Attached is a story about a girl that lied about being raped. My question is; should the people that lie about rape be punished just as harshly as if an actual rape had occurred?
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ANSWERS: 25
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I think so. Rape is probably just behind paedophilia as the worst thing that a man can be accused of, and even when the truth comes out they have usually still had to put up with months of abuse, stress, and possible jail time on remand. It also makes it harder sometimes for those who have genuinely been raped to have their story believed.
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Yes, the courts should impose the same sentence in all cases where a person makes a similar false statement - whether it refers to rape, robbery or anything else.
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She should definitely not go unpunished, so many men have been ruined for the rest of their lives after false accusations of rape, this girl needs to be made aware of just what she has done to four lives.
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YES...YES...YES!!!, same goal(jail) time as what the accused would have gotten
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Remember Twanny Brawley and the bullshit that she did...Al Sharpten that other ass who knew she lied and continued all this bullshit..
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yes. so that they will know what they are talking about.
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This type of stuff should be a felony and punishable by 20 years.She should have to repay every dime the men had to pay for legal fees,and any other losses they might have.
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No. There are charges that can be brought against them though. It's up to the police and DA. The accused might have a civil claim against the person who falsely reported the rape.
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Punishment yes but not that harsh
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Maybe not the same sentence, but it should be harsh enough to stop others from falsely accusing someone, what about the girl who picks the wrong guy out of a lineup, should she get the same punishment? I dont think a preson that is accused of rape, should be crucified before the media, until all the facts have been brought out, its the media who destroys there lives just as much as the false accuser. -
Blimey a serious Payton question!!! You OK mate? In all honesty I think to lie about something as abhorrent as rape, let alone gang rape, indicates that the "lady" in question is a few sandwiches short of a picnic! Nobody in their right mind would make up such a story. However, it is odd that the report says the act was consensual whislt the guy says he doesn't even know her! So perhaps, just a slut with regrets? Anyway, I think a full psychiatric report should be enforced and then, if proven in full control of all her faculties, the woman should be severely punished. Not only has she ruined the reputation of these guys, scared other women at the Uni shitless and cost god knows how much in police time and resources, but she has potentially made it that much more difficult for a true rape victim to come forwards. Throw the book at her!
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This is "falsely reporting an incident" which carries it's own punishment (but I don't know exactly what it is, though).
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I think it is fantasizing that makes youngsters do the lying. They lie about things as serious as rape without being fully aware of the implications of their accusations. They should be given psychiatric treatment as punishment so that they could start living in reality.
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Old time Chinese law provided for this: The Tang code included several articles on the subject (of punishment for false accusers). The basic provision of these articles was the imposition of "reciprocal" punishment, under which a false accuser suffered the very same punishment the accused would have suffered if the accusation had been true. The Ming code made the punishment for false accusation even more severe than those in the Tang code. For example, if the accusation concerned a crime that would normally have been punished by a light stick, the false accuser would receive that very punishment increased by two degrees of severity. If it was a punishment with the heavy stick, penal servitude or exile, it would be increased by three degrees of severity. The maximum penalty was one hundred blows of the heavy stick and exile to a distance of 3000 li (about a thousand miles) http://books.google.com/books?id=tVhvh6ibLJcC&pg=PA191&lpg=PA191&dq=punishment+false+accusers&source=web&ots=-KMyleI6F2&sig=2wmajj8ocTfSghXXKaUjLEe07H0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result#v=onepage&q=&f=false
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I beleive that she should be punished,if she got away with it she would have ruined more than the five mens lives,but their families as well.A person has to wonder what made her do it in the first place? ...looking for attention or something deeper
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Yes!
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Absolutely, if you lie and send some guy to prison for no reason you should be dealt with just as harshly.(prison is not a nice place, most people would be horrified about what goes on in there). How would you like to go to prison for nothing at all?
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Absolutely. Those Duke boys are still dragging their false accusations around.
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I totally agree with 'your sisters cute friend'. These guys had their pictures plastered all over the news without regard to the charges being true or not. Today 18 Sept 09, finally her picture was shown. There should be some harsh punishment here. This is not child's play.
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Great question. In most jurisdictions in the US, the penalties for making a deliberate false accusation of criminal wrongdoing are slim to none. People use false accusations of child abuse or rape to get back at ex marital partners akk the time. The poor guys in this case had to hire lawyers, prepare for a legal defense, sweat bullets that a jury might just believe the girl even though they knew she was lying. Then there is the damage to their reputations. Till the truth came out, even their wives or girlfriends may have believed they were guilty. You can well imagine how the rest of the community that only knew them casually would have changed their view of them. If the case is clear-cut like this one, there should be a serious penalty for someone trying to wrongly put people behind bars for many years, It needs to be a clear-cut case of false accusation. We don't want laws so loose that real rapists get away with their crime because the victim fears reprisals under false accusation laws. Lawmakers need to carefully think it through. But the law does need to change.
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She certainly deserves punishment. Civil action for compensation, certainly. I don't know what laws apply, but she deserves some jail time. The punishment should fit the crime. Morally, she deserves at least three days behind bars (since she recanted after such time), a large fine and similar pillorying in the press as the young men were subjected to. The press should give as many column inches to their vindication as the accusation, but I suspect they won't.
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I don't think a punishment akin to having committed rape is really the right answer, though it might be a good deterrent. Punishments, yes. Contempt, slander, etc. Fines and jail time, yes. Girls crying wolf can ruin people's lives and take away from the severity of real rape cases.
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She really needs some form of punishment. what she did could have wrecked several peoples lives if the DA had listened. she at least owesthem a very good old fashion im sorry!
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She should receive some sort of punishment, considering the fact that she tried to ruin the lives of those men. +4
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If is proven that they lied (as opposed to a mistake or just not enough evidence), they should get the same sentence and have to register as a sex offender.
Veronica 
Thriftymaid 
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