Do you think that if someone accuses someone of raping them and it's PROVEN that they're lying they should face a rape charge themself?

Yes I think they sould face a jail sentence and learn from the mistake. The sad thing is the person that gets accused is quite often flagged as a rapest reguardless of the outcome.

@Summum But do you think they should face the same sentence as the person they falsely accused would’ve faced if they were convicted?

Certainly the acuser should be punished according to their state’s laws. But is the person who was accused has been exonerated, why would their life be ruined?

No, accusation of a crime and that crime are not the same thing (regardless of consequences) – you can’t possibly think that an accusation of being a rapist can haunt someone as much as or more than what haunts actual victims or rape. The person who falsely accused someone of rape should pay a price but it should be a much smaller price.

@AmWiser Well because that seed has been planted in peoples’ heads and no matter what the court of law states some people will believe it and/or at least have doubts about that person. Plus if I’m not mistaken if you’re even charged with a crime like rape, even if you’re found not guilty, it will automatically disqualify you from certain jobs, such as teaching.

@From_The_Ashes

Probably not quite that harsh of a sentence but one in which the acuser will think twice in ever doing it again.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Well I agree that being accused of being rape can’t be as bad as being raped, but think about the fact that by falsely accusing someone it takes away the time that the real cases should be getting attention and the fact that the more people “fake it” the less believable it is when other people that have been raped report it.

They’re not only ruining an innocent person’s reputation, they are making it easier for people that have raped to get away with it.

@From_The_Ashes I think the problem you speak of is miniscule in comparison to the very real problem of rape not being prosecuted often enough and that a pathetic number of actual rapists ever get convicted and that the time they serve doesn’t serve the crime either.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir And I think part of the reason that this problem exists is because of people making false rape claims. That reduces believability of the real claims and it wastes the cops’ time. If even one cop is looking into a false claim, that’s one less cop looking for the rapist in a real claim.

Yes, I think that should be true of ANY false accusation. If the accused is found innocent by the same standards used for finding guilt, the accuser should serve some fine/sentence, though probably not the exact same sentence that the accused would have received had they been found guilty.

Rape is such an awful crime and does go unpunished way too often. This is a real problem both where the accuers is making false claims or the rapest gets away with it.

I was on a little vacation with my wife and a bunch of our friends. We rented rooms in an inn out in the country. One of my friends had a girlfriend who had a lot of addictive kinds of behavior. She was trying to quit smoking, and her boyfriend was determined to stop being an enabler.

We were out in the middle of nowhere, and she started going crazy with her need for a smoke. She begged her boyfriend to drive her to a store (which was pretty far away) to get some smokes, but he refused. In anger at him (so it seemed) she decided to walk to the store no matter how far away it was.

She showed up the next morning, saying she had been raped. We were all terribly concerned, and we huddled around to give her support and urged her to call the police, which, eventually, she did.

After we got home, thinking about her story, it seemed more and more like it didn’t hold water. We became more careful around her. A year or so later the trial was held, and the accused rapist found innocent. The jury didn’t believe her, either.

I believe this woman had been raped as a child. She had become a therapist later on. I think she was very angry at her boyfriend, and decided to look for trouble in order to punish him with guilt. I remember that at one point she had come on to me, while my friend was her boyfriend, and I found an excuse to get out of there before anything happened. I think her need for approval and closeness was off the charts.

I felt bad for her, and I think I understand why she would have found someone and accused him of rape. I’ll bet something sexual happened, but it might have been more consensual than she made out.

The guy who she accused was a local. A country boy. Who knows what he was doing driving around in his pickup at 2 in the morning. Maybe he saw a good looking woman on the side of the road and stopped to offer her a ride. Maybe he suggested she give him a favor. Maybe she did, but later realized she really didn’t want to have done that, and made up the rape story.

I don’t know what, if anything, happened to her after the trial. By then her ex-bf had left town, and we never heard from her.

Remember, a verdict of not guilty does not mean the person is innocent. It just means there is not enough evidence to prove guilt. She may have been raped and just couldn’t prove it because there was no evidence.

I don’t think you can reasonably make the suggestion that if someone fails to make the case, then they should be punished for ruining the reputation of the accused. You are punishing them for not proving a case. How can you even know if the accusation was malicious or just the product of someone trapped in a huge mess?

It would be nice to think that malicious behavior should be punished, but it isn’t really possible. The best you can do is have them pay court costs, but that isn’t fair, either, because it discourages people from bringing valid cases when they can’t be sure they will win.

This was an interesting case, and later, I realized that my friend had gotten involved with women like this a number of times. I wonder why. Maybe I’ll ask.

They should face perjury charges.

Why has this user deleted his/her account?

@chyna – I’m pretty sure this was Self_Consuming_Cannibal and DerangedSpaceMonkey in another incarnation. He tends to stay only for a short time before leaving…

@chyna Shame

I guess there is no reason to answer this now.

