|
By some estimates, more than half of women and nearly a third of men in the U.S. will experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetimes. Most of those crimes go unreported. Of the cases that make it to law enforcement, the least likely outcome is an arrest of a perpetrator. The vast majority of complaints end with no trial, no conviction and, for victims, no closure.
But sometimes there’s another outcome. The victim becomes the suspect, accused of lying to police and charged with false reporting.
To understand the scope of the problem, we've spent the past five years digging into cases where someone who reported a sexual assault faced criminal charges themselves: A 12-year-old was charged with making up a rape by a family member, only to prove her innocence later when the same man raped her again – and she recorded the assault. College students told by police they weren't raped, buckling under psychological manipulation and backtracking their statements. A young woman told that surveillance footage disproved her entire account, confusing her and causing her to question her sanity.
“Between the way that the police treated me and the assault itself, the police treatment has definitely hit me harder,” said Emma Mannion, who was charged with false reporting in Alabama in 2016. “Half of my nightmares are of the assault. And the other half is court.”
|
