Systemic Assessment of Fabricated Injury in Sexual Assault Cases: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Sexual assault on females may ruin the entire life of the victim. Victims of such incidents rarely get support from any quarters of society, including their family members. On the other hand, men can be made the victim of such heinous crimes by false accusations by women for various motives. As most of the judgments on sexual assault cases are based on circumstantial history, and oral evidence, it may be very hard to disprove the allegation. According to the figures from National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) crime in India report 2020, less than 8% of all cases under investigation for rape were found to be false. In 2014, the Delhi commission for women submitted a report stating that, 53.2% of rape cases registered between April 2013- July 2014 was false. In India, the threat of false rape cases on one pretext or the other is increasing since the new amendment to the rape law in 2013. This fact is evident from the study of court judgments and media reports. In most false sexual assault cases, the victim took advantage of a fabricated injury to strengthen the case. There are various motives behind fabricating injury to register false sexual assault cases some of which are, to bring a charge of rape, heartbreak, anger, or some other mala fide motive induces a woman to file a false rape case majority, some women just do it to seek the attention of the media and have publicity, to defame others, to gain a large sum of money by a false allegation and to obtain compensation from the Government, In most cases, it is also found that to cover up first sexual intercourse women falsely accuse their partner of sexual assault. Various studies of disguised injuries in assault incidents showed that, the limbs, neck, and chest are the most favoured sites for disguised injuries.