The Issue of Fair Investigation of Sexual Assault Claims

Recently, many women have come forward with claims of sexual assault, so much so that there even was a movement formed for these women known as the Me Too movement. Although it seems wrong and unethical to question a women’s accusations of rape, the men in these situations deserve a fair chance to state their perspective and have a say. They need equal treatment because, believe it or not, they are not always the person at fault. Since a women’s word is usually quickly believed in a rape case, there are many possible outcomes that punish innocent men and can potentially ruin their life. Do sexual assault claims need to be more fairly investigated for both parties involved? Men deserve equal representation when it comes to life changing claims of sexual assault made against them. With only a few fake statements, a woman has the power to ruin it all for someone, and no one should have that ability.

Rape is a horrible crime that no one wants to be associated with; it completely takes away peoples control of their own body and invades their personal space without consent. Because of this, when a woman makes accusations that they have been sexually violated, majority of people will immediately take her word and make all attempts to get the justice. That is understandable and appears morally correct, but there is another side. Women are not always truthful.

There is now an innocent man who now has his name tied to this horrendous crime. Women are too easily believed when making these accusations, even when giving clear signs of fabricating the truth, ultimately hurting other women. Through the observation of many false accusation cases, people are noticing patterns amongst their answers and claims. A true victim is more likely to go directly to people of authority such as a police officer immediately after to file a report, while a false accuser will most likely tell friends or family first (Gross). Also, “false accusers may be unable to provide detailed descriptions of the rape or may provide too much detail”. It is even common for people who are making fake claims to explain situations that are impossible and utilize incorrect emotion. If the “victims” are demonstrating all signs that they have formed a false claim, then why is it that many would rather believe that her claim is still truthful over even thinking that possibly, the man is the victim and the statement is false. While it is good that people want to have such faith in these women and want to give them justice, they must acknowledge that not all men being accused are guilty. As a result of this easy belief in women’s innocence, men are not the only ones being punished. Eventually people will realize that many women get away with fake rape claims and they will lose their trust. They will lose their easy trust in women claiming to be raped, meaning they will “cast doubt genuine cases of rape”. No good can come out of a false rape claim. Someone who does not deserve to be, is always punished. People need to stop being too lenient with rape or assault cases now. This will keep as many innocent men as possible from being punished and to be able to distinguish true from false claims so true victims can still receive justice.

It is obvious that women have and can create false accusations that ruin men, but it is unclear on why they do it. It seems as if there is no logical reason to want to destroy someone’s life by associating their name with a disgusting crime. Even though no one can completely understand the complete reason behind making these accusations, there tend to be a few popular reasons. For instance, there have been cases where a girlfriend will claim she has been sexually violated just to make her boyfriend jealous. Some girls would be willing to rip apart someone's life just to make her boyfriend jealous and that is absurd. It is possible that an accusation might not be fully correct due to alcohol being involved or they just cannot remember all the details, so the wrong information was given unintentionally. Unfortunately, there are many cases where the women know what they are doing when they lie, and their actions are completely intentional. Majority of the time “accusers fabricated the rape to serve as a ‘cover story’ or alibi”. Women go through all his effort of making a man's life crumble just to cover for herself. It appears that some women just decided that saving them self is more important than someone's life. While not as popular, it is still common for women to use fake statements as situation because they felt ashamed about what really happened or simply want revenge. There is no excusable reason to accuse an innocent man of a crime like sexual assault or any crime in general.

Only a few words have the power to change how people view someone. Only a few words can tear apart a family. Only a few words can ruin it all for an innocent man. According to the 14th amendment a person is considered innocent until guilty, but is that really the case for this situation? Do women know the consequences of their action when it comes to false accusations? One will never know.

Not only is having one's name tied to one of these crimes horrible but having to spend months of someone's life trying to prove them self innocent is a punishment. For instance, anyone who is actually “found guilty of rape or child abuse will face a living hell...”, so if a person is not is not guilty but many think they are, they will receive the same horrible treatment as those who are guilty. Specifically, some who have been falsely accused before have had been “Forced to move homes or jobs, attacked physically or verbally”. Just because a woman decides she wants to be selfish and not think about others, she can literally force an innocent man away from his family and damaged his physical and mental state. Cases have also been recorded where students' futures have been torn apart just because they were associated with rape even though they were completely innocent. Cases have been recorded where students have been kicked out of their dream college because a woman accused him of sexual assault. Unfortunately, those are the best possible results in these cases. These cases can affect more than just a man's physical state and his family relationship. In particular, there have been cases where men lose their life due the treatment they get when accused of these cases. Some men just cannot handle the horrible and inhumane way people treat them when they know they are innocent. The worst result being that they take their own life. One lie should not turn a man’s life into ruins.

In addition to being verbally and physically attacked, men can have their private life and information shared with the world against their will. Men can become fully exposed and have no say in information they would like and not want to go public. Everything people choose to keep private is now out for everyone to see, and once it is out it cannot be taken back. As a result, “his private life will be dragged through the mud”. All his information will be out for everyone to see leaving him with a lifetime of judgement, “his name will be associated with one of the crimes most reviled by society” whether he was innocent or not. The way people handle false accusation cases is not right at all. No matter how hard a man works to clear his name and prove his innocence, he will “never fully regain the innocence they fought hard to win”. Innocent men leave this situation having their life not nearly the same while the women also known as the ones who have made up these accusations, can easily continue on with her life and rebuild whatever, if any damage was done to her and still manage to keep her privacy and identity a secret. It is wrong and unjust that the people who start the whole mess of a sexual assault case can walk out of it barely affected while leaving a destroyed man behind who now must start over and try to rebuild his broken life.

As time continues more and more women will continue to come forward with ore claims of rape and sexual assault. While some of these claims will be truthful, others will not. Hopefully, people will be able to bring justice to those who need it while also quickly clearing a man’s name from false accusations to avoid as much damage as possible. Many need to be made more aware that men can be victims too, not just women. Men need the same justice that is given to women. No more false accusations, no more ruined lives.