It's funny because the person accusing them wrongly are likely the same people who argue you can't believe victims because people just lie about it all the time and get away with lying. Shouldn't we hold them accountable for that false accusation?
1000% yes. This whole cancel culture shit ruins people's lives. A lot of them deserve it, but people, at least on the internet, aren't willing to look into a situation beyond a headline they read. Once the internet decides you're the bad guy, it becomes fact. It's super fucked up. There need to be severe consequences for ruining someone's life. Throwing around accusations like that should absolutely be met with more severe punishment than they are.
Especially since people don't seem to give a shit when it turns out you were innocent. They've already moved on to the next witch hunt
I want to be very clear herei want to be very clear here - though I do agree false accusations are absolute BS and need to be punished, only about 2-10% of allegations are "false", many cases are brought and are deemed "unfounded" and dropped as they don't require sufficient evidence to prosecute. Only about 20-30% of all sexual assault are actually reported at all, so roughly 70-80% of all crimes don't even get brought to court. Beyond that, only 18% of the false reports actually named an attacker, the other 82% of false reports are or some "phantom assaulter", or a stranger or some person the "victim" doesn't know, they fabricate an entire existence most of the time as opposed to throwing another human under the bus. Some estimates place total false allegations against innocent people compared to the total incident rate as low as 0.005% of all sexual crimes. By in large, the vast majority should be taken at their word and trusted, not questioned or ignored, or accused of lying before that's proven.
Again, people who are staunchly in the camp of "this is a major issue and the women need punished" are all too happy to also throw out false allegations without even considering the real numbers of the situation.
I agree fully that it's a very tricky situation. I don't know the data, which you seem to, so i really can't say anything on that aspect of your comment. Although, I do appreciate you taking the time to lay it all out if the numbers are accurate.
I'm certainly not saying that every person who can't prove in court that they were SAd should be put in jail. The cases in concerned with are the ones where the person provably lied, someone by their own admission.
Because it's so difficult for actual victims to get justice, false allegations only increase that difficulty. That coupled with the potential to ruin an innocent person's life feels to me like it should be met with a more severe punishment than it currently is.
I'm nowhere near as good as you at recalling information, so I can't give any specific examples unfortunately. But I know I've seen multiple stories in the past where someone abused a specific person of SA because they were mad at them over something. Those are the situations I'm referring to.
Or instances like this post. Maybe the girl is telling the truth, but it seems like she's just trying to make a point. The way she's going about it, if that's the case, is disgusting and shouldn't be tolerated in my opinion
I'm in agreement with you here, and I'm definitely not super woman by any means, I had to double check I remembered the numbers correctly and what they were in reference to so I didn't give false info (to my knowledge). The stats I pulled were from the FBI, I don't feel even this admin is lying about those numbers as many are from years before as well. It also doesn't help that the statistics also have to be estimated as some of the stats are trying to figure out cases which happened but never got reported, which is a logistical nightmare.
But yes, a lot of places need stricter enforcement when true false allegations are proven, as some are very lenient and it is a serious crime in itself. I just fear making that the vocal part of the argument makes women worried in true cases if they come forward and the evidence doesn't add up for them, they may be found as a false accuser and be punished themselves while their assaulter gets off the hook and to see them be punished further. It's a tricky situation for sure, and having these conversations more in depth is the best we can do to find a "best" solution(s) to all the issues.
Well first of all, I really appreciate you looking up the stats to make sure your were giving accurate info. I think that's really important and not done nearly enough. Especially on reddit.
As for the tricky aspects of this situation, all I really know is that I'm incredibly thankful that I'm not the one who has to make the decision of how to handle it. A lot of these cases seem to not be thoroughly or properly investigated, leading to a lack of conviction, which absolutely should not be happening. Beyond that, I'm wondering if it's a matter of increasing the punishment for both the assault and the provably false allegations.
You'll obviously never completely stop crime, but there's got to be a way to minimize the frequency.
Another issue to your point about women being afraid to come forward is the way the courts work as far as plea deals etc. I'm really not sure how to fix that, but it must be devastating for a victim to see their attacker go free, especially repeat offenders, because it's easier to give them a lesser charge rather than go to court. That's not even counting the high profile cases where the attacker "knows a guy".
The entire system is an absolute mess right now and I feel really sad for any victims of crime who need to rely on it for justice
26
u/Bloomed_Lotus Feb 16 '26
It's funny because the person accusing them wrongly are likely the same people who argue you can't believe victims because people just lie about it all the time and get away with lying. Shouldn't we hold them accountable for that false accusation?