The Lie That “Just Happens”

All in all, a good article. I have a few quibbles, but it serves an important purpose.

Our website, http://falserapesociety.blogspot.com/, is one the few in the world devoted to the problem of false rape claims, Western Civilization's taboo epidemic. We update daily with news stories -- better put, horror stories -- about men and boys falsely accused of rape, and about nobody really caring.

Thank you for caring. The great myth is that if you care about the people falsely accused of rape, you can't care about rape victims, or vice versa. What nonsense. We detest rape AND false rape claims.

In recent years laudable efforts have been made to properly sanction nonconsensual sexual misconduct and to make reporting rape easier than ever. But in waging the war on rape, we have allowed an entire class of victim -- those wrongly accused of this vile crime -- to be treated as nothing more than collateral damage despite the grievous harm many suffer.

Once unleashed, a rape lie -- unlike any other lie -- can destroy lives with a stunning, tragic completeness. Men and boys falsely accused of rape have been beaten and killed and have killed themselves; they've been fired from their jobs and lost their businesses; they've lost their wives, their girlfriends and their long-time buddies. Rarely do they ever come out of it whole, and for many, the ghost of a false rape claim trails them for the rest of their lives.

Every serious and unbiased study ever conducted on false rape claims shows that they are a significant problem, and objectively verifiable data indicates that likely close to half of all rape claims, and possibly more, are false. Yet sexual assault counselors routinely and disingenuously refer to false rape accusations as a "myth."

The Kanin study is one of the few unbiased ones ever published. Kanin was a feminist icon for his other work and had impeccable feminist credentials. The sexual assault community obviously didn't like the result he reached -- 41% of all claims not just false but actually recanted, the number of actual false rape claims might have been much higher. (You see, the sexual assault community feels that to raise awareness about rape, false rape claims must be "rare." Why that is, I don't know. Why can't we all be interested in eradicatig both rape AND false rape claims?)

With all due respect, you should be wary of any study on false rape claims promulgated by the sexual assault community. The sexual assault community typically insists that false rape claims are a "myth" or a "bugaboo." Studies that posit low rates of false claims are often politicized screeds promulgated by persons financially interested in spreading the gospel of rampant male predatory misconduct. They are intended to furnish a "scientific" basis to effect changes in the law and police practices for the sole purpose of jacking up rape conviction rates. As for how many false claims there really are, let's just say this: there are a certain percentage of rape claims -- ranging anywhere from 9% to the 40 percent range -- that are very quickly dismissed, due usually to recantations. These are easily classified as "false" by any objective measure. On the other extreme, there are a small percentage of rape claims that are prosecuted and that lead to convictions. We can assume that most of these (certainly not all) were actual rapes. In between, the vast majority of rape claims are dismissed somewhere along the way because of insufficient evidence (which means there was not enough evidence to make out one or more elements of the crime, even if a trier of fact believed the evidence) or the accuser decides not to pursue the claim or the jury just doesn't buy it. Now pay attention to this: to suggest that all of these rape claims that fall between in that vast middle zone -- between the obviously false (due primarily to recantations) and those that end in conviction -- are, by necessity, "rapes," is dishonest in the extreme. For example, is it fair, or honest, to assume that every man exonerated of a rape charge by a jury is, by necessity, a rapist just because the charge wasn't classified as "false" early on? The question scarcely survives its statement. And what of the claims that never even actually got to a jury -- the vast majority that are dismissed earlier, often due to fatal infirmities in the case -- how on earth can we say that these should be considered "rapes"? The fact is, these studies assume rampant police incompetence, sexism and misogyny, which is absurd on its face and insulting to hard working law enforcement officers. Why is it not just as logical -- in fact more logical -- to assume that most of the dismissed rape claims in this vast middle ground were not actual rapes? And when you consider the interested and biased promulgators of these studies who usually have zero concern for the presumed innocent -- many of whom were, in fact, wrongly accused -- it is not very difficult to dismiss these studies out of hand. By any objective measure it is not difficult to asssume that upwards of half or more of all rape claims are false. That is staggering.

Victims of false rape claims cut across every socio-economic class but are almost exclusively male, and the crime of making a false rape report has become unnecessarily gender-politicized and so embroiled in the radical feminist sexual assault milieu that it has been improperly removed from the public discourse about rape. By any measure, denigrating the experience of the wrongly accused by dismissing their victimization as a "myth" or as unworthy of our discussion, much less our protection, is not merely dishonest but morally grotesque.

Compellingly crafted story. Being falsely accused of a crime can create a condition of generalized mistrust in the person who was the target because by definition, they did nothing wrong to begin with and never saw the accusation coming. Well done!