@psychocandy – Not necessarily. The question is still valid and worthy of discussion. I can understand why someone would ask a question like this “anonymously” out of fear of attack by the “political correctness” crowd who inhabit Fluther for daring to suggest that someone accused of rape might actually be innocent.

It would have to be Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt.
It would have to be 100% easily proveable.
We run the danger of making real victims scared to speak.

But then again, those who falsely cry “rape” in order to get revenge or create chaos, or cause trouble…. cause resources to be drained from real rape victims. It also makes real rape victims seemingly have to prove their cases moreso.

The type of human being to falsely cry rape should be imprisoned for a long time. It doesn’t have to be as long as a rapist per se… but it should be treated as a major crime. We should create lists of such people, so we never believe anything they have to say, again.

I personally know someone who was accused of something bad and now has no chance of being in the marines like he wanted.
I think the person should be punished but not for rape, after all they didn’t rape someone. They should get let’s say about 10 years in prison.

I guess the punishment should depend on whether the accusation was malicious or not. If malicious, then I agree the punishment deserves to be equal to what the accused would have earned had he been convicted. If not malicious, well, the accusation still caused the accused economic expenses, damage to his reputation, and whatnot, and so the accuser still needs to be liable for that to some extent.

I had a friend (not close, but more than an acquaintance) who was accused by two high school boys of sexually assaulting them. He was a high school teacher. The accusations were not of violent assault, but rather consensual contact over a period of months. His picture appeared in all newspapers and on all local TV newscasts within 24 hours of the accusation. Unfortunately, he killed himself 2 days later. He was never charged.

I don’t know if he actually did anything sexual with the boys. His suicide left many believing that he did. Regardless, his life would never have been the same due to the accusations. His teaching career was over, and he was immediately portrayed as a pedophile.

Most rape victims never come forward because they are afraid of backlash just like this. If you’re raped, there are already so many obstacles in your way if you want to report the crime.

We’re pretty fucked up we think false rape accusations are the bigger problem.

I don’t think anyone here is saying false accusations are the bigger problem. But it is an injustice in its own right, and there’s no reason why discussing it should be taboo.

But the point I’m making is, why add another obstacle to reporting a rape? Isn’t a crime worse than a false accusation of a crime?

Just don’t make false accusations against people, and there’ll be no additional obstacles to reporting rape than there is now…

The justice system isn’t perfect. What if you were raped, and they got it wrong? Or they just didn’t believe you? “The truth will set you free” isn’t always true.

If it was proven that someone was lying about being raped, sure, I think there should at least be some kind of fine. The only thing is, how the heck could anyone prove, without a doubt, that a person was lying about something like that? It’s close to impossible. So, my answer is “no”.

How can anybody say that being wrongfully being accused of rape isn’t as bad as rape itself! Do you know the horrors that these men go through in prison when the other inmates know what they are accused of? Like child molestation rape isn’t looked very high upon in prison either and these same men are in even more danger of being raped themselves while in jail/prison.

I’m not even getting into the lifelong consequences the wrongfully accused will have to suffer the rest of their lives as well. Yes the woman should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

@Paradox And how, without a woman saying, “I’m lying”, could it possibly be proven that she actually did lie?

What about mistaken identity? Should a woman be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law when she is raped in the middle of the night and the line up includes men who all look alike?

@DrasticDreamer My argument was really for people who think being accused of rape isn’t as bad as the person who was raped themselves. As far as statement about proof perhaps in cases where DNA tests actually would clear the guy.

@chyna Again what about the poor guy?

So sorry about him, but if it was not intentional, why should a woman go to jail?

@Paradox What do you mean exactly? Are you saying that if a woman claims rape and no DNA from the man is found, it means she’s lying about what actually happened?

Well I’ve seen cases where women have deliberately accused the wrong guy of rape because they didn’t want to rat out their boyfriends or husbands who actually committed the rapes. I am talking about cases where the woman deliberately lies.

@Paradox No, I understand the kind of cases you’re talking about. But my point is that just because DNA is absent, it doesn’t mean that no rape occurred.

Charging people with a disgusting crime they did not commit because they accused someone else of it reduces the severity of the charge against actual perpetrators. If people are accused, found innocent and the ACCUSER is charged with the same crime as punishment, then they carry a past unsubstantiated rape charge as well – from what I’m seeing in your question – which means that there will then be rapists, accused rapists and accusers with the same charge in the world.

So what’s to stop everyone of explaining it away as them being the accuser? That it was all a mistake? So they not only didn’t rape anyone but they’re now the victim because they were wrongly accused of wrongfully accusing? It’s convoluted and makes no progress for anyone.

They already get charged.

Filing a false report. Lying to the police. If it goes any further, perjury?
There are plenty of consequences, and they work just fine. People are still people, they’ll do dumb shit until the day they die.