[Oliver_W]

People like Carl Beech, Jussie Smollett, and even "Mattress Girl" not only waste a lot police time and money, they irreparably smear the names of the people they falsely accuse in the case of sexual assault claims. Even when their names are cleared, it's the kind of stink which doesn't wash off.

Do you think a new law should be put in place where provably false claimants receive the punishment their victim would have got?

n.b. provably false and unproven "truths" are different, and should be treated as such.

[Kate!]

They should certainly receive some sort of punishment.

[joeysteele]

I'd haul anyone into the courts for making any inferences or accusations of serious issues such as violence, abuse, any racism or even theft.

They are dangerous accusations and the people making them can destroy lives and careers.
I'd haul them into court and would look to long custodial sentencing.

Anyone throwing dangerous inferences and accusations at others, are really low individuals.
In my view.

[Livia]

Take away their freedom. That's what they've tried to do to someone else. And make it a substantial sentence.

[Dogeatdog]

They should be sentenced or some sort of other punishment needs to be implemented. That police time and money could’ve gone to a more serious case but is instead being wasted on people like this.

These sort of accusations can ruin people’s lives and the people that make these false accusations are really nasty people.

[Firewire]

What should we do to people who actually abuse people but aren’t punished for it?

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Firewire

What should we do to people who actually abuse people but aren’t punished for it?

Feel free to start a thread on that subject

[Denver]

Didnt Carl Beech just get like 20 years or something?

[Crimson Dynamo]

Originally Posted by Firewire

What should we do to people who actually abuse people but aren’t punished for it?

do you know any?

[user104658]

In principle, yes, there should be consequences. However we're not anywhere close to having a perfect system and even the possibility of mistakes being made would put countless people off of reporting a real crime, so it gets very complicated.

[Mitchell]

If there’s solid evidence that they lied, prosecution

But if there simply not enough evidence to charge the supposed attacker, then that’s dangerous territory as it encourages people not to come forward if they get attacked, in case they’re sent to prison for it?

[Tom4784]

False claims are pretty damn rare but difficult to prove most of the time so any legislation will likely deter people from coming forward who have genuine cases. When it comes to sexual abuse, victims suffer enough through the legal process, opening up an avenue where they can not only be painted as liars but potentially face charges if the circumstances don't work out for them wouldn't work and there's no way of reasonably safeguarding victims from the accusation of a false claim.

I can't see a way in which such legislation wouldn't affect genuine victims and potentially open them up to more pain.

[Liam-]

If it can be proven beyond a doubt that a person is lying about something, like cctv to prove someone couldn’t have done something at the time accused, then there should definitely be consequences, for a start the accuser shouldn’t be allowed to keep anonymity imo, they should be named and shamed, if not only to protect anyone else from getting involved with them and risking being in the same situation, it’s a rare occurance but when it does happen, it should be punishable, because right now people can do it and get away with it and not face any form of reprocussion from it and that’s disgraceful.

[Oliver_W]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

False claims are pretty damn rare but difficult to prove most of the time so any legislation will likely deter people from coming forward who have genuine cases. When it comes to sexual abuse, victims suffer enough through the legal process, opening up an avenue where they can not only be painted as liars but potentially face charges if the circumstances don't work out for them wouldn't work and there's no way of reasonably safeguarding victims from the accusation of a false claim.

I can't see a way in which such legislation wouldn't affect genuine victims and potentially open them up to more pain.

And that's why I said there should be clear distinctions between provably false and an unprovable claim.

[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

And that's why I said there should be clear distinctions between provably false and an unprovable claim.

And that's a naive distinction because laws like that will inevitably be abused.

The way we handle rape cases in this country is terrible, there's a low conviction rape already and we treat rape victims awfully to begin with. If you add ANOTHER layer of distrust onto that with laws like this, the conviction and even the charge rate of these crimes will go down further.

False claims are very rare and I'd rather they focus on reform that benefits the scores of genuine victims before they rush to add laws to a broken system that will inevitably make it harder for victims.