Rape is one of, if not, the most traumatic experiences people could go through. It can leave them with intense anxiety for a long period of time, insecurity, and severe trust issues. If you ask me if someone, who is truly guilty of rape upon another person, should be severely punished. I’d say yes. However, there are some people in this world who are devious enough to make a false claim that someone raped them. Now if you ask me if those people should be punished. I’d say absolutely. The reasons for people to make these claims could be for revenge, compensation, etc. Rape, as well as sexual assault, are taken extremely serious by legal authorities, but I think that false rape allegations should be taken just as serious. According to www.stuartmillersolicitors.co.uk, the average jail sentencing for rapists in 2022 is anywhere between 9 to 19 years. Think about it, that is a good portion of someone’s life gone. That’s time they could be spending with their family, time that they could be out in the world making a name for themselves, or time that they could be using trying to make a difference. Then, as time passes, the accuser comes clean and tells the authorities that the person in prison had nothing to do with anything that they said, because everything that they said wasn’t true. If there is something in this world that you cannot get back no matter how much money you have or how much you pray, it’s time, and for someone to lie and take a good amount of time away from another person’s life is undoubtably disgusting and inhumane, and they deserve a kind of punishment for it.
False rape accusers should also be incarcerated because for them to lie about the allegation, that means that they had to lie under oath during trial. No one is going to say that they are guilty of something if they are truly innocent, especially if the consequences of the accusation have no positives to it. If there is no confession about whether someone did rape another person, lab tests or an investigation will take place. No matter what the case is, if there is a court trial, the defendant and the plaintiff will both have to put their right hand on the Bible and swear to tell the truth. If the accuser confesses to authorities that the rape allegation was false, they’re basically telling them that they lied under oath. According to www.mylawquestions.com, lying under oath is called “perjury”. It’s a common crime in many court cases, and the penalties for perjury can vary from jurisdictions, but often includes imprisonment.
A unique example of a false rape allegation is the Central Park 5. In 1989, five African American teenagers were falsely accused and wrongfully convicted for raping a white female in Central Park, New York. After none of the evidence matched any of the five teenagers, and the person truly guilty of the case confessed, the Central Park 5 were freed, but no one turned their attention to the detectives that used racial discrimination and fear as a tactic to make the teenagers wrongfully confess. Even when the Central Park 5 came together in 2003 and sued the New York police department for racial discrimination, malicious prosecution, and emotional distress, it didn’t make national news like when they were first accused of the situation. False rape and sexual assault allegations ruin lives, and the only way to stop it is to punish the ones who make them.
