What should happen to women who make false accusations of rape?

She should have to pay the guy she accused at least $500,000. Depends on how long he was imprisoned. It should be enough that girls who do that should think three times before trying it.

Could he sue her for defamation of character?
What’s in it for people to make false accusations like that, anyway? Was she after money, or publicity?

I can’t imagine that the girl would have very much money. I propose she spend the same amount of time in jail that the person she accused spent. Maybe it would make people think twice before they make false accusations.

I don’t know what the punishment should be but I do agree there should be one. Her actions don’t only hurt this poor young man (and that in itself is terrible enough) but she undermines all women who are raped and are fearful of telling people or are treated with contempt and suspicion because some, and I am sure it’s a small minority, choose to pull these sorts of tricks.

I like @chyna‘s idea. That poor young man.

I don’t know, what do you think should happen to police who accuse people of making false accusations that turn out to be true? Here is a story about a woman who reported a rape that the police didn’t believe, and she was fined $500 for false reporting. Years later, the police found pictures of the supposedly false rape on the accused’s camera:

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17840529

Comparing the amount of rapists that are not prosecuted to the amount of false rape accusations, I’m gonna say… I don’t give a fuck that an “innocent” football player (Hmm..) could have had his life ruined.

You don’t know the truth. Could be that girl was raped and she was coerced into recanting her story.

Pfft.

@tinyfaery: So being a football player and being innocent are mutually exclusive? Why the quotation marks?

Any person who falsely accuses another of a crime that they didn’t commit should have to serve the same amount of time the innocent person had to serve. False rape accusations are actually much more common than most people think. These types of women also make those who really were raped look bad as well.

I think it should be a jail-able offense to falsely accuse anyone of any kind of crime. Having said that, if it was a jail-able offense, how many false accusers would ever recant later? They’d probably be more likely to just keep their mouths shut, and the victim of their false accusation would rot in jail. It’s a conundrum, for sure.

Good point @augustlan.

Not only that, but how many actual victims of rape would be afraid to come forward for fear that they could be fined or sued if their case was not successfully prosecuted? Like it’s not hard enough already? What a nightmare scenario.

If they have knowingly given false evidence in court then they would be guilt of perjury which most legal systems take a pretty dim view of.

Not much more to say that @augustlan, @glacial, @nikipedia and others haven’t already.

I just want to point out that there seems to be a “males as victims” mentality among certain populations that sees the mere existence of a few false rape claims as a sign that we need to make changes to the laws to make it more difficult for females to report rape. If these males feel that they are hurting because of existing laws, or that they themselves might be facing false rape charges some day, they have every right to be angry – but not at women. If they are victims (or possible victims), they have been put in that situation by men, who can’t seem to stop raping women. Yes, the burden should be on the man to defend himself against such claims. Should we make it more difficult? No. I would argue that we should make it so fucking inconvenient for all men, that they take rape seriously. Feel like a victim? Beat the shit out of your male college buddies. They victimized you.

I’ve been raped and I didn’t report it. My rapist was not a college graduate, he was an older man, of high standing and I didn’t feel I would be believed. I abhor victim blaming. However, I don’t believe the inadequacy of our response to rape when it happens negates the wrongness of false accusations of rape when they occur. Two wrongs do not make a right.

As I said up there, I don’t believe many women do falsely scream rape. All rape cases may not end up in court but that doesn’t mean the victim lied. I do believe the few women who use an accusation of rape as a weapon not only inflict a terrible crime upon their male victim, but they also and perhaps more importantly, exasperate the already punishing problems real rape victims (male or female) face. Still, I don’t think that generalisations help here. One crime (that too many men rape women) does not negate the seriousness of the other crime (that (I suspect) a very small minority of women falsely accuse men of rape).

I don’t know how we deal with false rape claims in a way that won’t make it harder than it already is to report rape. However, when it is clear a false rape claim has been made, we can’t ignore it and pretend it didn’t happen. That’s no more right than holding women responsible for rape.

We need to completely rethink the way the crime of rape is viewed and managed. From the way we educate our sons and daughters as parents, at school and at college, right through to our legal and law enforcement responses.

Personally, I think a woman who says that she was raped & then says that she wasn’t – if it can be proven that the sex was consentual – then I think the woman should be sentenced to the same amount of prison time that her ‘rapist’ would have received. Rape is far too serious of a crime to be lied about.

@Linda_Owl that was my knee jerk reaction, but after reading some of these posts, I was left firmly indecisive. What if a woman WAS raped, reports it, but our often unfair judicial system finds the perp not guilty, and the woman then has some sort of record, or jail time. It would be a deterrent for reporting rapes.