Today is International Falsely Accused Day.
False accusations can destroy reputations, careers, families, relationships—and sometimes lives. Yet remarkably few people seem willing even to acknowledge the problem.
Studies of sexual-assault reports commonly place demonstrably false reports between 2% and 10%, with one frequently cited study finding 5.9%. But those figures tell us far less than most people assume. They count only allegations that investigators could positively establish as false. They do not tell us how many unresolved, unsubstantiated, mistaken, contaminated, or partially fabricated allegations may also have been wrongful.
Even the lowest estimates represent real human beings whose lives can be permanently altered by something that never happened. They deserve our concern too.
My recent conversation with Janice Fiamengo and Dr. Felicity Goodyear-Smith examines what the numbers leave out—and why definitions matter so much:
False Allegations: What the Numbers Don’t Tell Us
other resources:
If it happens to you Centre for Male Psychology
The impact of False Allegations Centre for Male Psychology
Men are good!
Thanks, Tom, for your service. If there is any man whose appearance alone shows he is a good man, you are the epitome of that man
The FBI has long reported that claims of sexual harassment and assault are the least reliable of all reported crimes....suggesting the problem we should be addressing in the name of justice is the misuse of accusations...not trying to protect accusers comfort and anonymity at the expense of the accused.
Title IX reports from universities that actually get brought to the courts find that 2 in 3 lack the evidence for any sanctions against the accused. Given the presumption of innocence, these cases must be treated as FALSE accusations. Since most people who are accused lack the resources to defend against such accusations in court, we must assume that false accusations overall are likely to be at least this common if not more so. Clearly the 2% number cited by feminists is an attempt to deny that women, more often than not, are misusing the accusation mechanism as a form of relational aggression. Such accusations that are not brought to a court of law observing due process rights should be summarily dismissed with prejudice as false accusations as would occur when police violate the rights of the accused and have any evidence they have gathered in that form dismissed as tainted.
It is long since time that courts open the records of all Title IX offices and the equivalent law enforcement agencies to allow a full evaluation of the claims involved...removing anonymity protections for all accusers, witnesses and advocates so that their truthfulness and history can be reviewed. Any Title IX or agency office found to have violated the rights of any accused person should be shut down permanently.