Here's an article from Journalgazette.net of Fort Wayne, Indiana that tackles the issue of false crime reporting. More stories like this are needed, and the paper is to be applauded for tackling a subject so terribly frustrating.
But the story missed a golden opportunity to highlight the concerns we constantly underscore here; principally, the absence of deterrence for false reporting; the fact that false reporting often doesn't differentiate based on the severity of the offenses falsely reported (a false report of rape is often treated with the severity of a false report of stealing a pack of gum); and persons falsely accused of rape suffer the destruction of their good names and related, terrible losses and should be afforded anonymity unless they are convicted.
With the avalanche of rape reforms in the past several decades, we made reporting of, and convicting for, rape easier than ever; by eliminating the no-corroboration rule, we enhanced the importance and power of a lone accusation. Sadly, nobody bothered to consider what we should do if accusers abuse that power. Far too many have, with disastrous consequences for the falsely accused.
Let's look at some of the article's assertions:
"Police investigate alleged crimes that didn’t happen on a weekly basis, costing valuable time and resources. But little can be done to deter the activity, they say. Furthermore, prosecution of fabricated crime is often not pursued because of a lack of evidence and laws that provide mild penalties, according to local officials."
FRS Comment: Do you notice the problem? Little can be done to deter the acitivity, the article says. The answer is found in the very next sentence -- penalities are too mild. Why not increase those mild penalties? For every other act that we, as a society, want to deter, we increase the penalty. Why are we resigned to wringing our hands when it comes to false reporting?
Back to the article:
“Most of the time it’s in the world of a personal accusation,” said Fort Wayne police Capt. Paul Shrawder, who heads the department’s detective bureau.
. . . .
One high-profile case, Shrawder recalled, did result in an arrest.
In 2007, a 14-year-old girl lied to police about being raped at the Georgetown branch of the Allen County Public Library. Police were called to the library on East State Boulevard for a report of teenagers misbehaving. When officers arrived, one of those teens, a girl, said a boy pushed her into the library’s restroom and forced her to perform a sex act.
“It actually became a big deal,” Shrawder said, adding that the alarm it caused locally warranted the charge against the teen. “She got caught up in it and didn’t really know what she was doing.”
The girl later recanted her story and was convicted of false reporting.
False reporting of a crime is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. False reporting can be upgraded to a Class A misdemeanor, Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards said, if the offense substantially hinders a police investigation or results in harm to someone. That offense nets up to a year in jail and up to a $5,000 fine.
FRS Comment: Compare that sentence for false reporting to the sentence the boy would have received if he was found guilty of rape. Also, note the officer's comment that the girl didn't really know what she was doing. Lies are easy to tell. And that's precisely why we need a public awareness campaign that teaches that the "r" word should never be uttered lightly because of the extreme harm it can cause once it's unleashed. And to remind people, especially young girls, that it's a crime.
Back to the article:
Police say rapes and sexual assaults are among their most common fabricated reports. Teens might lie about non-consensual sexual activity to justify a pregnancy. Adults might lie about sexual activity to hide an affair, Shrawder said.
But most sexual assaults show no sign of visible injury, according to Michelle Ditton, chief nursing officer for the Sexual Assault Treatment Center.
“That’s the part that’s really hard,” she said.
When people come to the center for an evaluation, they receive a physical exam and medical interview. The treatment center cannot determine whether the crime happened. They merely pass their findings to police, Ditton said.
“If a person reports a rape, how do you prove it’s false?” Richards said, adding that these cases are often most difficult to prosecute.
FRS Comment: First, we see the people in the trenches discrediting the common canard that false rape claims are no more common than any other crime. This has been demonstrated in a multitude of ways, yet the lie persists.But the following line is perplexing, and dangerous: “If a person reports a rape, how do you prove it’s false?” Hmm. Exactly why are we proving there was no crime? Should we be seeing if we can prove there was a crime beyond a reasonable doubt?
Back to the article:
Conflicting views
[Allen County Prosecutor Karen] Richards said that in her eight years as prosecutor, she can recall – aside from the case involving the 14-year-old girl – only one or two other cases in which police asked that charges of false reporting be filed against a person. Neither case was prosecuted.
Richards said these cases are difficult to prosecute because they are often a case of he said, she said.
"So many crimes are committed without any witness except the person that reports the crime,” Richards said. “Just because Person A says one thing and Person B says another thing, doesn’t mean it’s a false report.”
Other times, prosecutors choose not to file charges because the person who reported the crime has signs of mental illness, she said.
