Earlier this month, False Allegations Watch (FAW) published a joint open letter to the Prime Minister from some of the leading organisations in the field of false allegations and the wrongful convictions that flow from them. The organisations were FACT, FASO (False Allegations Support Organisation), FAD (Falsely Accused Day), Falsely Accused Letters to the Establishments, MeTooFalselyAccused and Fighting for the Falsely Accused. We also published a reply from the Home Office in response to the joint open letter. Below is a response from Terry White to the Home Office's reply. Terry is a children’s rights campaigner and member of Gender Parity UK.
The Home Office is repeating a false dichotomy:
Evidence does not suggest that false allegations are widespread. On the contrary, it is the under-reporting of crime to the police that is known to be particularly acute for sexual offences.
It is true that there are many unreported offences. However, that has no bearing on whether or not there are also many falsely reported claims. Non-reporting victims and false-reporting complainants are two entirely separate sets of people.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) reports that 16% of victims report to the police, which has been relatively stable over time. The prevalence of rape has also remained static whilst the police reports of rape has quadrupled.
Sources:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/283100/recorded-rape-offences-in-england-and-wales/ From Terry Terry White, Children’s rights campaigner
Gender Parity UK
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