe. This is one of the effects of perpetuating the fiction that women lie about rape – we end up attacking ourselves.
 
scall said:
tidyman said:
Perverting the course of justice.

The Offence.

Perverting the course of justice is a serious offence. It can only be tried on indictment and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

I think there should be a seperate offence of false accusation or something, which carries a similar hefty sentence.

If you get acused of rape, there's no way you can ever live it down regardless of whether it's true or not.

I paraphrase a conversation I overheard:
Didn't John Leslie get done for rape? Yeah, can't rembmber, I'm sure he did, or did he get let off? Anyway, he's not been on TV ever since, wonder what he's doing now?

He got found not guilty, but it's ruined his career and life. The penalty for making false acusations should be severe.
Spot on !
 
Thenumber1blue said:
scall said:
tidyman said:
Perverting the course of justice.

The Offence.

Perverting the course of justice is a serious offence. It can only be tried on indictment and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

I think there should be a seperate offence of false accusation or something, which carries a similar hefty sentence.

If you get acused of rape, there's no way you can ever live it down regardless of whether it's true or not.

I paraphrase a conversation I overheard:
Didn't John Leslie get done for rape? Yeah, can't rembmber, I'm sure he did, or did he get let off? Anyway, he's not been on TV ever since, wonder what he's doing now?

He got found not guilty, but it's ruined his career and life. The penalty for making false acusations should be severe.
Spot on !

Leslie's television career was over before the rumours he was the person Ukrika claimed had raped her and before he was arrested for other sexual assaults. I don't think admitting taking drugs and making home made porn films increased his chances of getting TV work. He also admitted it an interview that his "behaviour towards women was at times inappropriate."
 
tidyman said:
Thenumber1blue said:
scall said:
I think there should be a seperate offence of false accusation or something, which carries a similar hefty sentence.

If you get acused of rape, there's no way you can ever live it down regardless of whether it's true or not.

I paraphrase a conversation I overheard:
Didn't John Leslie get done for rape? Yeah, can't rembmber, I'm sure he did, or did he get let off? Anyway, he's not been on TV ever since, wonder what he's doing now?

He got found not guilty, but it's ruined his career and life. The penalty for making false acusations should be severe.
Spot on !

Leslie's television career was over before the rumours he was the person Ukrika claimed had raped her and before he was arrested for other sexual assaults. I don't think admitting taking drugs and making home made porn films increased his chances of getting TV work. He also admitted it an interview that his "behaviour towards women was at times inappropriate."

Exactly. If we are going to play that game with celebrities, how about the Hamiltons, Neil's political career was already well on the decline before the allegations and he already been disgraced in his feud with Al Fayed. However if anything the couples media opportunities opened up rather than diminishing.
 
Women can't have their cake and eat it .....

if they want to report it , and expect to see a guy get a sentence , then they should expect to get one themselves if they're judged to be lying.

Mind you , as i've said many times , what are the chances of a jury of complete strangers , who don't know either the defendant or the alleged victim , getting their decision right EVERY time ????
 
mackenzie said:
They should be forced to sit down with a real rape victim and made to listen.

Is it possible that they are real rape victims though, and suffering from metal illness/ disturbance from a previous traumatic episode of abuse.

Another interesting article

False Rape Allegations Rare, But 'Damaging Myths' Harm Real Rape Victims, Says CPS' Keir Starmer
The Huffington Post UK 13/03/2013 08:45


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/13/false-rape-allegations-ra_n_2865823.html


Rape victims are being punished because of "damaging myths" about false rape and domestic violence allegations - which are much less common than previously thought, a new Crown Prosecution Service report has found.

Keir Starmer QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, will on Wednesday set out the evidence the CPS has gathered after looking into cases of perverting the course of justice and wasting police time over a 17-month period.

The "trailblazing" research, the first of its kind, has discovered that false allegations of rape and domestic violence are "very rare", with only a very small number of cases where there was enough evidence and it was considered in the public interest to prosecute.

Around two false rape allegations are made every month, the report found.

Starmer said he hoped the figures would help counter any "over-cautious" approach to allegations, especially in the light of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

Starmer said: "In recent years we have worked hard to dispel the damaging myths and stereotypes that are associated with these cases.

"One such misplaced belief is that false allegations of rape and domestic violence are rife. This report presents a more accurate picture.

"Where false allegations of rape and domestic violence do occur however, they are serious - reputations can be ruined and lives can be devastated as a result.

"Such cases will be dealt with robustly and those falsely accused should feel confident that the criminal justice system will prosecute these cases wherever there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to do so."

There were 5,651 prosecutions for rape for the period between January 2011 and May 2012 the study looked at, but only 35 for making false allegations of rape.

Likewise, there were 111,891 prosecutions for domestic violence, but only six for making false allegations of domestic violence.

A further three people were charged with making false allegations of both rape and domestic violence.

The study found that a significant number of these cases involved "young, often vulnerable people, and sometimes even children".

Around half were brought forward by people aged 21 and under, with some involving people with mental health difficulties.

In 38% of those investigations, the initial complaint of rape or domestic violence was made by someone other than the suspect. When the alleged victim was under 18, that figure rose to 50% and often involved a parent.

"From the cases we have analysed, the indication is that it is therefore extremely rare that a suspect deliberately makes a false allegation of rape or domestic violence purely out of malice," Mr Starmer added.