. . . .
Before charging a person or closing the case, police determine whether a story makes sense and whether the reported victim took steps that made sense when they reported the offense, Shrawder said.
“It’s a matter of doing a good investigation,” Shrawder said. “Sometimes the most outlandish story can turn out to be true.”
Link: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100411/LOCAL07/304119860/1043/LOCAL07
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30 comments:
Prosecutors pursue he said/she said cases all the time. It is ridiculous to say that you can prove a rape happened without any supporting evidence but that you can't prove that it didn't on the basis of contradictory statements.
And it isn't necessary to prove that a rape occurred -- only that statements to the police were false.
Could there be a more blatant gender-based double standard?
It is a perversion of the U.S legal system that over the last 30 years, women and girls are very Rarelly held accounteable when they openly and willfully lie to law enforcement officers.
This act of being above the law, must be a sign of oppression.
Oppress the working class males, under the pretext of "protecting women".
The tone of the article is one of helplessness. People lie about all these crimes, especially rape, and there's nothing we can do about it.
For what other crime do we throw our hands up in the air in this manner? If we noticed a drug problem on the upswing, or a robbery problem, or, of course, a rape problem, you can be certain that very public measures would be put in place not only to tackle those problems, but to let people know these problems are being tackled. But for false reporting of rape, we shrug our shoulders and exclaim: "This is terrible. But there's nothing we can do."
This thing ate my comment again.
"Other times, prosecutors choose not to file charges because the person who reported the crime has signs of mental illness, she said."
While we have often heard this applied to women who make false accusations of rape or commit other crimes, sexual or otherwise, we almost never hear it applied to men. Women are "troubled", "disturbed", and "need help", but men are "predators", "monsters", and "need to be locked up".
"Other times, prosecutors choose not to file charges because the person who reported the crime has signs of mental illness, she said."
To me this is a poor excuse.Women end up mentaly disturbed because nobody does anything against their behaiviour.
I mean this is the source of mentaly disturbed people who think such behaiviour becomes acceptable,certainly women lack discipline and because people are going easy on them.
what i said above does not apply to every women.But it does indicate that they have some issues,which people ignore and then they wonder why this behaiviour ends up as a mentally disturbed person.
And then there are the disease and trauma related things in life
BRAVO ! Finally, the word od false accusations is getting out.
Anonymous said...
This thing ate my comment again.
I think it was the hot sauce you added.
Apr 15, 2010 8:23:00 AM
"Furthermore, prosecution of fabricated crime is often not pursued because of a lack of evidence and laws that provide mild penalties, according to local officials."
FRS Comment: Do you notice the problem? Little can be done to deter the acitivity, the article says. The answer is found in the very next sentence -- penalities are too mild. Why not increase those mild penalties? For every other act that we, as a society, want to deter, we increase the penalty."
I'm going to have to invoke the "Great Minds Think Alike" saying here, as I suggested the very same thing yesterday:
"I'd suggest that the laws need to be changed in the US so as to allow for greater penalties (such as afforded via "Perverting The Course Of Justice" in the UK).
In too many locals in the US, the top charge for an FRA amounts to a misdemeanor, with penalties consistent with those for public drunkenness.
Given the PC/feminist fall-out they might expect from charging women, the fact that there isn't much to be gained (in terms of punishment) might well be what dissuades some from pursuing false accusers, figuring it as a further waste of time and expense."
FRS Comment: Compare that sentence for false reporting to the sentence the boy would have received if he was found guilty of rape. Also, note the officer's comment that the girl didn't really know what she was doing. Lies are easy to tell. And that's precisely why we need a public awareness campaign that teaches that the "r" word should never be uttered lightly because of the extreme harm it can cause once it's unleashed. And to remind people, especially young girls, that it's a crime.
At the time she was sentenced, I though that Biurny Peguero Gonzalez should have also have been court-ordered to do a public service announcement admitting her what her lies had sent an innocent man to prison. I'd have liked to have seen it filmed starting with a close-up on her face, pulling back as she spoke of the events, then, once it was apparent that she was dressed in prison garb and seated on the bench in her cell, the doors should have swung shut with the distinctive sound of them slamming shut, to show her behind bars as she concluded, "Now I'm going to have to pay the price for my crime" - and a splash banner stating, "Lying about rape is a serious crime".
On the necessity of increasing sentences for false reporting of rape
Police have no problem proving false accusations -- often there is a confession! This is all about bowing to pressure from pro-liar groups.
