109 women prosecuted for false rape claims in past 5 years

[AWholeLottaNosy]

This made me so angry. The thousands of women that can't get justice for being raped due to 'lack of evidence' yet the CPS thinks it's ok to pursue these women for reporting their rape to the police. We all know how incredibly hard it is to report a rape and the facts speak for themselves, aprox 85,000 rapes a year, 5-15% are reported, of those reported rapes, only 6% get a conviction. This is a fucking travesty but it seems like it's easier to get a conviction for a false rape allegation than get a conviction for a devastating, life altering crime? Something is very wrong here...

www.theguardian.com/law/2014/dec/01/109-women-prosecuted-false-rape-allegations

Oh and last thing, false rape allegations are aprox 2% of all reported allegations, similar to other types of crime.

Indeed. I don't think they have any business starting a criminal prosecution against people who come to them for help and claim to have suffered a traumatic assault on the basis of their frankly rather inane, judgemental and rape myth influenced speculations about how a victim should behave and their own failing to find the unknown people alleged to have committed that assault.

In fact it seems quite malicious to me, to pursue such a prosecution.

I can only speak from experience, but I've found both the police and CPS have not only been lacking in obtaining evidence, but preparing people for a case.

I'm sorry to bore people with my experience, but like I said I was the victim in my scenario. I had to show up in court without ever seeing my barrister. There was CCTV evidence and I wasn't allowed to view it. The other side was. Some of the injuries I sustained weren't submitted to court because the HOSPITAL lost records of them. A constant chain of let downs.

I'd never seen my barriser. Yet I was shoved in a room, and then had to await my 'time' in crown court.

I, had obviously forgotten what had happened because of head injuries. The prosecution asked me what happened, then showed the video, and there were inconsistencies that allowed the person to get off with it. Because I couldn't remember everything. Maybe if I'd seen the video it would have triggered memories, maybe I wouldn't have broken down in tears on seeing it the first time. Maybe. Maybe. Always maybes.

People I'm so sorry, I'm diverting from the issue here. It's because I've gotten upset. Please ignore.

This is part of why I would never report again. First time I reported the police told me that CPS have to be happy of an 80% chance of conviction before they'll take it and only 10% of cases get taken - so they're assuming that only 8% of reported rapes will be prosecuted. If only 5-15% are reported that's 0.4-1.2% of rapes that are convicted.

Can you imagine if less than half a percent of murderers were convicted?

I don't think you're diverting from the issue at all. I'm so sorry that happened to you. The case I'm talking about has similarities with yours and demonstrates clearly why police/CPS should not prosecute people for perverting the course of justice without a damn good reason and a ton of positive evidence of malicious intent.

Grays

Thankyou venus and Tsukuru I really didn't mean for all that to come out, but thankyou.

Speaking in genuine ignorance here, but is it the police who are proceeding with prosecutions here? (wasting police time or whathaveyou), if so that can stop for a start. I think same as with the rape itself the wronged party should have to press the charges.

If the police somehow automatically then proceed in some cases to charge the woman that is utterly bizarre (and shows a distinct bias against women in my view). That is not to say false accusations shouldn't be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but we should be removing barriers to people reporting abuse not erecting them.

If the victim of a false accusation doesn't care to pursue it neither should the police. If I've gotten this fundamentally wrong please ignore me.

the police can only get evidence then put it to the Prosecution Service, and then the CPS decide if it is enough to go further with unto court.

The police can't automatically do anything. Nor can a member of public. It goes further than that before anything. The police are not the ones who decide whether it goes to court.

Sorry you had such an awful time, Gray

Please do read the link I posted about Layla Ibrahim. In that case there was no specific "victim" of her supposedly false allegation who insisted on pressing charges. The police didn't believe this young woman's account, they asked to retract, she wouldn't. Without any clear evidence and even though they themselves apparently believed she had mental health issues they then proceeded to charge her with perverting the course of justice.

I agree, MyEmpireofDirt.

False accusations are as prevalent in other crimes as they are in rape and yet they are not held up as an excuse not to believe victims the way they are with rape. They are a handy excuse for people who are already disbelieving, but suppose there were none, it wouldn't make any difference because people would say there were.

Consider this. If a rapist is investigated but not convicted, what's he going to say to everyone? That he did it but got away with it? Mostly, no - he's going to tell everyone he was falsely accused. So you can have no false accusations whatsoever but people believing that there were, and the more guilty rapists get away with it, the more false accusations there are going to appear to be.

I think the issue of false accusation vs rape tends to occur with the perception that once someone is charged with rape if they are then found not guilty at trial an assumption is then therefore made that the accusation was a false one. When all that has actually been proved is that in the eyes of the law there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that a single individual was guilty of rape.

I suspect if they set about trying to charge for perverting the course of justice every time this occurred the burden of proof would now be on the other side, and we would see an awful lot of situations where a man would be acquitted but so too would his accuser. Which is tantamount to the law saying it has no idea what is going on. As legalities aside the reality is if a man is genuinely innocent the accusation is also therefore false, not so in law as both could be found innocent of their respective crime.

I think we can mitigate a lot of this by setting the bar for enthusiastic participation and not just consent. The present law and the way the police pursue it are not fit for purpose. One of my close friends has a sister who is a police officer and specialist in this area and even she is of the opinion that most accusations are false. That bieng the case I think it's clear something needs addressing.

Why is it called a false accusation rather than a false complaint? The victim is the complainant, not the accuser.

The other problem Dervel is that with the current rape laws, both parties might be telling the truth and there would be an acquittal. A woman's experience of being raped depends on whether she consented but a man will only be convicted if he doesn't reasonably believe she consented. Therefore even if the woman did not consent, the man could still be acquitted. The woman's experience of the rape and its impact on her life could be exactly the same as if his belief was not reasonable. The man's behaviour is a crime based on his beliefs, not his actions.

There is sometimes a perception that if the man is acquitted, the woman must have been lying but that is not true.

Because malicious women falsely accuse upstanding men of rape all the time, because women generally are vicious and unstable.

I think is the answer to that one, yonic.

It highlights the fundamental feelings behind all of this. When it comes to rape, lots of people think women are nothing more than crazy liars. Because that's easier / better than accepting that actually lots of men who seem nice and upstanding are rapists.

Buffy
On a serious point what if somebody with a serious mental health issue rapes?