Compulsive lying is crazy and (as far as I can tell) poorly understood. There's some people out there who will lie without any obvious motive and gain nothing more than temporary attention for their lie. Yet they lie constantly and easily. For most of us who know a compulsive liar the behavior is annoying at worst, but this story highlights how dangerous and destructive it can be.

It's too bad feminist analysis in its (very worthwhile and needed) work on changing a victim blaming culture which surrounds rape has made a taboo against discussing the phenomenon of false accusations. The kind of lies told by women verses those told by men can tell us some things about gender bias and expectations in our society.

In my experience, lying about being attacked is a common among male and female liars. The couple of men I've known to be compulsive liars have told untrue stories about being shot or beaten-- but never raped. Female liars have stories about rape and kidnapping.

But it seems to be only women who actually follow through on the stories with law enforcement. This likely has to do with the perception and response the liar wants to illicit from others. A man who claims that he was jumped and took a bullet through the calf appears tough, but that rugged perception of masculinity may be lessened by his "snitching." Rather, a man's lie about an attack is often concluded with him finally fighting off and sending his attacker fleeing into the night.

While men are expected to be able to look after themselves, its completely socially acceptable for a woman to need help and for the female liar the attention garnered from being "rescued" is the prime motivation.

Weakness and vulnerability are socially synonymous with femininity making a false accusation attractive to the female liar because she can easily fall into a socially prescribed role. Conversely, real male victims of sexual assault may keep silent because coming forward as such a victim is feminine and violates male gender roles.

An aspect your article does not deal with is the case where the woman is not lying but no rape took place.

Around the time of the study you mention (i.e. circa 1990-94) there was a trend for women to "unsuppress" childhood rapes. One was my estranged wife, who "recollected" her father raping her when she was three while her mother was at the maternity home giving birth to her younger sister. According to a psychologist I was consulting, there was no such thing, it was merely a Freudian Oedipal fantasy playing out.

To call it lying is, in my opinion, false since the "victim" believes it. The slander victim in the article was a therapist dealing with students - a dangerous situation, fraught with Oedipal pitfalls.

You should ask some experts to comment.

I detest the act of rape, but as a woman, I detest those of my gender that falsely accuse men of rape, even in jest. It is not something to be used in such a manner.

I appreciate the article. It is one of those rare cases that helps us to not only understand a mental condition, but where the justice system conducted an evenly-keeled investigation and a person exhonorated.

While this article was written to emphasize this rare phenomenon, I could not help but looked at this occurrence using race as a lens. The accused in the article may have been a person of color and if so, the outcome could have been so typical. It is a shame that even the release of the accused is considered rare.

I dont think I have to explain the overwhelming scrutiny of the justice system regarding people of color, arrests and convictions.

But I shudder in knowing that young people opt for this type of behavior. Somehow it seems to be acceptable among this group whether as a form of retatiliation or an escape, instead of facing the consequences. Better still, conducting themselves in a manner to avoid having to face such situations in the first place.

We see the same kinds of bogus claims and accusations with sexual harrassment in the workplace. Though not as serious as rape charges, false sexual harrassment accusations can seriously damage the reputation, career, and lives of the person being accused. Sometimes the false claims end up being some kind of retaliation but others have left us scratching our heads.

Perhaps the emphasis to take rape charges and sexual harrassment complaints (females file SH complaints far more than male) more seriously than in the past has created an atmosphere for women to take on the victim role in society instead of empowering them.

How about that for a Pulitzer winning topic? Women and lies. How women's lies damage those who are truthful?

Great article--great, and unnerving.

~Maestro

Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse knows a little something about being falsely accused of rape. I don't think this kind of thing is that rare. And that's scary.

What's even worse is when the false claim is never retracted or disproven, and the accused person ends up in prison. I've been through that myself, serving three years for a crime I didn't commit, and having to deal with the aftermath that follows for the rest of my life. Thanks to the Internet, anyone and everyone can do their own background checks without consideration of whether the information they find is true or false, without any input from the subject of the investigation, and can then spread the information even further. We have such a high degree of hysteria regarding anything considered a sex offense that it's essentially a life sentence for the accused when it comes to finding a job, participating in any community activities, church and social organizations, or even finding a place to live. Even those who are actually guilty deserve a chance to put their lives back together and make meaningful contributions to society and the community once they've finished their sentences. For those of us who were falsely accused and/or convicted, it's even worse, leaving a permanent sense of despair and futility when the same stuff it thrown up in our face again and again. The conviction or accusation becomes a focal point for others, as if it were the sole factor in evaluating one's life. In my case, I'm also a decorated combat veteran with two college degrees and decades of experience in retail management, but none of that is relevant any longer, and I'm lucky to have a minimum-wage job in a service industry.

