There's a post up now that caught my eye and got me thinking. It's about false rape accusations, and now a model who previously dated Gerard Butler actually accused a photographer of raping her. Here's the link if you're interested: Click
So here in the states rape is a felony, and the definition of a felony is:
n. 1) a crime sufficiently serious to be punishable by death or a term in state or federal prison, as distinguished from a misdemeanor which is only punishable by confinement to county or local jail and/or a fine. 2) a crime carrying a minimum term of one year or more in state prison, since a year or less can be served in county jail. However, a sentence upon conviction for a felony may sometimes be less than one year at the discretion of the judge and within limits set by statute. Felonies are sometimes referred to as "high crimes" as described in the U. S. Constitution.

With something like that on your criminal record, you're in the shitter when it comes to employment prospects. It doesn't matter if you're found guilty or not in some cases, you still end up getting some kind of fallout from just the accusation. That's with respect to government jobs in particular. I know for a fact that the military currently will not accept anyone with convictions along those lines. A recruiter once told me, "If I had someone with a rape charge on their record, I wouldn't be able to do anything with them." It's important to remember that the government is made of representatives, so you're not entitled to have a job with it. That also means you're out of employment real quick if you can't work with the current sensitivities they're saddled with. That doesn't negate the fact that an employer could easily look up on public records before an interview for instance (Expungement is something to look into if you're in that position).

I've seen that it ruins lives, and it can leave people scarred. Whether those scars last for life depends on the person. A friend of mine in particular, who seemed like the kind of guy who'd never hurt anyone, actually got slapped with a false rape accusation a few years back. He's well beyond it now, but it definitely changed him. He's much more suspicious of women now. Also, he's lucky to be the kind of person who doesn't want any government jobs and won't bother much looking for employment where criminal history becomes an issue.

So with all that said, what kind of methods can you think of to combat false accusations, and lower their potential? Some that come to mind are:

  • Voice recorders/Cell phone recording (There's usually an app on your phone for it)
  • Webcam/security footage
  • Text message logs (We saw this come into the recent Mattress girl case)
  • Being very critical of someone's personality, and avoiding suspicious people

On all of the above, get distinct confessions of any crime they threaten you with or you suspect they may use against you. There's also the support wiki to check out

In particular, read this article!

There's gotta be more though. If someone rapes a child, here in the states we've got a sex offender registry they're signed up for. You can look their names up and you can see if any live near you. The idea behind it is people deserve to know whether their children have an increased risk of being raped by their neighbors. It sounds like a valid concern, and the framework for offenders being registered somewhere is up. That just leaves these particular offenders being legally corralled into a situation where they need to register for something like this.

So does anyone think there's a possibility we could look into a false rape registry? Maybe we could just compile a list of false rape accusers who've been in the public eye (Mattress girl), then look into making the punishment for false accusations even more harsh than it is now. People deserve to know whether or not the person they're seeing could jeopardize their future career paths, and others don't deserve the kind of power to ruin a persons life. It could very well turn the kind of person who's in an income bracket Joe Schmoe dreams of, into the local cashier at the gas station. I'd imagine in that worst case scenario, it's not just their paychecks that would be suffering. Working at lower-end jobs also puts you around lower-end people.

So, ideas? I know a registry is over-the-top, but we at least need much harsher punishment for the kind of people who engage in this sort of shitty behavior.

Edit: tl;dr
Sex offender registry's a thing. Rape ruins lives. For the offender and the accuser. If it's found to be false, there needs to be much harsher punishments associated with it. Why not have a registry? It's over-the-top, but harsher punishments need to be looked at.