Examples Of False Allegations

A basic or common sense definition of a false allegation of rape is, the description of non-consensual sex that never actually occurred (Rumney, 2006). This appears straight forward however raises questions about the pervasiveness of false allegations as criminal justice professionals would argue that these numbers are quite high, whereas researchers and the literature around the area would argue that these numbers are in fact quite low. This article examines what constitutes a false allegation of rape and why the disparity in estimated numbers of false allegations between researchers and Criminal Justice Professionals is so great. It argues that this disparity is caused as researchers and criminal justice professionals are talking at cross-purposes. This can be understood by breaking down ‘false allegation’ into two other terms, ‘false complaint’ and ‘false account’.

The article believes that the police and prosecutors are arguing that there are high numbers of false accounts (where rape has occurred but the details given are not quite correct), whereas researchers suggest that false allegations are very rare as they are measuring the number of false complaints (where a rape is said to have taken place when in fact it did not, (Saunders, 2012).

Much of the research in this area finds that false allegations tend to be quite low, for example Gunby et al. finds that the levels of false rape reports are no different to or in fact may be potentially lower than the levels of false complaints made in other crimes, and found that focus group participants believed false allegations to be infrequent (Gunby et al., 2013). Therefore a clear definition of what a false allegation of rape is, is vital if we are to accurately depict the prevalence of false allegations (Hunt et

al.).
Much previous research into false allegations of rape suffers methodological issues due to there being a difference of opinion over what researchers and criminal justice professionals consider being a false allegation (Hunt et al., 2012), therefore the place of this article in the wider debate is very important as it is one of the few articles to truly differentiate between false allegations that are made out of malicious intent (false complaints) and those that are considered false as there are discrepancies in the complainants account of the event (false accounts).
Where this article succeeds is in that it attempts to give a clear definition of ‘false allegation’ in order to improve further research into the area and so that the true numbers of false allegations may be revealed.
I found this article to be persuasive as it appears to be a common conception among criminal justice professionals and the public that there are reasonably high rates of false allegations of rape made by women, whether the intent behind this be malicious or out of desperation. However this is down to the numbers of false complaints and false accounts being mixed together due to the lack of a clear definition. And so Saunders distinction between false complaints and false accounts is convincing as it explains how researchers can have such a low figure of false reports and how criminal justice professionals can have a much higher figure. The conclusions drawn by Saunders, that the disparity between the estimates of researchers’ and professionals’ may be more apparent than it is real (Saunders, 2012), is also persuasive as when police and prosecutors were interviewed it was found that they reported that it was rare that a complainant would claim to have been raped when in fact they had not. And so it seems that Saunders is correct in stating that researchers and police are talking at cross-purposes as they appear to agree on this, yet find very different results.