Believe Women
First let’s talk about what “Believe women.” means. Back in the day in ye olde England victims of crime: muggings, robberies, physical assaults — could provide the sole testimony at trial. Unless that crime was rape. In the case of rape every material element of the victim’s story had to be corroborated by another witness or other evidence before the case could be brought to trial. The result was that rape victims were barred from the criminal justice system.
Essentially rape was the only crime in which the victim as witness had to prove her case. Not coincidentally, the judges creating the law were all men. To this day most judges in the US and England are men. Whilst then and now rape victims are overwhelmingly women. The basis for this punitive attitude towards victims of rape was the philosophy that: Them bitches be lyin’. The corroboration requirement lasted for hundreds of years and extended into the colonies that would become the United States. In the US it would last until well into the twentieth century. Today most, though still not all, jurisdictions have deleted their corroboration requirement for rape.
In modern times corroboration may not be required but, in every type of criminal case, it is valuable. Corroboration can be technical like DNA or fingerprint analysis. More commonly it includes eye witness testimony, social media posts, backtracking of suspect’s movements, video surveillance, and more. The background of the accused is looked into. As is the background of the accuser.
The authorities examine any motive of the accuser to lie. Traditionally false accusations stem from the same sources as any other crime: love and money. Having financial interests, seeking romantic revenge, increasing career prospects, and – by far most commonly – as the result of divorce and custody proceedings. This should be no surprise as divorce is a combination of both love and money. In many cases the false accuser has a history of lying, committing fraud, or even has a criminal record. In the case of sexual assault false allegations are often used by the emotionally disturbed or to cover up other behavior.
So, when we say “Believe women.” we are not asking the law to shortcut around due process. We are asking that in cases of sexual assault that allegations be investigated. That the backgrounds of the accused be at least as well looked into as the backgrounds of the accuser. That rape kits are not abandoned or misplaced. That eyewitnesses are interviewed, that other evidence is collected, and that the decision to advance to prosecution or not to advance to prosecution be based on this information. As is the case with all other crimes. When we say “Believe women.” we are asking the judicial system to stop approaching cases of sexual assault with the attitude that “Them bitches be lyin’.”
False Accusations
First let’s define a false accusation. For the purposes herein a false accusation is when the accuser intentionally and knowingly provides information the accuser knew or should have known was untrue. A person who, in good faith, reports someone they believe has committed a crime is not making a false accusation. That person is in error. Unfortunately, our system supports and reinforces such errors. But I digress. It is a false accusation only when the accuser has no reasonable basis to believe a crime has been committed or is aware that the crime has not been committed by the accused.
Publicly making a false accusation against a person causes emotional distress and life disruption including but not limited to damage to a person’s mind, spirit, and professional reputation that may very well last a lifetime. This is why nearly every jurisdiction has some criminal statute that makes it at least a misdemeanor to knowingly provide a false report to law enforcement. On top of this intentionally making false accusations to the police opens one up to civil liability which could place the false accuser at risk for both compensatory and punitive damages.
The criminal penalties for falsely accusing someone of a crime range from nothing to potentially decades behind bars. It all depends on how, what, and why. How the accusation is made, what is being accused, and why the accusation was made. If false accusations of criminal conduct are made publicly but not reported to law enforcement the accuser is unlikely to face criminal charges. However, in this case the accusation can still be redressed through civil law.
If the false accusations involve terrorism or imply an immediate threat requiring an urgent, high level response from law enforcement the false accuser is risking felony charges which can lead to years, even decades, in prison. These types of false accusations place the accused at a higher risk of physical damage, the likelihood of civil rights being violated is much higher, and they are a larger waste of public resources.
False Accusations of Sexual Assault
Then there are false accusations of sexual assault. Fake rape accusations get a lot more attention than truth based accusations. Most people, especially men, can probably recount some details of the Duke Lacrosse team case despite the fact that it occurred over a decade ago. The disproven University of Virginia (UVA) gang rape in 2014 was widely covered by the media and ended with a major publication making public apologies.
