Please don’t be that girl*

This entry could get me into some hot water, but so be it.

I really don’t want to lecture people about the ‘boy who cried wolf’ but we are having some serious problem with ‘the girl who cried rape’… something that is become more common to the point where women are being charged and convicted for filing false reports.

Rape is a serious issue, so everyone should take it seriously. People are assaulted everyday by criminals who force themselves onto people who do not consent to the act being force upon them. Men are not the only people who have to take this issue seriously, women have to as well. In order for the authorities to successfully prosecute anyone who commits this terrible act is for women to only report this crime when it actually happens.

This has been a very serious issue; Women have blatantly lied about being raped. Some women have falsely accused men of raping them to punish an ex they’re angry at, or a teacher that gave them a failing grade and sometimes because they regretted sleeping with someone the next day. Some women have made false accusations of rape because they were caught cheating and didn’t want to get in trouble with their spouse… so they make a false allegation of something that never happened. It has been estimated that anywhere between fifteen to twenty percent of all rape accusations are false. These are incidents that never happened and were fabricated by the alleged victim.

When women make these false accusations, it’s not fair to the women who are actually assaulted, not only because the police have to verify if their story is true but investigating crimes that never happened takes away valuable time and manpower that should to be used investigating incidents where a crime actually happened.

Women need to also understand that filing a false report is a crime. In July of this year, a woman was sentenced to two years in prison for falsely accusing multiple men of raping her. None of these actual assaults ever occurred and the judge scolded her for ‘undermining the the publics belief in the truth when allegations are truthfully made.

Another girl in the state of New York was ordered to pay 431,000 dollars in damages to the man who she falsely accused of raping years ago. While I am sure some of you might find this unfair, the man who she has to pay already stated that he will forgive the entire debt if she would publicly confess to what she did and apologize.

Women have filed so many false accusations that the courts have no choice but to punish those who are proven to be lying in an attempt to lower the amount of false reports from being filed. Filing a false report has always been a crime that could land anyone in jail. This is why everyone who is accused of doing something is always innocent until proven guilty… because there are quite a few incidents where people have been falsely accused and later proven to be innocent of all charges.

Sleeping with someone you later regret is not rape. Having fun and making out with a guy when you’re both intoxicated is not rape. If you consent, it’s legal. If you are ashamed of it later, that doesn’t change the fact that you were a willing participant. Now if you lie about a crime, you’re the one who goes to jail. I really wish we didn’t have to threaten people to do the right thing but for some reason people would rather toss around false allegations than admit they made a mistake that they have to accept responsibility for.

Only report a crime when one actually occurs.

Please, don’t be that girl.

Peter

gypsy ~

September 6, 2013

Putting aside that this cites no data, overlooks a far bigger issue (rape itself) and that it’s damaging to rape victims who are routinely blamed for what was done to them: The media doesn’t represent reality. Only 1 in 35 rapes are reported, and only 6% of these are false – the same percentage as all other major crimes. Claiming that “girls crying rape” is “far too common” is statistically wrong.

mindsetofaJohn

“””Having fun and making out with a guy when you’re both intoxicated is not rape.””” That part is bound to mislead your readers and other people: For it is indeed a crime to have sex with someone who is too ‘intoxicated’ to give any consent at all (no matter how much she seems to be willingly participating. But yeah, you merely said “making out”..

… but “making out” has grown to be an ambiguous phrase, which makes your statement unclear at the very best, and potentially completely incorrect.

I see your point Jon, but you don’t see mine. If the male is intoxicated as well, enough to not know if the woman asking him to make out might be too smashed to know what she’s doing, who is really raping who? That in itself is a dangerous slope. It is a crime for someone to take advantage of someone else when they are intoxicated, yes … but what if they both are. Who is taking advantage of who? Is the woman automatically the victim cause she’s a woman? Should we give them both a breathalyzer and the one more intoxicated is the victim and the other is charged with rape. How does that sound to you Jon?

GYPSY: You want stats? According to a study by the Department of Justice (https://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/dnaevid.txt), 25% (which is 1 in 4) accusations of rape turn out to be false. That is a staggering number! According to the ‘Innocence Project’ that number is accurate. “Every year since 1989, in about 25 percent of the sexual assault cases referred to the FBI where resultscould be obtained, the primary suspect has been excluded by forensic DNA testing.” I never said it was common, but it’s an issue to the point where people are being charged and convicted of doing this. Twenty five percent is a big number, a lot bigger than 6.

cairo

I am currently studying about Rape Shield Law and whether it should be revised to give more protection to (1) male rape victims [since many courts in various States/countries are using rape statutes which are not gender neutral, hence RSL mainly protects female victims] ; and [2] protect male defendants too, since the RSL prohibits victims’ past sexual history (eg promiscuity) from being admissible in trials. What do you think of RSL? It has been introduced in 1974, so I figure over the course of 39 years or so….there could have been tons of miscarriages of justice occurred if the RSL indirectly be used as a smart tool to defend those with false accusations.

From_then_to_now

I know of more who have been raped than those who haven’t. I do know of one who has repeatedly gone to a bar, gotten very drunk, and claimed rape because she didn’t remember. The last incident involved her filing charges. The guy was cleared. She claimed someone drugged her and she didn’t remember the night yet drove him to his house then was able to show cops the next day where he lived.

Let’s be a little clearer about your stats: In 25% of cases brought to the FBI, which is rare, DNA evidence did not support the primary suspect as being guilty. This does not mean these were false reports of rape, but that the primary suspect was not the rapist. Don’t be that guy who is misleading with his “facts” and is perpetuating a myth about high levels of false rape reports.

There was just a news article here in the UK that states that only 1 in 4 rape cases are actually filed. That most dont want to go through the investigation or all the questions that go around it.

Januarychild

September 7, 2013

It’s sad because the women who do this, put themselves into situations that they will later regret, cause more harm for those who are truly raped…. I understand where this entry is coming from.

williamthebloody

September 9, 2013

Absolutely agree with this. If someone I love had been raped, anti-gun or not, I’m going hunting. It’s a completely abhorrent crime. But false reports of this don’t help in making people who have genuinely been victims come forward.