When it comes to sexual assault terminology, experts often consider victims to be individuals who endure the trauma of rape, but in some cases there are others who can feel victimized—those who are falsely accused.
Pierce Harlan, a corporate lawyer in Pennsylvania, has been working as an advocate for the falsely accused since defending a friend in court. He authors a blog titled ""The False Rape Society."" The site includes an extensive amount of news articles and personal stories about men who have been wrongly accused of rape.
According to Harlan, many people do not talk about false sexual assault claims because they are overpowered by ""politics.""
""The whole field has become so politicized that we've lost track of victims,"" he said. ""We're talking about ideology here and not real victims. Why can't we talk about rape victims and false rape victims without bringing gender, politics into the whole thing?"" Harlan said in an interview.
Harlan said false defendants of sexual assaults are just as likely as the accuser to feel victimized.
""Guys have been beaten, they've been killed, they've killed themselves, they've been fired from their jobs, they've lost their businesses, they've lost their wives, their girlfriends … on the basis of an allegation,"" he said regarding instances where a man was accused.
Kelly Anderson, the director of the Dane County Rape Crisis Center, said men could also be raped, although the number is significantly lower. Anderson said she thinks false sexual assault reports are an understandable crime to be concerned about, but said people often misuse the phrase, ""false claims"" to represent unfounded claims.
""A false report is when someone says, ‘I was raped,' and it's demonstrably untrue,"" she said. ""Unfounded cases are where the chances are really good that something did happen, but [the Department of Justice] is not going to be able to prove it.""
Estimates for the percentage of false reports range from 2 to 8 percent around the nation, according to the National Center for the Prosecution of Violence Against Women. Harlan said he thinks false claims are much higher.
According to the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review article ""The Truth Behind Legal Dominance Feminism's ‘Two Percent False Rape Claim' Figure,"" measuring false allegations is difficult because policies on unfounded criminal complaints ""differ from one jurisdiction to another.""
Harlan said there are three prominent reasons the victim could lie about an assault.
""The most prominent is to avoid getting in trouble ... there's a small group that are for revenge—those are the scariest. And then there's a small group … just really troubled people making up claims,"" he said.
Joel DeSpain, public information officer for the Madison Police Department, said an assigned detective thoroughly questions victims of sexual assault about the incident to gather all the necessary information to conduct and investigation.
""Law enforcement does not unquestionably accept whatever a victim tells them. The issue is not that you go in and you say you were raped and they run out and arrest the guy right away,"" Anderson said.
The December 2008 issue of the Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association states if the accuser retracts his or her claim of being raped, the defendant may still experience reputation damage. Outsiders may think the retraction was ""pressured"" or illegitimate. However, Anderson said the sensitivity of the subject is the reason for excessive disbelief, not excessive lying.
""That fear and that sense of vulnerability makes people really resistant to believe reports that do come forward, even though there's no more reason to disbelieve someone who says they were raped than someone who says that they were mugged or car-jacked,"" she said.
According to Anderson, Meriter Hospital's sexual assault nurse examiner, test results do not always clarify uncertainties about sexual assault incidents.
""If [a report occurs] within the period of evidence collection, which is about 72 to 96 hours ideally, then you could get, potentially, some evidence,"" Anderson said. ""But, again, in most cases the question is not whether or not a sex act occurred, the question is whether or not is was consensual.""
