If a woman accuses a man of rape, and then asks for the charges to be dropped, has she commited an offence?

Question

There is no way a charge of 'rape' can be settled out of court. You are mixing up criminal law and civil law.

Answer 1

the answer is a definite NO! if taken purely on those facts, because dropping charges is not illegal and pressing charges is also not illegal.

the reason for dropping charges is what bears the potential for prosecution because it determines whether she broke the law or not.

If the whole experience is too traumatic, or something else happens in her life to make attending court & all that impossible or meaningless, if it's been settled out of court... all these reasons are would mean that she can drop the charges without deserving a reprimand or other for of prosecution for it

of course anything that falls into the category of 'defamation of character' can be included but get this: you can't sue for this if you're just anybody. you have to have the 'character' in the first place to sue for its defamation because 'character' has more nuanced connotations and assumptions if used in court... like for example the phrase 'best effort' which is just 'will try hard in layman's terms but in legal terminology it means ''will obcess tirelessly until desired result is achieved or proof of why the attempt is impossible is given" or something like that...

so flatly no she hasn't committed an offence if she drops the charges in those circumstances but it's likely that there will be a few people who will be very miffed, she'll have spent her money, but he will get away & despite his guilt or innocense ...

hope this is helpful.

ps. if you need to know any aspect of the law, it's all published just search for any part of it you want (I don't know whereyou live so can't give links but you should know tha tthe law as it stands is all published for whoever is interested and you'll find it all on the net.)

Answer 2

Probably not. The only way that she would be charged with an offense is if there is some evidence that she purposely lied about the underlying incident. If there was some indication that she really had just made everything up and nothing ever happened, then she could be charged because she wasted police time and resources. She could also be sued in a civil court for defamation of character. But if she has a legitimate claim but drops the charges because she doesn't want to go through with the prosecution (which is not uncommon) she won't be charged.

(Also, rape can be settled "outside of court" if the defendant agrees to a plea bargain offered by the prosecution. Many criminal defendants are given such offers because if every case had to actually go to court for a full trial the system would be so much more overburdened than it already is.)

Answer 3

People make charges out against someone all the time and you'd be surprised how many of the accused bonds are paid by the ones that made the charges!
You can tell the clerk and judge you want to drop the charge but its up to the court to decide ....they may or may not let the charge go if they have sufficient evidence the person is guilty. Sheriffs can file the charges for a victim in some cases.

Answer 4

Rape is a criminal offence and so once this crime has been reported to the police the person who reported it (even if they claim to be the victim of the crime) has no say in whether or not the case is dropped - that is up to the police.

The woman reporting the rape can change her evidence (as given to the police) but the police can choose to ignore that change if they see fit.

If its is established that the woman fabricated evidence and made a false accusation then she could be charged with waisting police time.

Answer 5

If she drops the charges out of fear of retribution, No. But if it is because she changed her mind, then Yes! A woman knows the difference between sexual consent and rape and any woman/girl found to be lying for revenge or other reasons should be found guilty under some criminal law. How many men have had their lives ruined by women calling rape and then thinking - hang on, I changed my mind. Silly little girls-makes me mad.

Answer 6

First, just because she asks that the charges be dropped does not mean that they will be. It is the government which decides whether or not to prosecute crimes, not those who may be identified as "victims." Second, however, if she says that she wants the charges dropped because she lied, she is probably admitting that she made a false police report. If she says she wants them dropped because she has reconciled with the "rapist," but does not deny that the incident happened, she has committed no offense (but, again, it is less likely that the State will agree not to prosecute).

Answer 7

Unless she has made a false allegation, she does not commit any offence by withdrawing a criminal complaint. She will be asked why she wants to withdraw the allegation and will have to make a retraction statement to the police.

If later on she makes the same allegation it may harm the credibility of her evidence if the case gets to court.

Answer 8

No, not if she drops the charges because the trial is not worth it (too painful, too long, etc). In theory, if she admitted she filed false charges (extremely rare, rape has the lowest rate of false reports), the state could prosecute her, but that takes a lot of resources and time. They don't typically prosecute much of anyone for that, regardless of the crime, and it happens more with burglary and robbery charges than rape. (check the DOJ crime stats).

Answer 9

If you've been accused of rape and even if the accuser drops the charges, the stigma sticks for ever and no father for sure would like you hanging around his neighbourhood if he's got a daughter.

Hence I believe the accuser would have to pay for the character assassination and irreparable damage.

Answer 10

No. If the allegation is found to be demonstrably false..then the accuser could be found to have wasted police time.

Any matters arising in terms of defamation or slander are matters for the civil courts and are only actionable by the individuals concerned.