should young girls go to prison for "false rape claims"

There’s a big difference between not being able to prove with reasonable doubt that the alleged person committed rape AND a woman being found guilty of making a false charge.

The first should be treated like any other case where it cannot be proven within reasonable doubt that they have committed the offence. If an accused cannot be proven to have burgled, assaulted, embezzled etc does the accuser then go to prison? Of course not.

If damning evidence is however found that a woman has made a false charge of rape of course they should go to prison.

This is about women who have alleged rape and been found without doubt to be lying

That's my understanding too - we don't operate an "arrest the accuser if the accused is found innocent" system in the UK.....

Vicky

Yeah, it seems a little specific...

Alicethroughtheblackmirror

It's a bit of a 'tell' for me, is that.

There is such a difference between someone not being convicted - which could be due to a variety of factors (including of course being innocent), and a purposely false allegation. Personally if it was proved that someone made a false allegation for malicious reason, I think they should be named and sent to jail.

I'm disgusted at the pp who's friend lied because she was in a bad place, I don't care how bad a place you are in, it doesn't give you the right to destroy the life of someone who has done nothing wrong. And the book should be thrown at you if you do so as to provide some sort of a deterrent.

I say this a rape victim myself, women like her make it 10x harder for genuine victims to get justice, because it puts the element of doubt that there is potential for the victim to be making it up.

Correct me if I'm wrong but this is not about arresting women who's alleged rapist has been found not guilty then they themselves face prison for false allegations. That wouldn't happen unless they have solid proof of a lie, it just couldn't be proven without doubt that it did happen the same towards the accuser.

This is about women who have alleged rape and been found without doubt to be lying...Definitely should face jail time.

Mental Health should not be used as a reason for heinous crimes.

"Young girl"???

It can be so so hard to prove rape the conviction rates are crap. If there isn’t enough evidence people quickly assume the victim was lying, I’ve seen it all over social media especially the Ulster sports players case. If there is absolut concrete proof and no concerns that the victim has been threatened or coerced to drop the complaint then some sort of sentence is needed but perhaps community service rather than taking up prison space?

She should absolutely go to prison. Lives are devastated by rape but equally are devastated by false rape claims!

I'm still wondering why the OP used the expression "young girls" rather than women...

It won't make it harder for real victims at all. If women tell the truth to police, they won't have any trouble. If they lie, they should be punished.

No. Some of those "false" claims may have been by women who were raped but just not able to prove it.

But surely it has to be proven beyond reasonable doubt that an accusation is false, same as as for a rapist in relation to his guilt?

Where is this idea that a failure to successfully prosecute a rape trial magically transforms into a proven case of false rape accusation? Where is the evidence that this happens? I don't believe it exists.

Ideally I don’t think that anyone should go to prison unless they present a danger to the public

I'd say that being able to make statements that result in people losing jobs, livelihood, partners & their freedom is a danger....

If proven beyond reasonable doubt, then yes, in general, someone who has made a false rape claim should go to jail. It’s a crime which could have very serious consequences.

I'm intrigued by the thread title - "young girls".

Why not 'women'?

kids

Those aren't statistics ive seen before. Do you happen to have a link

Ideally I don’t think that anyone should go to prison unless they present a danger to the public, or they’re a repeat offender for whom other sentencing options have failed. It’s not a good way of punishing people.

I think it would be ok to send the accuser to jail if there was concrete evidence that the accusee was elsewhere. Eg on CCTV in a different city at the time of the alleged offence.

I know someone who made a false accusation of sexual assault. Genuinely false. She was in a very dark place, prison would not have helped her. Or the man she accused. His life was very much affected though, and the stigma didn't go away when the charges were dropped. Not sure what the answer is really.
If we're too hard on these women, then it becomes even more daunting for women who are genuine victims.
But there are cases where men have been genuinely falsely accused, and lives are destroyed.
Perhaps there needs to be a 'not proven' verdict, (as I believe there is in other countries) that can be made public, so that people can tell the difference between unclear evidence and genuinely found to be innocent.
Although that would only help when it gets to court. The person I know made her accusations very publicly, then quietly retracted it when she was in a better place mentally. Charges were dropped before it went anywhere but people still assume that he did it.

12% of all rape accusations are provable to be false and between 3-5% of all accusation are provable to be malicious. They usually only prosecute the true malicious false accusations. I.e. someone knows they are lying and deliberately doing it anyway. This is because the other false accusations are often made by or involve other people (parents/friends) who make assumptions or lead the false accuser to a place where they agree it was rape when it wasn't.

Sending someone to prison for making false accusations does not stop a real victim coming forward. What stops a real victim coming forward are all the people who make false accusations. They are one who provide the police/public/jury etc. with the knowledge that woman do make up accusations. So yes they should totally go to gaol and for at least 5 years. It's the only way to protect real victims for the assumption that they too are making it up.

My partner was on a jury for a rape trial. They delivered a non guilty verdict. However a majority of the jury members believed that the defendant had done it. The problem was they weren't sure "beyond all reasonable doubt". They made the right decision legally but it has haunted my DP ever since. I'd hate to think that girl (she was a child :-() could be prosecuted for false allegations.

In that case the police and CPS seemed to have royally fucked up - unusually for a rape case there could have actually been some supporting evidence but it was mysteriously unavailable.

This thread is about something that happens so rarely it's not worth mentioning.

Bollocks.

melanippe That seems disingenuous. Are you really saying an accused rapist does not get treated differently in a community. You must be on another planet.