'Why Would a Woman Lie?'

The National Organization for Women, radical feminists and Women's Studies departments often deny that women make false accusations about rape by asking the naive, simplistic and self-serving question, 'Why would a woman lie?' It turns out that there are plenty of reasons women lie about rape, either deliberately or out of desperation.

Women Asked Why They Make False Rape Allegations

A U.S. Air Force study, The False Rape Allegation in the Military Community (1983), investigated 556 cases of alleged rape, and found a 60% rate of false rape accusations. As part of the study, women who were found to have made false accusations were asked 'Why?'

Motivations Given by the Women Who Acknowledged They Had Made False Accusations of Rape

Reason Percent
Spite or Revenge 20%
To compensate for feelings of guilt or shame 20%
Thought she might be pregnant 13%
To conceal an affair 12%
To test husband's love 9%
Mental/emotional disorder 9%
To avoid personal responsibility 4%
Failure to pay, or extortion 4%
Thought she might have caught VD 3%
Other 6%

Total 100%

The study found that most false accusations are 'instrumental' -- they serve a purpose. If the purpose isn't avoiding guilt or getting revenge, it might serve a more focused purpose, for example telling her parents 'I didn't just go out and get pregnant - I was raped'; or telling her husband 'I didn't have an affair; it wasn't my fault, I was raped.'

An unrelated Washington Post article, 'Unfounded Rape Reports Baffle Investigators' (6/27/1992) also found a wide range of motivations to falsely accuse men of rape. Anger towards boyfriends was common. One woman had her boyfriend spend 13 months in jail before she acknowledged that she lied. One woman accused her newspaper delivery man of raping her at gunpoint because she needed an excuse to be late to work. Neither woman was prosecuted or even reprimanded for lying to the police and attempting to have a man frivolously imprisoned.

Same Jail Sentence for False Accuser

Women who are found to have made a false sexual assault complaint should receive the same jail sentence as the male victim would have received if he had been convicted. That will put the brakes on fake rape.

Pastor Kenneth Deemer
Director Shattered Men
P.O. BOX 166
MARION INDIANA 46952-0166
e-mail: shatteredmen@earthlink.net

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