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A problem can be serious without being wide-spread, and this is a great example -- false accusations (of any crime), though rare, sow the seeds of doubt in the

A problem can be serious without being wide-spread, and this is a great example -- false accusations (of any crime), though rare, sow the seeds of doubt in the testimony of every accuser. Every widely publicized false accusation (Duke lacrosse rape, etc) causes hundreds or perhaps even thousands of real rapists to go free and rape more people, since jurors take the possibility of a false accusation as "reasonable doubt." As with any crime, the evidentiary standard is "beyond a reasonable doubt" -- to convict someone for false testimony, you would need to conclusively prove that they did so willfully. This is already the law, the crime is called perjury -- it's just that the punishments are so mild that they are not serious deterrents. Imagine if making willfully false allegations of a crime was punished by twice the prison sentence of the crime being accused -- I bet one VC wouldn't try to poke another in the eye with a false sexual harassment blog post.

vkou 9y ago
> A problem can be serious without being wide-spread Rape and sexual harassment are problems that are both serious, and incredibly wide-spread. They are also under-reported and under-prosecuted, and even when they are, well, that young gentleman is such a good athlete, and has such a bright future, we can't destroy his life over something minor like that. You could also bet that actual rape victims would not come forward. Why the would they, if they could end up in jail, if the case against their rapist falls apart for any one of a million reasons.
- deleted 9y ago
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- devnonymous 9y ago
  >> A problem can be serious without being wide-spread > Rape and sexual harassment are problems that are both serious, and incredibly wide-spread Are you being intentionally obtuse or just didn't read the comment before replying? Giving you the benefit of doubt in case you were wondering about the down votes, the parent was talking about false claims of rape/harassment being less widespread.
- int_19h 9y ago
  > You could also bet that actual rape victims would not come forward. Why the would they, if they could end up in jail, if the case against their rapist falls apart for any one of a million reasons. OP was saying that you should go to jail if you manufacture a rape accusation, and that is proven to the usual standards of the criminal trial (i.e. "beyond a reasonable doubt"), not if the case against rapist falls apart for any random reason.
- hdhdbebbbdhdvd 9y ago
  Yes, rape and sexual harassment are serious problems, and false accusations of these crimes, in particular, where forensic evidence is rare, literally increases the number of rapes by allowing rapists to avoid jail.
Melchizedek 9y ago
Why do you assume false rape accusations are rare? They seem to be fairly common: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_accusation_of_rape#Rumney_.282006.29 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_accusation_of_rape#Rum...
philh 9y ago
> Every widely publicized false accusation (Duke lacrosse rape, etc) causes hundreds or perhaps even thousands of real rapists to go free and rape more people This seems like almost certainly an exaggeration, and I think an unhelpful one.

vkou 9y ago

> A problem can be serious without being wide-spread Rape and sexual harassment are problems that are both serious, and incredibly wide-spread. They are also under-reported and under-prosecuted, and even when they are, well, that young gentleman is such a good athlete, and has such a bright future, we can't destroy his life over something minor like that. You could also bet that actual rape victims would not come forward. Why the would they, if they could end up in jail, if the case against their rapist falls apart for any one of a million reasons.

deleted 9y ago
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devnonymous 9y ago
>> A problem can be serious without being wide-spread > Rape and sexual harassment are problems that are both serious, and incredibly wide-spread Are you being intentionally obtuse or just didn't read the comment before replying? Giving you the benefit of doubt in case you were wondering about the down votes, the parent was talking about false claims of rape/harassment being less widespread.
int_19h 9y ago
> You could also bet that actual rape victims would not come forward. Why the would they, if they could end up in jail, if the case against their rapist falls apart for any one of a million reasons. OP was saying that you should go to jail if you manufacture a rape accusation, and that is proven to the usual standards of the criminal trial (i.e. "beyond a reasonable doubt"), not if the case against rapist falls apart for any random reason.
hdhdbebbbdhdvd 9y ago
Yes, rape and sexual harassment are serious problems, and false accusations of these crimes, in particular, where forensic evidence is rare, literally increases the number of rapes by allowing rapists to avoid jail.

Melchizedek 9y ago

Why do you assume false rape accusations are rare? They seem to be fairly common: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_accusation_of_rape#Rumney_.282006.29 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_accusation_of_rape#Rum...

philh 9y ago

> Every widely publicized false accusation (Duke lacrosse rape, etc) causes hundreds or perhaps even thousands of real rapists to go free and rape more people This seems like almost certainly an exaggeration, and I think an unhelpful one.