Whenever a crime happens, a victim has to gather up the courage to go to a police station or dial 999 or 911 and they have to report the crime by making an allegation that a crime has occurred in the first place. Sometimes these allegations are true, other times they are not. When these allegations are not true then this can be deemed as a false allegations, even if the crime did actually happen. Therefore, in this forensic psychology episode, we’ll be exploring what is a false allegation drawing on different research because by knowing what a false allegation actually is. Psychologists can start to understand why people make false allegations as well as why the police and other people deem real allegations to be false. If you enjoy learning what about crime, the criminal justice and criminal psychology then this is a brilliant episode for you.
This psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Forensic Psychology Of False Allegations: A Forensic And Criminal Psychology Guide To False Allegations of Rape, Sexual Abuse and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Important Note: I just wanted to add that this podcast episode and the associated book that this is an extract from is definitely not to implying that all allegations involving these crimes (like rape, sexual abuse amongst others) are false. This is NOT the message of the book at all and time after time in this book, we are reminded about the true number of how many allegations are real. It is extremely rare for someone to lie about rape and other horrific crimes.
What Are False Allegations? (Extract From Forensic Psychology Of False Allegations COPYRIGHT 2024 Connor Whiteley)
Kicking off the book and the forensic psychology of false allegations, we need to understand what these actually are before we can explore the psychology behind them. This is even more important when we consider that false allegations aren’t really anything to do with psychology, so why are forensic psychologists still interested?
That’s what we’ll explore in this first chapter.
Therefore, false allegations are all about miscarriages of justice. Since if a false allegation is made then this does have the potential to lead to a criminal investigation, court and maybe even a conviction based on a false allegation.
As you’ll see throughout the book it is rarely that simple but it can happen.
As a result, a miscarriage of justice is rather difficult to define, because the easiest definition we’ll be using for this book is when an innocent person gets convicted for a crime they didn’t commit.
On the surface that sounds like a perfect definition, and in theory it certainly is, but if we want to apply that definition to the real world then we experience one problem after another. Since whilst a miscarriage of justice is when a court of appeal overturns a conviction (Naugton, 2005). This is important to know because miscarriages of justice are the results of false allegations. But an overturned conviction doesn’t always mean the person was believed to be innocent.
A conviction could be overturned due to police mishandling the evidence, a witnessed lied or another of a whole range of factors.
Therefore, as you can start to notice, this is more of a legal question than a psychological question but I promise you the link between psychology and miscarriages of justice is coming up soon.
On the whole, it is very, very difficult to get a true rate of fake allegations as that depends on the definition being used.
For example, a researcher or another person couldn’t use all non-guilty verdicts to imply that a false allegation against the accused has happened. When in reality all a non-guilty verdict means is that it was beyond reasonable doubt that the accused did not commit the crime.
Another example that makes the true rate hard to know about is “unfounded claims” were no supporting evidence is found. These are different to false allegations because in false allegations no crime actually happened, but in unfounded claims, an offense could have happened but there is no evidence of it ever happening.
This is certainly a reason why I like legal stuff because it is so complex but extremely interesting at the same time.
In addition, recanted accusations aren’t evidence that no offense occurred because different people recant their statements for different reasons. Including the reconciliation between partners.
As well as this is before we consider the clear difference between false allegations and false convictions. It is these differences that make a true rate of false allegations next to impossible to know.
So are false allegations a problem and why should we care?
Why We Need To Care About False Allegations?
Of all the different types of false allegations, child sexual abuse is one of the most important areas and this is the area where the most false allegations are made. As well as this will be the focus of the book because it is such a heart-breaking, important and unfortunate area of human behaviour.
For example, Poole and Lindsay (1998) found that false allegations make up 5%-8% of all child sexual abuse cases and this only includes those cases that involved intentional false allegations.
Therefore, because this is only focusing on malicious motives behind the false allegation, this covers up a much, much greater number of child sexual abuse cases.
Whereas other studies propose that false allegations make up between 23%-35% of all cases (Howitt, 1992). And I have to admit that yes, at first this might sound very high but if we convert these percentages into real numbers, the numbers get scary.
If a police force had, let’s say, 1,000 sexual abuse cases. According to these numbers 230- 350 of these cases would be false, allegations. That would mean a hell of a lot of time, police resources and emotional distress would be wasted. Just because someone decided to make a false allegation.
And then my personal pet hate is that those 350 fake cases would cast doubt on the millions of real ones.
In addition, it is important to remember that in this book, we will talk about a lot of numbers. But it is critical that we remember that behind each of these numbers there is a ton of trauma, distress and more negative experiences for the child and family.
This is even more important when we consider that the consequences of false allegations include a child being removed from home, the father being made to live away from home and imprisoned and even well-intentioned false allegations can take a toll on family life (Howitt, 1992). As well as false denials by victims of abuse can equally as damaging. (Lyon, 1995).
Overall, this is why it is of immense interest to psychologists, because someone making a false allegation, that is a human behaviour. Also, the consequences, the emotional trauma and the pain that the child and family experience, they are all human behaviours and considering psychologists are experts on the matter. That is why we are so critical to understanding why this awful facet of human behaviour happens in the first place.
But let’s explore more about why are false allegations so problematic for psychologists?
I really hope you enjoyed today’s forensic psychology podcast episode.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Forensic Psychology Of False Allegations: A Forensic And Criminal Psychology Guide To False Allegations of Rape, Sexual Abuse and More. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Have a great day.
Forensic Psychology Reference and Further Reading
Whiteley, C. (2024) Forensic Psychology Of False Allegations: A Forensic And Criminal Psychology Guide To False Allegations of Rape, Sexual Abuse and More. CGD Publishing. England.
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