It is outrageous that false accusations like these are a misdemeanor when there is a good chance that the accused could get sent to prison for 10 or 20 years. The punishment for false accusation ought to be commensurate with the punishment that the falsely accused person is at risk of getting.

It pisses me off that Bekele had to spend nine days in jail (which could have easily been 9 years) and Clifton, the false accuser, got off without spending ANY time in jail....

NOT "Munchausen by proxy syndrome" - you mean "Munchausen syndrome." There are no proxies described here. Are there editors at this paper?

I was wanted to comment on the part that said 39% of the rape allegations are dropped in the military. I'm a woman and I was in the Navy so I can say that the rapes DO happen. I was 19 when I joined and had a ton of sexual advances that made me feel very uncomfortable by officers and people higher up in rank/rate than me. It was always a very stressful situation. I can say with personal experience as well for my time volunteering with GIrights that rape does happen a lot more often than it is even reported in the Military. I would get calls from girls who were rapped ultimately that decided to go AWOL before reporting it through their chain of command. Women drop the "grievances" due to the unfortunate rank and rating hierarchy and the fear of reprisal. In order to file a grievance you must begin with your next in command, and move your way up. It goes though almost 5 people before it even gets to the commissioned people. Unfortunately these are usually the people who commit the rape and sexual assault. Skipping this procedure is actually a crime in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Basically if you are raped in the military it's your fault, your problem. I know it seems crazy, but military life is anything but normal.

That said, I really wish you should have left that little bit about the military stats out. It's a WHOLE 'nother thing!

I have a perfect "diagnosis" for these women; its called crazy-selfish-bitch and although therapy helps, what these women really deserve is a healthy few months under the watch and care of the state correctional facilities.
Ideally, there would be a foolproof way to glean these women from the population of REAL victims of sexual abuse, name them as the criminals they are, and incarcerate them. This is no mere false report. This is a vicious and direct attack on an innocent victim that often has been singled out for some reason unknown to us.
The consequences of sexual abuse and most significantly, rape are severe and also perfectly appropriate for the individuals that commit these atrocities. The idea that a percentage of the population incarcerated are wrongfully so, is a disappointment. The idea that a girl or a woman would intentionally do so, and on so delicate a claim is deeply disturbing. The victims of these lies suffer a risk, if not a total collapse of their personal and professional lives, not to mention the legal repercussions.
I understand perfectly that not all of these false accusations are made by women, but still the majority of them are. It makes me ashamed of my xx chromosomes, and makes me sick that there are other women out there, who may or may not really understand the sick sick feeling of being a victim of sexual abuse, that would exploit it in such a manner.
come on.

This things happen because there are no big punishemnts for lies.

If lies are heavily punished, people would think twice about lying.

Now men live in fear of the lies of women in the USA.

I am lucky not to live in the USA, but I will come here to get my Phd, those are going to be 4 years of fear.

God protect me from the lies of american women.

It is noteworthy that the false accuser in the Duke Lacrosse team case mentioned in this article had no repercussions for doing so, in fact she was rewarded by a leading advocate who is quick to judge others and was quick to want to lynch these men at Duke but offered no apology to them after his "client" and the DA were the only ones who were found to have committed a crime. It cost dozens of men far more then can ever be repaid yet they did not even get a "sorry about that" A third of the men in prison, some for decades, were proven to be innocent by DNA. Many were found to be innocent after the woman they were supposed to have raped recanted.

Even police officers have been the victim of false accusations, some of whom were found innocent because it was proven without a doubt that they were miles away from where the rape they were accused of doing at the very moment it was suppose to have happened. Little if anything is ever done to the false accuser and in fact, the feminist in this last incident cried fowl saying this woman did all the right things so she should not be charged. Really? Since when is lying about this the "right thing?"

I am the director of Shattered Men, a ministry for abused men but we also help women on equal bases. Sometime ago, the director of the local women's shelter made an entry in our guest book and to add insult to injury, she suggest that we learn from a group called "men against rape" so I addressed this in a letter back to her which you can find here:

http://shatterdmen.com/Guestbook.htm

There is a simple solution to this problem and I contend it would stop most false accusations rather quickly:

http://www.shatterdmen.com/False%20Witnes.htm

We also realize there are real rapes and we have helped several real victims but these people can be helped a lot more if we also stop the false accusations of rape.