Both the Duke and UVA cases start with the statements of an emotionally unstable accuser. Crystal Gail Mangum, accuser in the 2006 Duke Lacrosse case, was exploited by District Attorney Mike Nifong who perceived the case as a way to elevate his political standing. He pursued the case despite questions about the credibility of Mangum. His disreputable behavior through the investigation, in which he willfully disregarded proof vindicating the Duke players, eventually got him disbarred. In the UVA case reported by Rolling Stone the story relies entirely on one unnamed source. The writer, Erdely, made no effort to contact the alleged rapists, to interview friends of “Jackie,” the alleged victim, or to locate and talk to witnesses. If these people involved had done their jobs, that’s where the stories would have ended. Because Erdely dropped the ball and Nifong attempted to exploit the story for political gain they were instead both terrible miscarriages of justice. This both cases have in common.
A third thing both cases have in common is the rarity of false accusations of sexual assault. Whereas rape is far more prevalent than we prefer to acknowledge and is often misunderstood and mismanaged by institutions and by society at large. As is, it is estimated that only eight to ten percent of women report their rapes to the police. Cases like these that undermine victim’s credibility do not make it more likely that women and men will report their assaults and already up to ninety plus percent of rapes go unreported. In contrast the prevalence of false reporting, according to the authors of a 2010 US study, is between two percent and ten percent.
Serious but rare
Accusations of sexual assault have sweeping and intense effects on the accused’s life, even if they never result in police or judicial action. I know this from experience. As a child I watched an erroneous accusation tear apart a family and destroy a man’s life. Eventually they were able to put things back together again but the scars are there to this day. And this wasn’t even a false accusation. False accusations of sexual assault, accusations knowingly made with malicious intent, are dangerous, destructive, and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law as the sex crimes that they are.
As serious as false accusations are they are also uncommon. The idea that lots of men are going to prison because they’ve been falsely accused of rape isn’t supported by evidence. The FBI has put the number of rape accusations determined to be false after investigation at eight percent. Only rapes that are reported can be considered falsely reported, so that figure only applies to ten percent, at most, of rapes that actually occur. Using the FBI’s numbers this puts the genuine false allegation figure closer to zero point eight (0.8) percent.
As illustrated in both the Duke and UVA cases, false rape accusations very rarely lead to convictions or wrongful jail time. Numbers from CPS estimate that there is one prosecution for a false rape claim out of every 161 rape cases prosecuted. False accusations are like a deadly but exotic disease. If you suffer from it it doesn’t matter that it is rare, just that it is destructive. As the victim it is understandable that you would want the world to recognize, even feel, your pain. However, to contend that this is what society should focus on instead of more common but equally dangerous issues is to be blinded by emotion. At best. A worst it is as vindictive as the accusation itself.
To wrap it up
Bringing up false accusations in response to the #metoo movement or in response to discussions on sexual assault and rape is disingenuous at best. Too often it is a false equivalency at the base of which is malicious fearmongering meant to undermine discussions of sexual assault, particularly the sexual assaults of women by men.
“Believe women” is a response to centuries of cruel, shortsighted, bungling and outright undercutting of victims of rape. As a presumption of belief it should never preclude questions and I for one am surely not stating otherwise. It’s neither wrong nor disrespectful for law enforcement to seek substantiation of rape claims. In fact, investigation is exactly what we demand. Truth-seeking makes both the victims and the effort to prevent sexual assault stronger and more effective. It protect victims, it doesn’t undermine efforts to prevent sexual assault.
Sources
https://www.thecut.com/article/false-rape-accusations.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45565684
http://www.davidlisak.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/RepeatRapeinUndetectedRapists.pdf
https://www.thecut.com/2015/11/hunting-grounds-questionable-rape-stat.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/05/01/campus_sexual_assault_statistics_so_many_victims_but_not_as_many_predators.html?via=gdpr-consent
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a19996695/sexual-assault-statistics/
https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11427/12666/thesis_law_2012_ndovi_v.pdf?sequence=1
http://time.com/5413814/he-said-she-said-kavanaugh-ford-mitchell/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=time&utm_medium=social&xid=time_socialflow_facebook
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/campus-sexual-assault-statistics
http://time.com/5413814/he-said-she-said-kavanaugh-ford-mitchell/
http://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_nsvrc_factsheet_media-packet_statistics-about-sexual-violence_0.pdf