False rape has real victims, too, #FtB folks

Note: This post will be updated from time to time, to note some specific claims.

Is Julian Assange the victim of a false rape claim, possibly over politics? Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn, very possibly over money?

I don't know. But, because rape is a serious crime, so are false rape claims.

And, sometimes, it may be over an even more ludicrous reason: fame.

Here's another false rape claim, admitted to by the false claimant, a former New York City TV weatherwoman Heidi Jones. Sad. And a reminder that while rape is a serious crime ... for that very reason, so is a false rape claim. Especially when driven by possible attempts to reclaim fame (this case?) for money (possibly in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case?) or for political or other motives (just barely possible in the Assange case?).

And, another!

Once again, college people, too much drinking, some sort of sexual activity, problematic memory, and a rape claim that didn't play out, at least against the person in the spotlight. Once again, social justice warriors, maybe start your focus on ... alcohol? And, as for motive? SJW folks, this one's clear on at least a possible motive. Monetary payout from a presumed first-round NFL draft pick.

As for false accusations in general, whatever the motive? They happen. I'm not saying they happen often, but they clearly happen. Per the headline, need I remind you of the Duke lacrosse team?

Or, maybe they DO happen kind of often. And, for all the reasons above and more. More below the fold, with details on how about one-quarter of claims don't pan out (U.S.) and almost 10 percent are deliberately false (U.K.) More below the fold.


As for allegations that may be made that false rape claims are inflated, that many such claims aren't false because women withdraw their charges under male pressure, etc., and that a "men's rights" movement is engaged in blowback? In the Duke lacrosse case, then-DA Mike Wilfong was generally, and apparently rightly, seen as using the case as a potential election springboard. In the link above, it seems clear, if you go to the blogger's "about" page, he has no such men's right movement connection. Wiikipedia also reminded me of Tawana Brawley, an excellent comparison here, since she was exploited by more powerful people like Revvvvvvv. Al Sharpton for their own socio-political ends.

And, per Peter Neufeld and Barry C. Scheck, prominent criminal attorneys and co-founders of the Innocence Project, about one in four rape claims referred to the FBI don't pan out. Now, does that mean all of them are deliberately false? No. We need to distinguish between cases that won't stand up in court (like, perhaps, the Strauss-Kahn one) and deliberately false ones (although the DSK case may fit there instead). Interestingly, the unsubstantiable allegations have a strong age bias, being most common among the young, namely 16-25. I'd suspect, as with the Duke lacrosse case, drugs or alcohol are often involved. So, there, we have memory issues, intoxication issues, and embarassment/social standing issues, especially in the Facebook era.

And, per what I just mentioned in the paragraph above? Sometimes, that motive is revenge, or even sociopathy. The Duke lacross false claimer has now been found guilty of second-degree murder. She claims the relationship was abusive. But, even if her volition was diminished by past life issues, she still had some power to leave. Per the first link, her story didn't add up. And, per this about her previous criminal history, sociopathy could well fit the bill.

So, no, social justice warriors, there's motivation for false rape claims.

And, social justice warriors, the alleged serial lying (and possible fraud) of apparent tip -receipt altering waitress Dayna Morales shows motive in other cases. Narcissism's a close cousin to sociopathy, among other things.

Here's more on higher percentages than the "social justice warriors" will admit, too:

Charles P. McDowell, a researcher in the United States Air Force Special Studies Division, studied the 1,218 reports of rape that were made between 1980 and 1984 on Air Force bases throughout the world (McDowell, 1985). Of those, 460 were found to be "proven" allegations either because the "overwhelming preponderance of the evidence" strongly supported the allegation or because there was a conviction in the case. Another 212 of the total reports were found to be "disproved" as the alleged victim convincingly admitted the complaint was a "hoax" at some point during the initial investigation. The researchers then investigated the 546 remaining or "unresolved" rape allegations including having the accusers submit to a polygraph. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of these complainants admitted they had fabricated their accusation just before taking the polygraph or right after they failed the test. (It should be noted that whenever there was any doubt, the unresolved case was re-classified as a "proven" rape.) Combining this 27% with the initial 212 "disproved" cases, it was determined that approximately 45% of the total rape allegations were false.

Oops.

Also, in the U.S. military, about 75 percent of BOTH men and women think false rape accusations are a problem.

I don't know how old Assange accuser Anna Ardin is, but her photographer friend mentioned in some stories is 26. And, given what we know about Assange, the involvement of at least alcohol wouldn't surprise me in the least. This was, apparently, after a party, and more drinking may have happened afterward.

Appearing to use "false" in the sense of willful claims, a British study puts false rape claims there at about 9 percent. That's lower than what was in the military, at least. But still problematic.

And, as for the claim that this is lower than for other crimes, well, probably not.

In discussing "unfounded" criminal claims, which Wikipedia says is different than "false" claims, the FBI says that for rape, it's 8 percent, but in general, it's only 2 percent.

FBI reports from 1996 consistently put the number of "unfounded" rape accusations around 8%. In contrast, the average rate of unfounded reports for "Index crimes" tracked by the FBI is 2%.

That said, per a comment there, this probably doesn't mean much. But, as this is the same article I linked above about the Air Force study, author Bruce Gross likely doesn't consider it totally meaningless, either. Gross does look at various possible motivations for false accusations, too.

The Atheism Plusers at Freethought Blogs, etc. have tried in the past to spin and spin and spin this one. And, they're wrong. Here's one ... from a person who's made false accusations about me and my online activity, named below.. I won't waste the time to further counteract her claims, when all the links above have already done so.

Speaking of, to 'lift" from an earlier blog post on this subject, namely, the charges against Assange ...

 Australian website Crikey, if not 100 percent right, is pointed in the right direction against at least a certain subgroup of gender feminists such as Stephanie Zvan (and, in her case, the "husband" or "helicopter child" Greg Laden, depending on whether you see her more as "wife" or "helicopter mom" to him) on this issue.

These moves are evidence of the situation your correspondent suggested in Crikey yesterday — that the Assange case is proving to be the final process by which the second-wave feminist coalition formed in the late 1960s splits substantially, with feminists with differing attitude to Western state power finding themselves on different sides of the debate.

Given that this certain subgroup of gender feminists appears intent on making the apparent but not necessarily actual charges against Assange, and absolute support of them, a litmus or purity test, yes, it could well split feminists — especially if one of the two original complainants has backed off.

And, while Laden claims that he does think the U.S. government is out to get Assange, he also, judging by his animus against Assange, might not necessarily think that's bad.

And, yes, with both their names in the body of this, and in the labels, I'm waiting to see how long it takes one or the other of Zvan/Laden to respond. In fact, if you're a gender feminist, I would think you'd want to be tougher on false rape claims than anybody short of "men's rights activists." It's a "PR" issue.

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Meanwhile, more false rape claims continue to happen. And ones I hear about, I'm going to post on occasion.

Nov. 20, 2013: Greater Austin, Texas, a claim of kidnapping and sexual assault. Per the story, in this case, it's not the first time the false claimant has done something in this general vein. How was the fraud found out? Cell phone tracing. So, in the modern world, technology can track real crimes ... and it can also expose false crime claims.

March 4, 2014: A transgender high school student admits fabricating a school rape claim, and apparently was the aggressor in a previous fight, although support groups claim it's not the student's fault.

And, this doesn't include other "fake discrimination" lying that gets done.