# Can a case be made for outlawing false accusations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 7, 2001, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-case-be-made-for-outlawing-false-accusations/71606 "2001-07-07T17:46:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-case-be-made-for-outlawing-false-accusations/71606/21 "2001-07-10T03:30:23Z")
erislover wrote: > [@](#): > > especially in a rape case–that’s a serious fucking offense! Ooh, **nasty** choice of words there, eris! ---
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-case-be-made-for-outlawing-false-accusations/71606/22 "2001-07-10T03:47:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > \*\ ***sdimbert:** Actually, I quoted the passage from Deuteronomy over in the [Pit thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=76970) which inspired this discussion. \*\* Thanks for the link, **MEBuckner**. At risk of starting a tangent, over [there](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=76970) you also said: \*\* > [@](#): > > Actually, we should really give credit to the ancient Israelites (who also had a lot of Really Bad Ideas About Law and Order…\*\* Can you give examples of these RBIALaO’s? _\<\>\<\>\<\>\<\>\<\>\<\>\<\>_ On a different tangent, if you can find a translation of the Babylonian Talmud, you should take a gander at the opening chapter of _Tractate Makot_. The length to which the Sages go to codify the entire issue of False Testimony is extraordinary. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-case-be-made-for-outlawing-false-accusations/71606/23 "2001-07-10T04:56:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Can you give examples of these RBIALaO’s? Well, just the usual stuff about not suffering witches to live and death without mercy to idolaters and stoning people who gather sticks on the Sabbath. Not that they were any worse than everyone else back in the Bronze Age, and maybe even better than some, but you don’t get people today saying all of our laws in the United States are based on the Code of Hammurabi, or that the Code of Hammurabi represents a perfect moral code. ---
**Author:** ![David\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@David\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_B)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-case-be-made-for-outlawing-false-accusations/71606/24 "2001-07-10T11:55:17Z")
KeithB said: > [@](#): > > We need penalties for more general false accusations, not just ones taken to the police. As somebody else has noted, it seems to me these would be covered under existing libel/slander laws. Sure, they first have to find the person who put out the flyers, but that’s an issue of investigation, not the unavailability of laws to deal with the issue. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-case-be-made-for-outlawing-false-accusations/71606/25 "2001-07-10T13:48:58Z")
Odd that whenever I hear about how we need more laws against false accusations, people are always discussing rape. We have laws in place to deal with false accusations, however many seem to find then inadequate to deal with false accusations of rape. I have even heard it suggested that whenever a woman reports being raped to the police, or simply says that she was and names a name and that is not followed by a conviction that she should be prosecuted. Such suggestions strike me as misogyny. I remember this happening while I was in college. A woman went to a concert on campus with a group of friends. She began to feel ill and asked each one to walk her back to her dorm room. None would as they wanted to see the concert. From the concert to her room was only a quarter mile walk, and it was all well lit and on campus. On the way back, she was accosted by a fellow student. He took her to where the campus shuttle busses were parked nearby, forced her onto one and raped her there. There were no other witnesses. She reported this. Hewr friend corroborated that she had ased for someone to walk her back and that she seemed ill. People were angry with her. They did not say that she was making it up, but rather that she had “asked for it” by walking alone at night. He denied all involvement. There was talk then that she should be punished for ruining his good name, however it was she who the community shunned. There was even talk that if he had had sex with her that she should be grateful as he was more popular than she was. I am very sceptical when anyone suggests harshe punishments for false accusations. It strikes me that they just want victims to have even less reason to report being raped. It is not enough that women are too often viewed as fair prey, they want them to be quiet prey. ---
**Author:** ![KeithB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2001, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-case-be-made-for-outlawing-false-accusations/71606/26 "2001-07-10T14:27:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by David B \* > \*\*KeithB said: > > > [@](#): > > > > We need penalties for more general false accusations, not just ones taken to the police. > > As somebody else has noted, it seems to me these would be covered under existing libel/slander laws. Sure, they first have to find the person who put out the flyers, but that’s an issue of investigation, not the unavailability of laws to deal with the issue. \*\* In South Gate a rather small community of the relatively poor, the city council position pays less than $10K per year. As someone pointed out, the libel laws are civil, not criminal. These kinds of flyers have a chilling effect on the type of people who will run for office, and as such, I think the state has an interest in investing its more considerable resources in prosecuting this kind of case. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-case-be-made-for-outlawing-false-accusations/71606.md?page=1)