Should the media publish false-rape-allegation stories?

[traceyracer]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47738892

A false accuser was given 10 years. I'm wondering if this story and the sentence she got being public could make it even harder for victims of rape to come forward?

Hi Tracey, I do enjoy your thought provoking threads. I'm not sure what you mean by this one though.

Well, rape victims could see that article then think "what if the police think I'm lying too?" and not come forward

Well, thats an opinion.

what if the police think I'm lying too

I think a lot of women already do think that

Yes. False allegations destroy lives too. Why should the person who made them be treated any differently to other convicted criminals?

Why should the person who made them be treated any differently to other convicted criminals?

They’re not

Only if it's 100% proven to be false.

how would you propose to prove it 100% false?

Errrrr....no...just

Why would reporting about someone who's been found guilty of making up rape stories put off women who have genuinely been raped?

Should people doing fake insurance claims put people off reporting genuine burglaries?

I don't know that it will put people off. Sometimes people point to such cases to show that it can happen, and people often object to that as being not reflective of the statistics. I think that's not really the point with regard to publishing the information though - it's important since people may have heard about the original rape charge, and the fellow who was falsely accused deserves to have that acknowledged out in public.

They’re not

The OP is suggesting they ought to be.

Interesting question. Maybe? Or at the very least there should be some serious thought given to how the entire subject is covered in the media.

There is a salacious dimension to how sex crimes are reported on that I am deeply uncomfortable with.

I don't think anything of sexual crime should be in the media. But kept on a database that people can retrieve. The media is biase and will only follow a narrative they choose.

"I don't think anything of sexual crime should be in the media."

If that was the case, then the Saville affair and all the child grooming gang crimes would probably never have been investigated.

And John Worboys might not have gone to prison...

Sex crimes do need special care in the media I think. We don't publish names of victims for the most part, and that is one example. Some have suggested that it might be a good idea to make it more prominent in the media when someone is exonerated. Cases like that which come to my mind are not false allegations, it's things like mistaken identity, but the same logic would follow.

That kind of thing seems best approached through journalistic standards.

There is a "public interest" in reporting this case because the convict had made false claims in order to claim criminal injuries compensation. She had acquired a lump sum of £11,000 from taxpayers.

I would put it in the same category of cases where people make false insurance claims or benefits

@BlackForestCake There was a case not too long ago where a woman was convicted of accusing a taxi driver of rape. His GPS and camera in the taxi proved he wasn't where she said he was and also nothing had happened. A very clear cut case.

The women convicted do face far more vitriol than rapists though, and that is worrying. They are accused of ruining a mans life, but nothing is said about the men who ruin womens lives by rape.

Yes, I think it can make it harder for rape victims to come forward, and tarnishes their reputation. Because of the huge publicity these cases always receive it makes society as a whole think false accusations are far more common than they actually are.