The truth, the half-truth, and nothing like the truth: reconceptualizing false allegations of rape
There is a longstanding dispute between criminal justice professionals on the one hand and researchers and commentators on the other regarding the prevalence of false allegations of rape. Prevalence, however, is contingent upon definition. If the various protagonists’ definitions of a ‘false allegat...
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| Format: | Article |
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Oxford University Press
2012
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51636/ |
| _version_ | 1848798538149920768 |
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| author | Saunders, Candida L. |
| author_facet | Saunders, Candida L. |
| author_sort | Saunders, Candida L. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | There is a longstanding dispute between criminal justice professionals on the one hand and researchers and commentators on the other regarding the prevalence of false allegations of rape. Prevalence, however, is contingent upon definition. If the various protagonists’ definitions of a ‘false allegation’ do not coincide, it is virtually inevitable that their estimates will diverge. Drawing on original empirical data from in-depth research interviews conducted with police and Crown Prosecutors, this article explores the following important but much neglected question: When criminal justice professionals tell us that false allegations of rape are common, what precisely are they talking about? What ‘counts’ as a false allegation? |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:21:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-51636 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:21:21Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-516362020-05-04T16:34:13Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51636/ The truth, the half-truth, and nothing like the truth: reconceptualizing false allegations of rape Saunders, Candida L. There is a longstanding dispute between criminal justice professionals on the one hand and researchers and commentators on the other regarding the prevalence of false allegations of rape. Prevalence, however, is contingent upon definition. If the various protagonists’ definitions of a ‘false allegation’ do not coincide, it is virtually inevitable that their estimates will diverge. Drawing on original empirical data from in-depth research interviews conducted with police and Crown Prosecutors, this article explores the following important but much neglected question: When criminal justice professionals tell us that false allegations of rape are common, what precisely are they talking about? What ‘counts’ as a false allegation? Oxford University Press 2012-11-01 Article PeerReviewed Saunders, Candida L. (2012) The truth, the half-truth, and nothing like the truth: reconceptualizing false allegations of rape. British Journal of Criminology, 52 (6). pp. 1152-1171. ISSN 0007-0955 false allegations rape prevalence no-criming witness veracity credibility https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/52/6/1152/347356 doi:10.1093/bjc/azs036 doi:10.1093/bjc/azs036 |
| spellingShingle | false allegations rape prevalence no-criming witness veracity credibility Saunders, Candida L. The truth, the half-truth, and nothing like the truth: reconceptualizing false allegations of rape |
| title | The truth, the half-truth, and nothing like the truth: reconceptualizing false allegations of rape |
| title_full | The truth, the half-truth, and nothing like the truth: reconceptualizing false allegations of rape |
| title_fullStr | The truth, the half-truth, and nothing like the truth: reconceptualizing false allegations of rape |
| title_full_unstemmed | The truth, the half-truth, and nothing like the truth: reconceptualizing false allegations of rape |
| title_short | The truth, the half-truth, and nothing like the truth: reconceptualizing false allegations of rape |
| title_sort | truth, the half-truth, and nothing like the truth: reconceptualizing false allegations of rape |
| topic | false allegations rape prevalence no-criming witness veracity credibility |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51636/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51636/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51636/ |