False accusation of rape

A false accusation of rape is the act of claiming that someone has been raped when the rape has never happened.^[1]

Scholars say that there are two reasons for why someone makes a false accusation of rape: deliberate deception (lies) and non-deliberate deception. Non-deliberate deception can be caused by false memories, facilitated communication, or no good reasons at all.^[2]

Scholars say that those who lie about getting raped may do it for

• producing an alibi^[3]
• taking revenge on someone^[3]
• getting sympathy or attention^[3]

However, mental illnesses may also make someone raise false accusations of rape.^[4][5]

Further research shows that false accusations of rape can be a result of false memories. False memories can be caused by

• the victim confusing the memory of the rapist with the memory of someone else^[6]
• Recovered-memory therapy: memories of sexual abuse created during a therapy^[6]
• Memory conformity: the victim confusing his or her memory with that of other witnesses^[6]

It is hard to know how often false accusations of rape happen.^[7] Few jurisdictions specifically define false accusations of rape.^[8] Accusations for which no evidence could be found were often classified as "unfounded" or "unproven".^[8]

As per the Statistics Canada, 19% and 14% of sexual abuse claims were ruled as "unfounded" in 2016 and 2017 respectively.^[9]

Claire E. Ferguson and John M. Malouff did a meta-analysis of confirmed false rape reporting rates.^[10] They found the rate of false reports of sexual assault to be 5.2%.^[10]

In 1895, Ida B. Wells published The Red Record to document lynchings between 1892 and 1895. Of the 241 lynchings she documented, suspected rape and murder were the two most common excuses for lynchings. Wells found that many victims of lynching had been falsely accused of rape.^[11][12]

In other cases, Black American men were lynched in public after they were found to be dating White women.^[11][12] In Louisiana, suspected rape was the second most common excuse for lynchings between 1889 and 1896. In a 1930s survey of a Mississippi town, 60% of respondents believed that lynching was appropriate towards those accused of raping White women,^[13] regardless of truth.^[13] There are many notable cases of mass murder being caused by false accusations of rape in the Jim Crow era (1877 ‒ 1964).^[14]

In the 1921 Tulsa race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, White supremacists killed between 75 and 300 residents, mostly Black Americans, and injured 800 more. The massacre began over a false accusation that a 19-year-old Black shoeshiner had attempted to rape a 21-year-old White elevator operator.^[15][16]

The 1923 Rosewood massacre began after a White woman in nearby Sumner accused a Black man from Rosewood of attacking her.^[17] Rumors of her getting raped spread like wildfire.^[17] A White supremacist mob attacked Rosewood,^[17] which had a high proportion of Black residents,^[17] causing large parts of Rosewood to be burned down.^[17] As many as 150 Black residents are estimated to have been killed.^[17]

For someone falsely accusing someone else of rape, he or she can be charged with "perverting the course of justice" or "wasting police time" under section 5(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1967.^[18] The law applies to any of the following situations:

• It is suggested that the accusation is false^[18]
• The accuser has retracted his or her accusation^[18]
• The accuser has withdrawn his or her retraction,^[18] also known as double retraction^[18]

In March 2023, Eleanor Williams, a woman from Cumbria, England, was sentenced to 8.5 years in jail for falsely accusing multiple men of rape and trafficking her.^[19] Some of her victims spent time in jail, when they were not supposed to, due to her false accusations,^[19] causing the judge to give her a heavy sentence.^[19]