Falsely accusing someone of a crime should lead to jail time, amirite?

This is a fantastically popular opinion. Filing a false police report and perjury can lead to jail time already.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

except it rarely does. Look at that girl who ruined the NFL prospects life and she got nothing

by Anonymous 2 days ago

That's another problem, women get away with committing crimes so much more often than men. She should've gotten the harsher punishment, but she got off scot free.

by jennie26 2 days ago

It's not just that out of the ones that do get charged only 30-40% receive the same punishment for committing the same crime, this wasn't just one place either for the study one was done in the US, UK and France and all 3 had similar results in there being a gender disparity in court sentencing

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Yeah there's a disparity in charging, convictions and punishments. The legal system in general is just much much harsher on men.

by jennie26 2 days ago

This is because proving intent, something required for that charge, is incredibly difficult.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

It's difficult to prove, but the lack of charges is also ideological - even in cases where there's clear records of malicious intent through text messages, recordeings, etc. It's still incredibly rare for false accusations to actually be prosecuted.

by Present_Travel1609 2 days ago

Ideological? How so?

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Yes. This is called "Blackstone's principle". What you are describing is the ideology of due process.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

That's not what due process is. Due process means getting a proper opportunity to defend yourself, not getting charges waived to protect someone other than your victim.

by Present_Travel1609 2 days ago

"Getting charges waived to protect someone other than your victim" is what the Blackstone Principle is. A government that has no concern in defending the accused is, to someone who values due process, a tyranny.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Just make matters like those reverse onus.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Surefire way to make anybody whose been SA'd not report it

by Anonymous 2 days ago

It's a double edged sword so to speak, on other hand it would protect people from being falsly accused of SA that usually ruins the life of the accused, but it would make it risky for victims of SA to press charges in the fear of losing do to lack of evidence and facing jail time.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

It is. However, I am responding to what you said in particular.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

What?

by Anonymous 2 days ago

That's another factor that should be addressed then, that any accusations and names should be withheld from the public or media until after a decision is made in court.

by jennie26 2 days ago

Hmmmmmm...? I'm not confident that the state would not take immediate advantage of that for tyrannical purposes.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

I mean, that's not really any different than what happens when a person does commit the crime.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Lots of people commit crimes and don't go to jail

by Open-Jackfruit 2 days ago

The guy who had his career and potentially millions of dollars ruined over a false accusation probably does.

by DryScratch5527 1 day ago

I have little sympathy for that guy.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Because he was a male? Because he was black? Because he worked hard? Why? He wasn't even an adult yet and his life was ruined because some bitch was mad that he didn't want her anymore.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Because it's football

by Anonymous 1 day ago

So would it be different if it was engineering? If so, why? Why? As long as it was a legitimate way of making money why does it matter?

by DryScratch5527 1 day ago

Engineers build stuff

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Football players provide entertainment. Same as actors, musicians, poets, or anything else.

by DryScratch5527 1 day ago

One day your skin will sag, your hair will turn grey, and you'll be as ugly outside as you are in.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Psh, whatever dude. I'm already ugly

by Anonymous 1 day ago

CAN, being the operative term, often it does not Police dont want to admit they made a mistake

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Its not a police mistake if you lied to them. They are not psychic.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

If you can prove the lie, it's like super defamation. Not just costing money, but putting the other in jail potentially. Its a form of proxy violence too. Swatting is an example of this, you usually falsely report a hostage situation of some sort to make it happen There is a very high standard for proving defamation in court

by Leather_Bed5031 1 day ago

I do somewhat agree with you. But i think the problem with that is if someone did said crime, but then was found not guilty of said crime due to lack of evidence, etc. Should the "victim" still be prosecuted? I mean people are found not guilty all the time. I think you would have a lot of victims not wanting to come forward because they would be scared to get thrown in jail. Or worse, they could be a victim, the accused walks free and then the victim gets thrown in jail What about on a plea out deal? In my state 99% of cases eventually plea out to a lesser charge. What do you do with the victim then?

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I think there should be clarification on the idea: a person who knowingly and/or with malicious intent lied should face criminal charges. Someone misremembering something or unknowingly stating something false shouldn't feel the brunt of that.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Absolutely agree, but it's about proving it. Unless you can prove that a person is acting with malicious intent, it's safer for actual victims to let it slide, maybe with a warning.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Intent matters and it's generally pretty obvious when someone is innocent due to a lack of evidence or innocent due to the accuser having absolutely no credible proof and is obviously lying. Or admits they're lying.

by virginie31 1 day ago

Lack of credible proof does not prove they were lying.

by Low_Shine2199 1 day ago

Everything in court has to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Then youll have those lying "victims" that never pull out and admit that they're lying and you have innocent people rotting in prison. If there is such harsh repercussions for lying, these people will never admit to lying.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

The problem is this will lead to people not file actual complaints when they don't have enough evidence because they will be afraid to go to jail themselves

by DrawerIllustrious786 1 day ago

It'a oddly speicifc. It's oddly specific because false SA and abuse accusations are specifically weaponised in situations like divorce and custody disputes.

by Present_Travel1609 1 day ago

Seems to come from a place of trying to make the system more fair. Nothing inherently wrong with that.

