General News False rape claimer's sentence is not too lenient...because she is a woman

I want to respond to this, because I have a lot to say on the concept of feminism and "rape culture", but I don't really know how to begin.

Are you saying that falsely accusing someone of rape is just as bad of a crime as rape itself? I imagine that is going to cause some controversy.

 

As EC's foremost frothing at the mouth feminazi everyone hates (even if their reasons are really stupid, such as having read Tumblr), I categorically condemn abuses of the court system such as this. Lying about being the victim of a violent crime is serious, because it is an attempt to ruin that person's life. Such an abuse of the court system must be punished severely.

This case is quite a bit different from the run of the mill false allegation scenario. The lies were told repeatedly, including faked injury. As such, I agree with the prosecutor that there were aggravating circumstances requiring a stiffer sentence.

I reject the argument made by feminist organizations that cases like this are going to discourage real survivors from reporting. The false allegation trope already exists, and reporting and conviction rates are already low. It's not as if this one case will become the tipping point that stops actual survivors from reporting. As it is, many survivors have very complex and nuanced reasons for not reporting their rape.

Truth cannot be put in front of the political lens. Just because some men are going to make inductive fallacies and say "this one person falsely reported rape, therefore rape is falsely reported" doesn't mean we can't look at this case and see an injustice in a light sentence for abusing a court of law.

I would argue further that her behavior was just as serious as actual rape. Because of the false allegations she made, her ex-partner spent 36 days in jail. The second police arrested him, she became a kidnapper. She chose, very deliberately, to become a violent criminal. This was not as defense counsel is claiming, a "nonviolent offense." She directed the full force of the state, wrongly, at an individual for no other reason than that she felt like doing so. In addition to the violence she did to him, she misdirected the resources of the community from other law enforcement, and she wasted a lot of people's time and money. This definitely needs to be corrected, with a serious penalty to her.

On the other side of things, I want people to know that I still feel quite wrongly that rapists need to be punished in a way that tends to strike terror in those surrounding them. We will come for them, but when we do, we will do it right.

 

Lying about a rape really does damage to both sides: it's harmful to men and women, to feminists and non-feminists, and to rape victims. And you've convinced me that her crime was just as bad as an actual rape.

I agree with PretAllez on a woman's issue?!

Cosmic :eek:

 

Do you know how incredibly condescending that sounds?

 

Um...no?

I'm referencing the fact that I often find myself not agreeing with you on stuff like this, so I was surprised that in this case, I didn't disagree with a single thing you said.

If you were insulted by that, I really can't help you. My above response was meant to be light-hearted and nothing more.

 

It really did sound condescending. Even if you didn't intend it that way, it still comes across pretty badly, and you've just gone a little further instead of apologising for causing offence. Light-heartedness on your part doesn't mean it was well-received on her part.

I agree with Pret Allez. Abusing the law like that isn't something that can be taken light-heartedly. From a humanitarian perspective (the temporary imprisonment of an innocent man and the terror of being subjected to police without being responsible) and a practical perspective (state resources aren't limitless; wasting time with the police and courts can really be horrendously obstructive), what she did was horrendous and can't be even vaguely forgiven.

People who behave like this can be punished without considering the vast majority of genuine cases to be false. What happened was an appropriate response, but there is no need to throw other reports under the bus, which I've thankfully not seen done here. When feminist movements rush to defend this sort of behaviour in the fear that anti-feminist movements will be able to seize it to sabotage rape laws, they only end up fuelling another problem and do little good to the feminist movement's image as a whole.

 

Well, Pret already sent me a message about how it was a misunderstanding, so it's a moot point at this point. And I don't apologize when I've done nothing wrong.

BUT anyway...let's end this plox.

 

I hate the system. Why do females get more leniency over males? For example, if a woman reported rape then they are straight on the case, if a man reports being raped he will probably be laughed at.

And that unfairness has been shown here too. She should have a very heavy sentence because she has practically ruined his life. He is going to struggle to apply for a job, he will probably face violence from people, he probably did face violence while he was in prison. Basically she deserves to serve a very long time in prison which should equate to the same amount of time the rapist serves.

 

Okay, it seems everyone agrees that the sentence was too short, but what do you think it should have been?

My thought is 8 years. It was a nonviolent crime so I figure 5 years for wrongfully accusing the man and wasting the time of the police and courts. The remaining three years? One month for every day that he spent in jail.

 

I didn't even think a false accusation of rape was a criminal offense. It seems to me that civil courts would be a better place to handle punishment for people who've falsely accused others of rape.

 

A false accusation of a violent crime is an attempt to get another person arrested and imprisoned. It is by its nature a very violent crime, and it's quite the purview of criminal, not civil.

 

I'm not sure how it works in the UK, but the US civil system is "loser pays," so it's not fair to ask a person defamed by a false allegation to seek redress in a civil court. It's a criminal matter.

 

I was going to mention this myself, but you got there first. I wouldn't consider this non-violent, as some on this thread have suggested.

 

I know this isn't exactly on the same plane as a false rape allegation, but here in Michigan, if you make up a false allegation of child abuse or neglect to get someone's kids taken away, if convicted you face the exact same sentence as the crime you falsely accused that other person of.

 

People who lie about rape are awful. They are the reason that victims have to try so hard to prove someone actually assaulted them. I don't think it's as bad as rape at all, but it can still indirectly hurt even more people than just the person the allegation is being made against.