Do False Allegations Exist?
Last week I posted a plea to take a careful approach to allegations of sexual abuse. This plea arose out of watching social media turn into a courtroom over a case well-known to my community. I expressed that both sides need to be heard, and that the court system exists for a reason. It doesn’t always bring forth justice, but it does a better job than social media.
The post drew roughly ten times more views than my typical post. And it drew more angry responses, too. Friends DM’d me in sympathy.
Guys, thank you. I’m happy to tell you I’m okay.
There was a recurring theme in the angry comments that I could summarize like this:
“Children rarely lie about abuse.” Some even said, “Children don’t lie about abuse.”
I have seen that broadened to all victims. The thinking is that people simply don’t, or hardly ever, report falsely.
In this blog, I want to ask if that’s true, and what it would mean if it was. I’ll take those questions one at a time.
Skin in the Game
But before I jump into the topic of false allegations, let me say that all sources agree that the greater problem is underreporting abuse. This is why I wrote this blog: https://www.abide.network/post/should-christians-report-abuse
And this is why I run ProjectSafeChurch.org, a ministry that offers education and action to victims of sexual abuse by clergy. We have a reporting option that helps victims find justice. Check out the website.
And this is why I wrote my doctoral dissertation on an aspect of sexual abuse by clergy. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/3192/
And this is why I wrote a book on sexual abuse prevention and response available here https://www.jenniferjill.org/product-page/project-safe-church-ebook
And this is why I have over 100 folders of abuse cases vaulted away on my computer and for many of them have secured the services of a lawyer to help.
And this is why I have handled over a dozen cases that successfully removed a perpetrator from access to victims.
The fact that I’m also concerned about false allegations doesn’t erase the reality that I care about abuse. False allegations are a form of abuse in themselves and produce similar trauma responses in victims. I’m for prevention of all forms of mistreatment—isn’t that true justice?
So on to my two questions. How common are false allegations and how should we respond?
How Common are False Allegations?
In this section I want to share summaries of relevant studies I’ve found. I invite you to share links to any other studies.
The standard, oft-cited percentage of false reports from all types people alleging abuse is 2-10%. (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1077801210387747) Bear in mind that not all abused people speak up, so this number shrinks in the context of all the abuse that occurs. Still, these numbers matter and so do the falsely accused people.
One study focusing on children said the percent of young children falsely alleging sexual abuse consistently falls within the 2-8% range. When the context changes to custody disputes, however, it shoots up to much higher numbers. This makes sense, given that divorcing spouses sometimes resort to retaliation against the other spouse by grooming children to lie about them. I’ve personally observed cases of husbands turning children against wives and wives turning children against husbands. This is, among other things, a form of child abuse.
One study of the case files of 88 child protection service workers placed false reports from children up to six at a range of 1.7 to 2.7%. Then reports from adolescents leapt to a range of 8.0-12.7%. (https://cwlibrary.childwelfare.gov/discovery/fulldisplay/alma991000978019707651/01CWIG_INST:01CWIG)
Note that these studies come from pre-internet days. These numbers could be even higher now. Something we must grapple with is the abundance of online support available to a person claiming victimhood. An allegation can secure a young person high levels of social currency. For example, in August of 2026, an Indonesian teen named KS posted allegations of family abuse, gaining a massive following through reposts and follows. A short time later she fully recanted the claim. (https://x.com/i/trending/2093759174136205783)
Some online groups become cultlike in their influence. Groups reward victim narratives with inclusion and a sense of safety but then create a silo effect when they wall off the outside world. These groups act as petri dishes for the proliferation false narratives of all kinds.
Our culture has shifted in its view of victimhood. The book The Rise of Victimhood Culture details this change. Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning say:
Manufacturing a case of victimhood allows the aggrieved to elicit sympathy or even to mobilize third parties such as legal authorities against their enemies. Since a victimhood culture is one where this status is most valuable, we should expect it to be especially prone to false claims of victimization. 184-185
Campbell, Manning, and others assert that the combination of the culture rewarding victimhood plus the speed of social connections afforded by the internet have created a perfect storm in which we will see more and more false reports.
In summary,
Abuse is underreported.
False reports exist.
Small children don’t generally report falsely unless groomed.
Older children give false reports at similar rates to adults.
False reports can come from a variety of motives.
The internet has incentivized claims of victimhood.
How Should We Respond?
One study points out the way we should not respond:
Despite the fact that many studies now indicate that a certain percentage of these allegations are false, large numbers of clinicians respond to the enormous complexities of these cases by resorting to oversimplified generalizations such as ''children never lie." This type of response renders the decision-making process uncomplicated, but can also yield numerous false positives as this logic virtually precludes the existence of false allegations. (https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.1992.46.4.556)
The sentiment I’ve heard expressed repeatedly is essentially this:
“Historically, _______ (oppressed group, in the case of abuse it’s typically women and children) have been discredited and disbelieved. Most of them time they were telling the truth. Therefore they are telling the truth.”
