Well, I don’t know how severe those consequences really are. Since you just said
, it seems like you would agree that you don’t think it’s all that bad, even when a false report happens, since that’s what would happen to the accused in that case as well.
If you’re Strauss-Kahn, there are different ramifications, but there are other ramifications to everything if you’re Strauss-Kahn. And even if you’re Kobe Bryant, for instance, assuming that everything about that case was fabricated, I’m hard-pressed to give you any examples of ways in which his utter destruction was accomplished. It’s a bad thing, and we don’t want it to happen. But you want things changed toward the severe, severe. I don’t see the need, even though I keep hearing the outcry from certain quarters.
The COPS ferreted out the truth? The rapist was caught in the act of raping another woman and confessed to her assault while he was interrogated. But if he hadn’t been caught, she would have been tried for making a false report. The cops were not investigating her rape report at all, they didn’t believe her.
I think you have it backwards. First she figured out he was rich and powerful because of the value of the suite he was in, decided he was a good mark, and then she fucked him willingly.
True, as long as the accused is cleared early. The problem is that he’s facing extremely heavy sentences. You shouldn’t be able to walk away from a false accusation, especially allegations of a serious crime, without having to face yourself really dire consequences.
Of course, there’s the unintended consequence of possibly discouraging actual victims (or even mere witnesses) from reporting crimes. Also, thinking of it because I mentioned such a case in a current thread about lawyers, you’re probably not going to retract your accusation after the person you accused spent 7 years behind the bars if you’re risking years in prison yourself.
However, it seems to me that people making false reports generally get it easy (and I’m of course assuming here situations where the accusation is shown to be false, not merely unproven).
An example I’m thinking about is a documentary about Paris’ police department in charge of sexual crimes which had a segment about such situations. According to the LEOs interviewed, such accusations were relatively common though they generally were debunked in quick order (I mean here between some hours and a some days) either because they didn’t hold water or because the “victim” realized that she was being involved in a serious criminal case (how women in this day and age can still be ignorant that an accusation of rape entails serious criminal charges and investigations is beyond me, but well…).
Two examples of such false accusations were shown. Both accusations were resulting from really minor issues (a disagreement between friends about something like US$ 20-50 and some domestic argument between lovers), and both women admitted quickly they had lied. However, they apparently went on their merry ways without being charged with anything.
And I never heard of someone being jailed for many years, as IMO they should be, for intentionally trying to destroy someone’s life. In the current thread about this woman who faked a violent assault to get sole custody of her child, we see that not only she didn’t even was charged with anything, but also that as a result a judge granted main custody of the child to the father, in his own words “with a heavy heart”. So apparently, he was still feeling bad for this waste of oxygen after what she had done. This example happens to also include one of men’s common pet peeve : custody rights. Which by the way is seemingly one of the main sources of false accusations.
Finally, I read in some other thread about the same topic someone asking why we’re so concerned about rape and why nobody cries holy murder with other kinds of false accusation. That would be because rape, along with accusations of molestation of children (that are also rape or at least sex crimes anyway), are the only ones I can think of that could both result in very severe sentence and be brought without needing much in the way of evidences. Of course, you could kill yourself to frame someone for murder, but it’s a bit inconvenient. You could also try to frame someone for trespassing, but it’s not like it’s going to destroy your victim’s life. The only somewhat equivalent crime would be a violent assault (even though it’s still a nock beyond rape) but despite the example of this woman mentioned above, most people won’t be willing to break a couple of their own limbs to accuse falsely someone. I guess kidnapping could work too, but I’m not aware of such cases.
That’s why, even though I’d like to see all people bringing provably serious false accusation be severely punished, accusations of sex crimes (either rape or molestation of children) are the only ones I can think of that are relatively easy to make (you don’t need to provide a corpse or a barely breathing body).
Indeed. And besides, I suspect you’re better off losing your shot at the Elysée palace and your job as director of the IMF than losing your shitty house and your menial job as floor sweeper over a false accusation.
The interrogation is what I was referring to as ferreting out the truth. They recognized the M.O., realized the woman may well have been telling the truth, and got him to fess up. This is how police work goes. If they had been intent on shafting the woman they wouldn’t have bothered working to tie the bad guy to her robbery.
The often cited percentage I’ve seen is 2 per cent. Wiki had a sub article on it (tried to google and find some cites for you) and it’s basically that no one agrees, but people who think its the majority or large portion seem to be on the fringe. Or sexist police officers.
I used to work for the Colorado Coalition on Sexual Assault. I promise you, those traumatized girls were not joking and the staff took their jobs very seriously.
I have only read the headlines, but they indicate DSK’s team is trying to throw the maid’s reliability into question. We send me to law school to this stuff. Then we pay them several hundred dollars an hour.
Yeah, when the rapist fell into their laps, they realized that maybe she wasn’t lying. But they weren’t investigating HER case at all, they had already decided that she was making the whole thing up.
Wow, what is this? Salem in the XVIII th century? The guy could have been the victim of overzealous and careless judges and policemen, but somehow “he got it coming”. Sounds like the “she was dressed as a slut therefore she can’t be surprised she got raped” logic applied to the Rich White Man.
The American justice system really doesnt look as good in harsh lights than it does on TV screens.