A few quick things here because talking about false accusations of rape takes me back to a time in my life that is very dark and I try very hard not to re-live.

1) False claims are not rare. I don't care if the % is 2% or 75%. But, the fact there is some taboo on punishing this vile crime says a lot about our society. We worship women in pain who over come, and often tell men who are in pain to "stop whining" or "you hate women".

2) We punish people who file false claims on freaking INSURANCE more diligently than we do to women who, with only their word, PERMANENTLY damage a man's life. If he's lucky, he will ONLY have a record of being arrested for rape, but no conviction. If he's not lucky, he'll get the hell that prison can be for a sex offender.

Let's clear up a few things:

3) Insurance fraud is a LOT less serious than a false rape allegation. It costs the individual his freedom and a permanent record, even if cleared. Anyone who wants to argue that may feel free, but I know from personal experience ... so take your esoteric coffee house therotician wisdom and get lost.

4) The REAL victim of a false allegation is not women who were raped who now may have a harder time getting justice. The REAL victim (and I hate that word) is the ***MAN*** had cuffs clapped on him in front of family and co-workers, who's name appears in the paper for this arrest. The damage is irrevocable.

5) We have laws to punish people - part of the reason is to serve as a DETERRENT to the crime. If I were to declare "no theft day" and say that for 1 day theft would be legal, 90% of people would not steal (one hopes) - but the 10% who did would clear out and bankrupt every vendor on mainstreet in your town. And we certainly would punish thiese criminals - not the least for just destroying a person's livlihood that took years to establish.

And that does not include their good name, their legal record, their marriages, nor their ability to re-start said business.

So .... it kind of, I dunno, makes sense to punish false accusers on par with the crime they were using as a weapon against another person.

6) And as to "The Lie that 'Just Happens.'" - I'm sorry, but women who lie about rape do not trip and fall and the word "RAPE!" escapes from their mouth unbidden. It is a vicious thought out act of deliberate will often done with premeditation with the direct purpose of hurting another person's life, getting themselves out of trouble, or both.

It's not an "oops" moment at all.

If I yell "FIRE" in a crowded theatre, and people panic and someone gets trampled, I am held responsible for their death. It's just that simple. I did not murder the person, but my actions created the situation.

Unless the false accuser has been living in a cave, she knows full well what her call to action triggers, and therefore has a foreknowlege of the damage done to me.

She has robbed me of my freedom (kidnapping by proxy), possibly cost me my job (theft), and frankly she should get either jail time commensurate to what I would have gotten, or be made to pay 1/2 or her income for the REST OF HER LIFE to compensate me. She has kids? Too bad, she's not fit to raise them. She can't (read: won't) get a job, jail her for contempt of court as a civil matter, and let her cool her heels for a few years until she decides to do what's right. She can wear an ankle bracelet and while we're at it, let's have court order that she must inform any male she spends more than 10 minutes with that she is a felon due to a false allegation.

Now, THAT might stop this crime from happening.

Oh, if my punishment sounds harsh, I got them from various state statutes that apply to rapists either in criminal pleas or in civil deals they got from their victims.

Oh, does it sound different now?

L. Steven Beene II

He should have filed suit, after all that is what the legal system is there for. And these false accusations should be punished more severely, this man nearly lost everything.

If people want rape charges to be taken seriously, then yes, it is incumbent on the standard to be high, otherwise if a specious threat can destroy a person's life, well, the jury and the defense should be entitled to question everything about a rape

The problem is that a man who has gone through this has NO MONEY to hire a lawyer for a civil suit, and I highly doubt any lawyer will take one on contingent (a %).

That's why the PEOPLE's lawyer, the DA, must step in to prosecute.

First he's made a legal, social, political, and financial wreck and wretch, then he's supposed to sue? With WHAT?

The reason why men don't lie as much? What! They do. They, along with their defense attorneys, falsely accuse rape victims of making false accusations all the time. Women who make false accusations are nutty, there's no doubt about that, but let's turn this articles’ hypothesis around: if rapists and their lawyers did not exploit the rare cases of false accusations (about 10% of all reported rapes) there would not be so much doubt on the whole male gender in the first place and the environment for getting away with false accusations would not exist. Men lie much more about rape than women. They just commit the crime first and use the rare cases of women’s false accusations as a means to get away with it. This is something that men who have been falsely accused of rape should be very angry about.

Curtis,

First, you make a very large assumption that it doesn't make men falsely accused angry. But when was the last time you heard the phrase "men don't lie about rape?". I hear "women don't lie about rape" all the time from the rape advocacy/Gender feminist sector.