But that logic doesn’t logic.
It is true that historically women and children have been silenced. I am one of them, with a story of my own! Most of those of us alleging abuse told the truth. But that doesn’t remove the possibility of a false report.
What leads to them? I’ll break that down into four categories: vendetta, grooming, misperception, and system failure.
Vendettas abound in the world. A romantic partner accused University of Minnesota Law School professor Francesco Parisi of r@pe, sending him to jail. After a thorough investigation, the courts dropped the charges, and he subsequently won a $1.2 million defamation lawsuit against his accuser, whom the judge deemed to have accused out of malice. (https://www.fox9.com/news/law-professor-falsely-accused-of-rape-wins-defamation-case) Ephesians 4:31 warns us to “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice” for a reason!
Grooming occurs most often in custody cases. Here’s an interesting fact of child psychology: The child will often be the hardest on safest of the two parents. For example, if the child knows that her mother will forgive her for repeating a lie the father fed her, but her father will hate her for not cooperating, she will often choose the least-risky option, becoming the father’s mouthpiece. Divorce often forces children to choose loyalty to one parent over the other. In these cases, children will do whatever makes them safer, and we can hardly blame them.
Sometimes overenthusiastic therapists wanting to play the role of a savior will engage in false memory planting techniques. One study showed that about 30% of subjects formed false memories of autobiographical events when prompted to do so in an experimental clinical setting. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33435830/ ) During the child abuse moral panic of the 1980s and 90s, clinicians used interview techniques that encouraged children to make up stories.
Misperception of events can lead to false or exaggerated reports. I have personally witnessed cases where women accused a flirtatious man of being a predator. The man wasn’t innocent, but he wasn’t as diabolically guilty as the story made him. During #MeToo it seemed that every male/female interaction came under a microscope. Affairs became assault. Flirting became grooming. A compliment became a microaggression. This amounted to a moral panic which I believe ultimately discredited the movement.
A well-documented feature of PTSD is hypersensitivity to triggers. For example, if a woman suffered harassment from a boss, her nervous system may ramp up in response to all bosses. In my work with people with trauma, we make an effort to re-engage the cerebral cortical functions that help separate actual threats from triggers, using reason and evidence-gathering to keep survivors safe and calm.
Psychotic disorders can produce auditory and visual hallucinations and delusions. These disorders can be the result of organic brain disease, or sometimes temporary states brought on by substances and even prescribed medications. Do a search of “medications that cause psychosis” and you’ll be shocked at how many “safe” drugs can produce these unwanted side effects.
System failures occur because law enforcement can be imprecise and ineffective. Aggressive prosecutors and judges seize opportunities to score heroic wins. As much as I believe in due process, I realize the fallen, selfish humans running the system don’t always carry it out faithfully.
Consider the case of Tracy West and Louis Gonzalez III. They’d broken up before their child was born and then fought a custody battle for five years. Louis won visitation rights, which miffed Tracy. But the law wouldn’t budge, that is, until she falsely accused him of r@ping and attempting to m0rder her. Louis spent three months in jail, after which they released him because he documented his whereabouts so thoroughly. The judge provided him with a declaration of factual innocence but brought no charge against Tracy for filing a false report. (The Rise of Victimhood Culture, 187 and 188).
Tarana Burke Concludes
The psalmist said, “I hate every false way” (119:104).
Will you stand with me in hating all forms of mistreatment of humans?
Founder of #MeToo Tarana Burke, who identifies as a Christian, says the movement’s slogan “believe survivors” did not intend to discourage due process:
When people say, “I believe her” or “believe survivors,” it's not “believe anybody who comes forward with an accusation.” If you believe, it doesn't mean you go forward and you actually condemn the man automatically. It means you investigate, it means you take it seriously. There is no part of me that can… say believe all women. In America and across the world, sexual violence [accusations] has been weaponized against Black men. And so when you hear people say “believe survivors,” take it out of your mind that it's a blanket statement that means that anybody who comes forward with an accusation is telling the truth. What you should hear is, “Let me take this seriously.” (https://www.reddit.com/r/ItEndsWithLawsuits/comments/1tzifup/metoo_creator_tarana_burke_clarifies_that_believe/)
I love every word of that. I’ve seen “believe survivors” used to automatically condemn the accused. But here’s the founder of the movement saying we shouldn’t do that, lest we create another victim.
Amen, Tarana!
Do you agree with her?
Excellent blog, Jennifer. Very well stated. In three different instances, I have been a victim who was believed and the perpetrator was punished, a victim who was disbelieved and suffered reproach, and someone falsely accused. I can vouch for the need to investigate and verify.