And just a reminder: this is the reason that most people---male and female--do not report rapes. Because they fear being disbelieved, thought to be sick, disturbed, vindictive, whatever but definitely lying. Which of course allows rapists to keep on raping.
This woman was definitely lying. Should she not be prosecuted just because that may deter other women from reporting rapes? Going further, should police refrain from actually investigating women's claims and just take them at face value just to make women reporting rapes more comfortable?
Police absolutely should take seriously claims from people who claim to be victims of crimes, especially of violent crimes.
Do you not realize that boys and men are also rape victims? It’s even more under-reported that girls/women reporting rape? For very similar but not 100% congruent reasons. Male victims of rape also must fear being thought to be gay, if they are actually straight.
Shame, humiliation, guilt, fear of how they will be perceived —if their allegations are even taken seriously, the extremely daunting legal process, going through the trauma of reporting, collection of evidence which may or may not be preserved or analyzed, the trauma of a trial, should there be one—and of course the fear of seeing their attacker in their community or on the courtroom, and the terrible terrible assumptions made if a conviction does not occur—or even if it does. And of course the real issue: Why didn’t you fight him off? Are you sure you didn’t really want it? Are you just angry because he didn’t call you after?
Imagine if that were you. Seriously: How would you feel? Would you ever tell anybody? How scared would you be? For how long?
Do I think that people who deliberately falsely accuse others of a crime should be punished? Of course. But please not only people who make false allegations of rape.