"It is within this context that the issue should be viewed, so that myths and stereotypes around these cases are not able to take hold."

The report's publication comes after Mr Starmer last week announced radical measures in the way the criminal justice system tackles child sexual abuse to prevent "another Savile moment in five or 10 years' time".

"There's an understandable concern by both investigators and prosecutors that false allegations may be out there and that may lead to an overcautious approach to the way that we deal with these cases," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"Because a false allegation of rape is so devastating, understandably people are cautious when an allegation is made.

"That's why it's very important to put this into proper perspective."

Women's rights groups have "warmly welcomed" the findings. The End Violence Against Women Coalition and Rape Crisis England and Wales said in a statement: "In the handful of [false rape] cases proseucted, far from being malicious allegations, many of these cases involve young, vulnerable people, some with mental health problems.

"We hope that this will inform a more reasoned, evidence-based debate about these issues in the future and put a stop to the very negative messages that victims receive from the media about whether or not they will be believed or treated with dignity.

"Public debate must now focus on the real issues of improving criminal justice and statutory responses to women and girls who have experienced sexual and domestic violence, and ensuring that all survivors have support from Rape Crisis Centres and specialist domestic violence projects, whether or not they choose to report to the police."

Last month, it was reported that police at a specialist sex crimes unit in Southwark, south London, had manipulated crime statistics by failing to record sexual assault allegations in 2008-09, according to a report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The watchdog said police pressured a woman to drop a rape claim against a man who went on to murder his two children.
 
Rocket-footed kolarov said:

The truth about women 'crying rape'


The idea of women 'crying rape' exists everywhere from EM Forster to Hollyoaks. But why? In real life, false allegations of rape are incredibly rare

Eva Wiseman
The Observer, Sunday 31 March 2013

Joseph-and-Potiphars-wife-008.jpg

Joseph and Potiphar's wife by Tintoretto


There's this idea that a false allegation of sexual assault is the one weapon that shamed women wield. Men have fists and cash and the threat of death; women have this. A shy call to 999 on a Monday morning that leads to the slow sirens of police arresting her ex at work, a sorry officer shielding his head as he falls into the car.

It's a story we know by heart. One that's been acted out for us under stage lighting, read out loud as we fall asleep, one that's been Biroed on to our skin so many times it has entered our blood memory. In high and low culture, in literature and soaps. In To Kill a Mockingbird and A Passage to India and Of Mice and Men. In the cartoon South Park and the film Wild Things. In the Bible, where Potiphar's wife accuses the slave Joseph of raping her after he refuses her advances – Tintoretto painted her ripping off Joseph's clothes; Rembrandt painted her telling her husband. Joseph stands in semi-darkness; she is bathed in calm white light. In The Graduate Mrs Robinson tells her daughter that Ben raped her in order to halt their relationship. On Hollyoaks, an experiment two years ago where they invited viewers to form a "jury" to decide whether Gilly had raped Jacqui resulted in them finding him not guilty; the current storyline sees Kevin falsely accusing Brendan of sexually attacking him. In Dexter, a subplot sees Dexter's colleague Batista being accused of rape after consensual sex. In Ian McEwan's Atonement, a confused witness falsely accuses Robbie of raping her cousin. And on and on. In Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn's best-selling new novel, the protagonist (spoiler, irritators) makes two false rape claims: one an act of revenge, and the second to account for a murder. Plan B's album The Defamation of Strickland Banks is the story of a soul singer wrongly convicted of rape.

It's a trope that exists because it's powerful – it moves on stories and confuses the reader, and builds sympathy in a raw and painful way. It's a plot device that works, but one that should be questioned. As blogger Jennifer Kesler pointed out, comparing rape on TV to that of murder: "No one ever thinks: maybe the murder victim wanted to die, maybe it was a consensual death." And while TV's "murder is bad" message remains, it perpetuates an idea that rape can be complicated. That women lie.

But it's fiction. It's fiction. When real occasions of false allegations are published, they're news for the same reasons – they're lurid and exciting, and they make you feel something. But they're news because they are so rare. The Daily Mail specialises in perpetuating this narrative, with stories such as "The rape lies that ruined our lives" – it used the phrase "cried rape" in 54 headlines over the past year. Headlines such as "Wicked women who cried rape trapped by three-in-bed photos" reveal women to be the scheming harridans they always suspected, harridans who use their sexuality as a weapon, whose power lies solely in their body. These were real cases of false allegations, but the idea that it is a widespread problem, a weapon women use, is fiction.

The recent Crown Prosecution Service study found that the cultural idea that false rape allegations are prevalent is itself false; it reports that over a 17-month period there were 5,651 prosecutions for rape but only 35 for false rape allegations. And in the cases involving people under 18, almost 40% of the claims originated with their parents, which reduces the number of false allegations from "victims" even more. The recent Steubenville rape trial, where an unconscious teenager's assault was recorded and celebrated by bystanders, had a postscript: the arrest of two girls who threatened the victim after the guilty verdict came down. It brought a number of disturbing truths to the surface. Including the fact that, when the world is not on the side of the victim, other women will play along with rape culture in order to feel safe. This is one of the effects of perpetuating the fiction that women lie about rape – we end up attacking ourselves.
16,000 reports of rape to police, 2,300 convictions.

It's not that rate is it.
 

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