False rape accusers leave a trail of slime behind them a mile wide; there is always plenty of evidence.
Biurny Peguero Gonzalez deserves 25 to life and to register as a sex offender for life.
And she should do her time in a Men's prison so the sentence is actually fair....a lot of these womens prisons are more like resorts.
OT - there is now an essay at Feministing.com called "Speaking out against asinine attitudes toward rape." (Yes, they took a breather from such urgent topics as bitterness over new skin care products for men and deodorant ads to discuss something that might even matter.)
http://community.feministing.com/2010/04/speaking-out-against-asinine-a.html
First the part that I agree with:
"individuals as well as jackasses who deface our advertisements with graffiti that reads things such as "no means yes and yes means anal," a sentiment I believe completely supports a rape culture"
There is no "rape culture," but "no means yes and yes means anal" is ridiculous, and not something that any sane person believes; although I'm sure it was written by someone who understandably enough wanted to get the feminists' goat.
Now for the sick part:
"But jerks who put forward these notions that rape culture doesn't exist, or that the experiences of survivors shouldn't be validated need a reality check."
No pookey, you who claim that we are living in a "rape culture" -- the United States, the world's stronghold for feminist whackjobs, that locks up more men than any other country on earth! -- and who demand automatic belief for any woman claiming to be a victim, no matter how non-credible or criminal she may be, need the reality check. Facts matter more than feelings, especially when the automatic sympathy you demand requires the sacrifice of men who are most likely innocent.
And if 'Take Back the Night!' causes some to think of rape as a stupid issue, that just might be because 'Take Back the Night!' is a stupid concept: blaming all men for what some criminals do.
My apologies, oh my brothers -- I forgot to put *TRIGGER WARNING* in front of that, so you could have a piece of leather handy for when you go into PTSD convulsions. That's the latest feminist fad, you know.
They are SUCH poor dears!
They are poor beyond my very comprehension - the poor, underprivileged, poor little dears!
They are SO poor - I cannot get over how poor these dears are.
FAR TOO poor, for a start.
They are like poor little kittens, left out in the rain.
SO, SO poor.
NO - they are POORER still, than that.
These affluent white women, with all the power of the state at their fingertips, and in a position to influence legislation -
WHAT POOR, POOR dears they are.
How can we allow this poorness to continue?
Are you saying that only survivors of false accusations need to be validated? I do agree with the feminists that we have a rape culture in our society fueled by alcohol and drugs, but I think both genders are responsible.
Over at the Spearhead, Welmer posted a piece on this article:
False Rape Accusation From a Boy?"
Seems like couple of teenaged bullies barged into a young teachers home, and taunted her - and later accused her of statutory rape (by virtual of having had sex with them). Her claims that there was no sexual activity beyond one of the thugs simulations seem credible.
Not unlike Ben Roethlisberger, this young woman made mistakes in allowing seriously questionable activities to occur (giving them alcohol, for instance); thus it seems a usefully close approximation for that other recent incident - especially in that intoxicated young people ought to be doubted when they make claims of sexual activity, at least to the point that a through investigation is under-taken before arrests are made and charges filed.
The young woman was ruled "not guilty" in a court of law, but just as we see when men are cleared only at trial, there is no way to absolutely prove that the alleged crime did not happen - leaving a cloud of suspicion over the falsely accused, and no way for LE to go after the false accuser(s).
While Welmer would like to have a meaningful discussion of this "reversed" FRA, I'm doubtful that some in the current crop of posters over there will do it the justice this story deserves (thus I note it here).
Dawn - "Are you saying that only survivors of false accusations need to be validated?
That's hardly the point here. Victims of rape also need to be considered. "Survivors" should be validated. But, they have numerous resources to help them out that are extant. What isn't readily available is any help, what so ever, for those who've been false accused (many of whom, for that reason, end up being anything BUT "survivors"). On the plus side for women surviving being raped, they aren't likely to be arrested, have their names published, end up loosing their jobs, friends, and even families because of the crime they've endured.
And, not only will their life-savings not be drained away trying to survive their horrific crime, they can even get financial assistance and counseling at no cost. Yes, women who are violently raped endure much. Good thing there are resources to help them.
Dawn - "I do agree with the feminists that we have a rape culture in our society fueled by alcohol and drugs, but I think both genders are responsible."
I believe what you're referring to would be better deemed the "Regrettable Hook-up Culture". Whether it's the case of a drunk girl being taken advantage of or simply a girl who regrets what's she's done the next day; it pale in comparison to what happen to victims of (to paraphrase Whoopi Goldberg) "rape rape".