Second, her being convicted of lying about being raped isn't going to result in the same type of custodial sentence (prison), that my being convicted of rape carries.

And please tell me why, if I am on trial for raping someone that I believe I had consensual sex with (and that is what the majority of rape cases are about, consent), then why wouldn't I question the veracity of the accusation?

Men lie much more about rape than women. They just commit the crime first and use the rare cases of women’s false accusations as a means to get away with it.

I'd like to see your source for that. I don't think you can provide one. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

False rape accusers do more to hurt true rape victims credibility than anything that anyone else does. And the victims of a fasle rape claim aren't the hypothetical future rape 'victim', it is the falsely accused person. But the prevailing attitude in the rape dialog is that the falsely accused are unimportant. How can they be, they are predominantly men, and to the Gender feminists that drive the "rape hysteria" metanarrative, men don't matter.

Take a look at my website www.falserapesociety.blogspot.com
We are one of the few sites that gives any kind of voice to those falsely accused of rape. Maybe you should stop by and read the horror stories of those falsely accused. They are just a damaged as someone who has been raped. Yet there are few who speak for them, and when they do speak, they are treated dismissivly at best, and with hostility at worst.

The fact is, women in this country are not held to the same level of accountability that men are. And all any woman has to do to ruin a mans life, is cry "he raped me". Even if proven innocent, the stigma of being a potential rapist will linger for a long time, if not forever. And that is morally grotesque.

The notion that women who lie have a mental disorder, and are therefore not responsible for their behaviors, helps to explain the false rape phenomenon. False rape accusers are shielded from responsibility by having their names withheld, so they can inflict harm without being subject to scrutiny and humiliation. A woman knows that a mere accusation is enough to thoroughly demolish a man's life; and how easily that is accomplished if the punishment for a false accusation is trivial or non-existent. Women who lie about rape are treated not as responsible adults, but as dysfunctional children, to be pitied and "treated," not prosecuted and punished. This is abetted by several participants. The media conceal the identities of accusers even after they have admitted lying. Psychiatrists have long treated women as if they were in a state of permanent adolescence, and therefore less responsible than men. Feminist organizations also propound a view of women as perpetually vulnerable to predatory men, and police officers are indoctrinated by those who share this view. It is no mystery that persons -- male or female -- who are not held accountable for their misdeeds are more likely to misbehave. We have experienced two generations of instruction that women are victims and men are perpetrators. False rape accusations are the logical payoff.

It is worth noting that, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, the incidence of actual rape has declined by about 80 percent in the past 30 years; an amazing trend that has been ignored by the media and others who promote female victimhood.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/rape.htm

The writer fails to disclose that the name of man falsely accused of rape by Clifton is not his real name.

Also of note:

1) At the sentencing of Clifton for false reporting the King County Prosecutor's office sought restitution for the King County Sheriff's office, BUT NOT for the real victim -- the man falsely accused who had to spend a wad on a defense attorney. The prosecutor didn't make any motion to have the the entire incident (arrest, charge of the man) be expunged.

2) At the sentencing, Clifton's lawyer whined that the media was there, so she (the lawyer) was compelled to give a sob story about Clifton's early childhood (which by all accounts was horrible). The lawyer claimed that somehow the horrible acts of Clifton's grandfather got blurred and Clifton somehow got grandfather and professor confused. Clifton is white and the professor is dark skinned.

3) Had the King County Sheriff's office done proper computer forensics as a part of the investigation to lay a foundation for an arrest, the false rape allegation would have been uncovered and the man never arrested.

I am so frustrated by this article.
Yes, false allegations are awful.
Yes, it's horrible that this man had to suffer for something he didn't do.
The problem is that 3% of ALL police reports are false, and 3% of sexual assault reports are false - right on track with EVERY OTHER CRIME for which MANY people are charged/prosecuted/convicted.
To add to that, the likelihood of a FALSE rape allegation resulting in a conviction is infinitesimal...because an infinitesimal number of ALL rape reports result in convictions of any kind.
The 250,000 women who are raped in this country every year deserve better than this victim-blaming bull.

CmG,

Too bad you missed the point to the article. It is about false rape accusations, not rape. But it was a nice attempt at deflection.

And you know that 3% is a lie. Every objective study done on this puts the percentage 9% up.

Kanin, McDowell, Time of India, and the Daphne II study recently released by the EU all show this.

Your highly dismissive attitude towards the 'victims' of false accusations of rape make you the one here who is victim blaming. Funny how in your concern over people who are raped, you don't mention men who are raped. It's only women. Nice gender bias.