Commentary: We harp on false sexual assault accusations despite evidence to the contrary

SINGAPORE: The spectre of false sexual abuse accusations looms large in cultural narratives about sexual violence, with public anxiety about the ease and frequency of false reporting remaining high.

Although the evidence on false allegations has repeatedly failed to support that fear, many keep to rue that #MeToo's political dictum of "believe women" has gone too far.

Case in point: When a Singapore anaesthetist was acquitted of molesting a 32-twelvemonth-old adult female, later she admitted at trial that she was lying, commentators took to banging the drum, claiming that false allegations are widespread and that all sexual attack complaints - or gender equality movements, fifty-fifty - should be treated with scepticism.

"Women can be vile creatures too," a Twitter user tweeted at AWARE after news of the above case broke. "That is why I have never supported women's rights."

A comment on Facebook reads: "Singapore is a country whereby women have much higher condition than men and can always play victim to garner sympathy."

A LOT OF The states THINK MANY SEXUAL HARASSMENTS CLAIMS ARE False

In an Ipsos survey of 1,019 Singaporeans and PRs in 2019, four in 10 agreed with the statement that simulated accusations of sexual harassment are becoming more than common in Singapore. Twoscore-one per cent of all Singaporeans agreed or strongly agreed that false accusations of sexual harassment are a bigger problem in our society than unreported acts of sexual harassment.

Lest you write this off this as the bourgeois beliefs of an older population, the survey institute that this perspective is more prevalent among younger and middle-anile Singaporeans, anile 18 to 49 years.

On the other hand, under-reporting of sexual corruption remains pervasive. Seven out of 10 clients of Enlightened'southward Sexual Assault Intendance Eye (SACC) practise not file an official report.

Studies in the US have institute that anywhere between 6 per cent and 38 per cent of men acknowledge to sexually coercive behaviour. Yet it is rare to see proportionate uproar about the number of perpetrators who get away with sexual abuse.

Of course, "believe women" has never meant "believe all women categorically, no questions asked". But the knee-jerk dismissal with which women'due south stories have historically met needs to be put to bed.

And so what should we make of the burgeoning conviction surrounding false accusations? How do we answer those who would cite this recent case every bit show of a more widespread conspiracy?

FALSE ACCUSATIONS ARE EXCEEDINGLY RARE

Enquiry for the United Kingdom's Home Role in 2005 – believed to exist the most comprehensive study of its kind to date – suggests only 4 per cent of cases of sexual violence reported to the UK police are found or suspected to be false. (Of the 216 assault complaints classified as fake, simply six led to arrest, and only two led to actual charges.)

Studies in Europe and in the Us put these rates at betwixt 2 per cent and vi per cent.

In Singapore, according to the Ministry of Abode Diplomacy, of the 250 reported cases of serious sexual crimes (rape and sexual assault by penetration) a year from 2022 to 2018, police charged or warned the complainants for making fake reports in only 10 cases - comparable to the rate in the UK.

It's important to note that, although the two are oftentimes lumped together, these cases shouldn't be confused with cases that don't consequence in prosecution because of lack of evidence. In fact, experts suggest that the number of simulated reports may themselves exist inflated considering of the way crimes are sometimes classified effectually the globe.

In the Uk, for example, police sometimes tape cases as "no crime" or "unfounded" because of insufficient corroborating show. Every bit many types of sexual harassment - flashing, verbal harassment for example - occur without leaving whatever definitive evidence, one would wait this investigative upshot to be adequately common.

Even so this does not square with the deliberate, targeted deception that simulated accusers supposedly practice, as pop imagination would have it.

(How do videos and photos of innocent victims end up on disgusting illicit Telegram chats? CNA'southward Heart of the Thing dives into how 1 young woman infiltrated those groups and reached out to victims:)

Although this doesn't announced to exist a problem with the crime information in Singapore, the conflation of cases of false accusations and cases without sufficient bear witness continues to hold sway in public opinion. This confusion may be ane of the reasons why imitation accusations are perceived by the public equally much higher than they actually are.

