False Rape Accusations... A new law needed?

And actual rape victims have become conniving liars who ruined an innocent man's life in the eyes of many, it goes both way. Adding a potential criminal conviction on top would just be disastrous.

Too many times lately we're seeing the lack of evidence required in order to ruin a persons life if someone accuses them of rape... And it needs to be taken more seriously. It's as bad as the witchcraft stuff you learn about in school, where if you're accused, that's the end of it. Are we seriously moving backwards??

No idea how to do this stuff, but someone tell me how to start a poll in this thread.

If anyone knows of a petition on introducing a law on it, please let me know!

Discuss though, want to see if everyone else is in agreement.

EDIT: Just found THREE petitions about it, all rejected because "It's not clear what you're asking us to do" from the Government. What?!?

Well no, because the law would probably do more to give innocent people justice than it would to deter genuine rape victims from testifying. And even with that, honestly if you give me two people, one a rapist and one not, and give me the choice of both of them being imprisoned, for rape, so that the social discrimination element you mention is there too, or neither, I'm probably going to opt with neither. This is based on looking at the net suffering caused to innocent individuals. There is a possibility that the rapist will commit a similar crime, but this is a possibility; it is on the other hand definite that if I imprison them both that the innocent one will suffer greatly, not just in terms of having to go to prison but by being ostracised from their family and friends and likely having nowhere to turn if and when they get out. So I probably would say giving innocent people justice trumps making sure all victims come forward.

According to RAINN (Rape, abuse and incest national network) 68% of rapes go unreported and 98% of rapists wont spend a day in jail or prison compare that to the 1.5-10%(the actual number is considered a 'dark number', but for most crimes it is 2%) of unfounded or false accusations I would say protecting victims' confidence to speak up is far more important.

Wait what do you think should happen?

How would you prove someone is lying?

According to RAINN (Rape, abuse and incest national network) 68% of rapes go unreported and 98% of rapists wont spend a day in jail or prison compare that to the 1.5-10%(the actual number is considered a 'dark number', but for most crimes it is 2%) of unfounded or false accusations I would say protecting victims' confidence to speak up is far more important.

I would question how such stats can be obtained. We can almost never know that somebody is a rapist; we can only really claim that those who were convicted of rape are rapists (of course even then there are exceptions) so I presume this is based on accusations vs convictions, accounting for a certain proportion of false claims. How can they possibly say how many rapes went unreported, given that these rapes should not be known about by definition of unreported? If it means just reports to the police, then do all women report to RAINN, or is this based on surveys? Sorry for the somewhat accusatory/pedantic tone, but it really does puzzle me.
But even taking this at face value, we don't know why 68% didn't report. Maybe many of them feel that nothing could be done, because, in many cases, nothing can be done. That is the necessary evil that comes with a system of innocent until proven guilty; if there is no physical evidence of rape, then it is often merely one person's word against another's. So the positive influence of protecting confidence to speak up is doubtful, while the positive influence of deterring would-be false accusers is more apparent, as an accusation alone can destroy someone, while it is relatively unlikely that someone will be convicted of rape even if they are a rapist.

According to RAINN (Rape, abuse and incest national network) 68% of rapes go unreported and 98% of rapists wont spend a day in jail or prison compare that to the 1.5-10%(the actual number is considered a 'dark number', but for most crimes it is 2%) of unfounded or false accusations I would say protecting victims' confidence to speak up is far more important.

How can they possibly say how many rapes went unreported, given that these rapes should not be known about by definition of unreported? If it means just reports to the police, then do all women report to RAINN, or is this based on surveys? Sorry for the

You couls use that same argument to say that we shouldnt convict rapists either, as they might be innocent.

The attitude towards potential rapists and potential false accusers is different. For one, denying the rape is expected from a real rapist.

Not to mention youve completly missed the point about denying victims justice.

You cannot compare the two because a law like the one proposed would stop victims of rape from reporting it. Convicting rapists will....stop some of them from raping.

Rape victims not only have to deal with the aftermath of a rape but also the social stigma after reporting it.

Does the rapist get punished for both or just the crime of rape? Do you think it would also be just to punish a rapist for accusing a victim of lying about being raped?

I think that it's more easily curable than the world thinking you're scum...

I imagine you would think differently if you were actually raped.

I doubt it.

So you don't think self harming and attempting suicide is a big deal? I have a male friend who was raped and ever since he's suffered from depression, which he's been hospitalised for.
How about being too scared to have sex again? For a lot of people who are raped they never get over it.
I agree that being falsely accused of rape could also effect someone's life in a huge way, it is a disgusting thing for someone to do, but I think you're way too dismissive of the long term effects of rape on a person.

At the moment it's 100x worse than what you're describing. Currently, people can take someone to court for rape, with no fear of punishment - which causes fake allegations.