I'd have to imagine that being grabbed, held at knife-point, drug off into the bushes and violently raped (and possibly beaten) would have to be every bit as bad as what innocent men, falsely imprisoned via and FRA must experience during "prison rape" (if only their ordeal ended after one assault).
Dawn, you need to see the reality here: if you are falsely accused of rape -- even if your liar is then convicted -- a very substantial number of people still assume that you are a rapist.
Do you understand what that does to your mind, to your prospects for the future? Rape victims don't go through that.
FRA victims need validation just to survive; the rape victims don't need it because the legal system actually cares about them.
"I do agree with the feminists that we have a rape culture in our society fueled by alcohol and drugs"
OMG.
Girls are even poorer than I thought.
They are not only so poor as to have to face being raped by gigantic evil disembodied penises 24/7, they are being tricked into getting drunk as well.
When I was at college, I could have sworn I saw the gurls pouring alcohol down their own throats.
NOW I KNOW HOW POOR THEY TRULY WERE. They were tricked into doing it. Big evil penises MADE them do it so that they could be taken advantage of. Women NEVER want to have sex on their own. They have to be raped into it.
THEY ARE POOR, and nothing less will fix it ... than a war on rape AND a war on drugs! And NEW PROHIBITION!!! The early feminists were right - they were poor too, but they did something about it. They got alcohol banned so that men would stop forcing the poor gurls' lips around beer taps (AND THEN THEIR COCKS AMIRITE?!!)
WE NEED A WAR ON RAPE DRUGS AND RAPE DRINKS TO SAVE ALL THE POOR GURLS OF THE WORLD. There are at least 30 billion of them and they are all being raped daily by alcohol and drugs.
"Are you saying that only survivors of false accusations need to be validated?"
It would be nice if ONE false accusation victim would be validated.
Even after they are acquitted, poor poor feminists continue to call for their mutilation.
In contrast, women are validated EVEN WHEN nothing happened to them! LOL!
Don't say 'survivors'. Don't you know that men aren't poor - only girls survive things.
Chef Snark
I love your comments as always.
"Do you understand what that does to your mind, to your prospects for the future? Rape victims don't go through that."
Not only do rape victims suffer emotional damage, there's also the physical anguish. As long as you refuse to acknowlege the pain of others, false accusations will be considered a frivolous cause.
Your tunnel vision is pathetic. The challenge is not to convince ME. The challenge is to convince society.
We're going to stop false accusations by continuing to obsess over rape? Uhhh, I don't think so.
And if our cause is so hopeless then why do there seem to be more cases of liars being charged? Meanwhile the reporting of rape accusations is being toned down, and the media is focusing more on adultery as a substitute.
Not perfect, but some progress is being made.
People who lie about being raped should be held accountable for it because that is a definite crime and a serious problem and needs to stop. No one should have to suffer the injustice of being accused of a crime they did not commit.
With that being said, I am a victim of a legitimate sexual assault and even though I immediately went to the hospital and got a rape kit done and a physical medical examination (and yes, there was proof of his ejaculate inside me), the police officers and DA decided they weren't going to prosecute this man because he said it was "mutually consensual."
What do you honestly think he is going to say when the police questioned him? "Yeah, I raped her?"
It is actually quite common for a guilty person to deny participating in the crime they are accused of being involved in even though they are really guilty.
So there needs to be some balance here.
It is just as wrong to let someone get away with destroying someone's life with false accusations as it is to permit someone's life to be destroyed because someone else decided they wanted to rape them. Both acts are crimes that need to be punished. People who do bad things to hurt other people should be held accountable for it.
Anon,
I wasn't going to publish your comment, since it's only been 5 months since this ran, and no one will be looking at it.
But you forget one thing within your statement. It is not incumbent for a person to confess (5th amendment). It is up to the police and the Prosecutors to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the person committed a crime. So if he truly believes it was consensual, then the ejaculate will not prove rape/sexual assault. Just that sex took place. If that is the only corroboration of your accusation, then no, no prosecution should take place.
I agree with this statement:
It is actually quite common for a guilty person to deny participating in the crime they are accused of being involved in even though they are really guilty.
But it doesn't make a bit of difference. It is up to law enforcement to make the case. It is not up to the accused to do it for them.
And the only balance we should have, is the standard of "Innocent until PROVEN guilty". No more, no less.
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