Simulated ACCUSATIONS DON'T JUST HAPPEN IN CASES OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

There's no evidence that the rate of fake accusations of rape is higher than that of other crimes. However, false sexual abuse accusations receive disproportionately higher levels of attention than other types of false accusations.

Accept, for instance, false accusations involving theft. How many of united states of america think the 72-year-erstwhile man who, just a calendar month agone, was investigated for a false report claiming he had been robbed by two unknown men? Or the 48-year-onetime man charged with providing false data to the police when he claimed that ane of his workers had stolen S$2,800 in greenbacks from a co-worker?

In those cases, irrational generalisations don't run wild - we would exist laughed at if we extrapolated from these that significant numbers of men who report theft are lying about it or doing it for attention.

Simply when it comes to sexual violence, a crime that is heavily gendered, with victim-survivors being overwhelmingly female, the lingering stain of misogyny is hard to scrub away. Tropes almost lying, untrustworthy women take long been deployed to ignominy those who would claiming the status quo.

Accordingly, stereotypes almost false accusers condition us to imagine them as women. In reality, though, men can and practise brand faux reports too. In 2019, a 34-yr-quondam man provided false information to an investigation officer, saying that his 50-year-old Singaporean young man had force-fed him a pill and raped him at their home while he was unconscious. Yet we tend to harp on cases of women making simulated accusations.

THE HARM OF THE Fake REPORTING MYTH

Such an imagined prevalence of false accusations has real-globe effects. For one, it impedes justice.

There are a multifariousness of reasons why women choose not to officially report a rape or sexual assault, just the fright of not beingness believed is oft a prominent reason.

In an AWARE-Ipsos survey on workplace sexual harassment published in January, 20 per cent did not report their sexual harassment because they feared no ane would believe them - a fear fuelled by social media comments harping on virtually false accusations.

Second, incorrect and unreliable assumptions about simulated complaints could create biases and sway how rape allegations are managed if nosotros are not careful.

A adult female flinches as a man throws a punch at her. (File photo: Hanidah Amin)

Research has investigated the chasm betwixt the high rates at which police officers believe false allegations to be made, and the bodily low rates of simulated allegations. A 2005 written report constitute that police officers in the UK believed half of cases to exist fake, a precipitous dissimilarity from the more accurate charge per unit of 4 per cent (as per the Home Office written report).

LEGAL FRAMEWORKS PROTECT AGAINST Simulated ACCUSATIONS

Making an allegation of sexual abuse is oftentimes onerous and traumatising for survivors with enough of hard evidence on hand.

Considering this, information technology's mind-boggling why anyone would entertain the thought that many women are expending meaning try, time and money, and subjecting themselves to cross-exam, investigations that can last well over a year, and public backlash, for some sort of ill-divers personal proceeds.

The fact is that the criminal justice system in Singapore is well-positioned to weed out false reports, no matter how few they may exist. The law have a serious view of the waste material of public investigative resources.

For giving simulated information to a public retainer, one tin can be jailed for up to a year and fined up to S$5,000.

In addition to criminal consequences for complainants, in that location are also potential civil consequences. The person falsely accused can sue the complainant for defamation on the ground that their reputation was damaged by their false allegations.

Simulated accusations of sexual abuse do happen, and when they do, real damage is done to the defendant. Nobody should be put through the trauma of defending themselves against an act they did non commit.

Just looking at the facts, we accept to continue our imaginations in check and not succumb to bogeyman narratives that allow abusers to escape accountability for their actions.

Dr Yeo Sow Nam, the anaesthetist acquitted before this week, himself spoke to the demand to treat all reports of sexual set on with sensitivity and rigour.

Referring to "the expert, necessary and hard work of ensuring access to justice for real victims of sex crimes, many of whom already hesitate to accuse their attackers publicly", the doctor hoped that his verdict would non "discourage real victims of sexual practice crimes from coming forward, or set back the moral calendar in their favour".

The vast bulk of sexual abuse accusations can and should be taken seriously. That remains the foundational premise with which we should handle such cases.

Shailey Hingorani is head of enquiry and advocacy at Aware.

mcmullenherat1941.blogspot.com

Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/molest-woman-lying-false-accusation-sexual-assault-myth-singapore-276231