by DryScratch5527 1 day ago

That's where perjury vs. not-guilty comes into effect. If the reporting individual wasn't found has having intently lied and / or tried to mislead the police in the investigation. But there wasnt enough evidence to convict the individual charged, then the accuser wouldn't be charged or face a trial/penalty.

by Dangerous_Pudding 1 day ago

Prison is actually not the best solution for all crimes, just an FYI for anyone who needs to hear that

by AmbitionThese 1 day ago

So twelve times a year

by Robelmarques 1 day ago

The issue is, OP is talking about leading to jail time, laws exist but if they arent enforced it doesnt lead to jail time Plenty of false accusers never went to jail even though they broke the law

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Yup there was a woman who falsely accused a man of arson which resulted in him spending nearly 40 years in prison until she finally confessed to lying. Nothing happened to her and she tried to portray herself as a victim as well claiming the police threatened her with CPS to lie.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

What a super unpopular opinion I've never heard before 😱

by Colbywaelchi 1 day ago

There is a crime for making a false report, however it is only a misdemeanor.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Wait, false crime report isn't crime in your countries?

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Id hope this isnt unpopular lol. Fully agreed, i even think they should get more time than what the accused would have gotten. It's quite literally life-ruining to do that if the accused actually is charged, depending on what they're accused of.

by Mother_History_4729 1 day ago

This is popular as hell, just not represented in the legal system.

by ExcitingAd3837 1 day ago

It is against the law in literally every state and us territory

by No-Most9406 1 day ago

Care to elaborate? If you're referencing defamation, that's a civil issue, not criminal.

by Professional-Sun7776 1 day ago

Depends where you live, in Germany it is (§ 164 StGB = German criminal code)

by Anonymous 1 day ago

There are laws that exist but that arent enforced, often false accucers suffer no consequences In some cases they are kept anonymous There is a dude suing yale right now because of a false accusation Plenty of rich people break the law and do not go to jail, you know this, but when it comes to false accusations you have a different view

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Not unpopular. It's a criminal offense and is punishable by jail time. It can also be civil. You can personally sue for damages.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

On another note falsely accusing people of sex crimes makes people less likely to believe real victims without hard evidence. And welp. If people were punished for these crimes. Id imagine it wouldnt happen nearly as often as it does now.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

It already leads to jail time in some cases.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

That's not an unpopular opinion

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Sometimes it does

by Anonymous 1 day ago

An unpopular opinion I can actually agree with

by Anonymous 1 day ago

It can

by Anonymous 1 day ago

jail time equivalent to whatever the falsely accused wouldve faced

by Few_Youth1233 1 day ago

While I do believe there needs to be a little of nuance to it, overall, i would agree with this opinion.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I don't know where are you from, but in my country (Italy) is a crime punished with 2 to 20 years of prison.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

This isn't an unpopular opinion, lol. This is obviously directed at SA cases, so I'm going to address it with that instance. While I do agree with you, really I do. It's going to make already underreported sexual crimes to be even more underreported because victims would be scared of what happens if they don't win, at least in my country. Also defamation is already criminal, as well as perjury.

by Alyssonnienow 1 day ago

I don't think this is unpopular.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

It can especially if it's happened multiple times

by Open-Jackfruit 1 day ago

You're not really going out on a limb with this opinion considering the fact that it does lead to jail time.

by Bradleyledner 1 day ago

how on earth could you think this was unpopular?

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Lawyer here. I'm not aware of any jurisdiction where making an intentionally false complaint to police or under oath is not a serious crime. I have actually seen multiple prosecutions for exactly this.

by binsalexzander 1 day ago

I agree but only if the accusation was made in bad faith. The trouble is, that's what the law currently is and it just turns out its really hard to prove deliberately lying vs. mis-remembering small details.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

On paper sounds good In practice the guilty get better lawyers than the victims and the victim would be the one serving jail time rather than the criminal

by Winona80 1 day ago

Yep. It is technically illegal but a lot of the time it's either not pursued or it's just a charge and a fine. Especially if it costs someone their home, job, partner, etc. False accusations take away from real ones. Anyone makes a false one especially a serious one whether it's aimed at me or not, they're out of my life. I don't mess with that. I had a family members life ruined, threatened, and them almost beaten to death over a false accusation. And the worst part was the person who made the accusation actually had it happen to them but was too scared to say the actual person's name so they said someone they felt safe with thinking it'd be ok and they'd be forgiven. Just don't make false accusations. Also if you witness and actual crime, if you have one happen to you, then report it whether you're embarrassed, scared, etc unless it will put your life at risk.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Op hasn't heard of defamation

by Master_Leather 1 day ago

If you falsely accuse someone of something (maliciously), you should face the same penalty as they would have.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Who decides what counts as malicious, and in what situations? People exaggerate all the time, assuming everyone around them knows it's an exaggeration. I agree with the sentiment but it's just not practical and would land innocent people in jail.

by Low_Shine2199 1 day ago

This would lead to victim-blaming and dissuade people from reporting real crimes. Besides, what counts as falsely accusing someone? I could get behind charging someone for malicious accusations, but the intent would have to be proven. I can't support it for false accusations in general because of how arbitrary the term can be.

by Low_Shine2199 1 day ago