What would motivate a woman to make a false claim that she had been raped?

Question

How common is it? I can see three possible scenarios:

1. She is trying to extort money from a wealthy guy.
In this case, the charge might never become known.

2. She just doesn't like the person for some reason and is choosing this method to damage the person.

3. A young girl who becomes pregnant might claim rape to avoid admitting that she had engaged in consensual sex.

Answer 1

Well really there are as many different reasons as there are people who give them. Some girls might indeed claim rape because they are ashamed or afraid to tell their families - note that their fear is sometimes justified. Some people are just spiteful or want attention, or they might want the person investigated for other reasons, which would certainly happen if he was accused of rape.

Secondly, some girls might have actually been raped and proceed to blame a person that didn't commit the crime, either because he looks similar to the rapist or because he was nearby. Traumatized people can have fuzzy memories, and there have been cases of police leading a rape victim to blame someone based on circumstantial evidence when in fact it is not the man who raped her.

On yet another front, some girls might really believe they were raped because they were drunk or high and cannot remember whether or not they gave consent.

There are an infinite number of reasons why a woman might accuse a man of rape, regardless of whether the crime actually took place, because the brain is hardwired to rationalize our thoughts, no matter how near they are to the truth.

On a more interesting note, what leads men to falsely accuse women of rape? It's not as prevalent, but it does happen.

Answer 2

Heres another one. The girl is a sociopath who is obsessed with a guy, and when she finds that he isn't interested in her, she becomes vindictive. She accuses him of rape, claiming the rape took place 2 or 3 months ago, and that she has finally gotten the courage to come foward. She uses her skills as a sociopath, (manipulating people with extremely conviincing lies. ) to make everyone hate the guy. She uses this as a punishment against him for not showing her the love she felt she deserved.
There was a case that made national news a few years ago. The girl was underaged, and the sheriffs daughter. The guy was 19. At the time the prevalent idea was that men always think with their reproductive organs and that a girl would never lie about rape. The guy got 10 years and used up all his appeals for a retrial, before the girl admitted that she had lied, because he would not have sex with her.

Answer 3

First of all, who is stating the woman's claims are false.........
Unless you were there, saw the entire incident happen - then you have no idea what really happened.
Rape is a very touchy topic. In the past, it was automatically assumed the female was 'asking for it', all claims were swept under the rug and the female was chastised for making such accusations.
When rape cases did go to trial; she was 'hammered' by the lawyers, her testimony was basically discredited and the criminal walked with a big smile on his face. This same female would return to school and made so much fun of until she got to the point of dropping out of school. Again, the criminal goes around bragging and feels no remorse for what he's done; physically and mentally to the female.
Males need to remember this; when a female says 'NO' - they need to listen and immediately STOP!
The only reason I see a young girl claiming rape, when it was actually consensual - she's embarrassed and afraid to tell her parents.

Answer 4

Some people do falsely report crimes. I find it difficult to understand why anyone would do it, but a very small proportion of reported crimes are false allegations. Apparently rape is no higher than the percentage of false allegations for other crimes. My intuition is that it should be lower, since rape allegations often result in a total character assassination of the victim in court, and is also a very embarrassing crime to admit to (a friend of mine confessed that she had brought a case to court where she had been sexually assaulted, but it remained unproven - she almost threatened me by pain of death if I ever told anyone about it). I suspect for the tiny percentage of false allegations are either that they are mentally ill and have a weird fixation, that they were bribed by the media (thinking about the Hamilton's), or they are part of a wider plot motivated by financial greed or something. It is all very unlikely. The rape myths are rampant right now though!

Answer 5

I think your scenarios happen more than we know about. I think it's a terrible thing to do to charge someone with false rape. I think you are right with your scenarios and then there's always that 15 minutes of fame like the girl who charged the Duke LaCrosse players. There are some sick people in this world who don't care about anyone but themselves.

Answer 6

A girl charged a guy I know with sexual assault, because she had been cheating on her boyfriend and got an STD, and needed a reason
She was charged in return for defamation of character