Fear and Consent: An Exploratory Study of Fear of False Accusations of Sexual Assault and Consent-Seeking Practices

ABSTRACT

The rise in highly publicized cases of sexual assault, along with offenders in these cases alluding that those alleged victims were being untruthful about their claims, has fostered myths about false reporting of sexual assault, increasing discussions over fears of being falsely accused. This study uses an exploratory approach to identify the prevalence of and variables that are related to fear of false accusations amongst college students. Gender, acceptance of rape myths, and decreased programming were associated with fears of being falsely accused of sexual assault. Further, a relationship was found between fears of false allegations and affirmative consent-seeking. Policies are suggested that directly correlate with promoting consent and decreasing fear of being falsely accused. Individuals acquiring knowledge of consent and discussing the effects of fear of false accusations, aims to decrease fear, while emphasizing the importance of healthy relationships and responses when engaging in sexual intimacy.

KEYWORDS:

• False allegations
• fear
• sexual assault
• consent
• campus climate
• rape myths

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Fansher and Zedaker (2022) suggest a relationship between sexuality and the “she lied” subscale of the IRMA scale.

2. The 10-items in this survey included 2–3 items from each subscale of the IRMA. A shortened version of the IRMA has been used in other studies on rape myth acceptance to decrease survey length (e.g., Smith et al., 2016).

3. The relationship between fears of false allegations and RMA is suggested by Belknap (2010), Pépin-Gagné and Parent (2016), and Weiser (201).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ashley K. Fansher

Ashley K. Fansher, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice, Political Science, and History at the University of Houston-Victoria. Her research interests focus broadly on victimology, including sexual assault among college students, sexual assault reporting trends, and technology-facilitated victimization. Her work has been published in Behavioral Sciences and the Law, Child Maltreatment, Crime & Delinquency, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Violence and Gender, Law Enforcement Executive Forum, and Children’s Legal Rights Journal.

Tumelo Musamali

Tumelo Musamali is a master’s student in the Department of Counseling Psychology at Avila University. She received her bachelor’s degree in Criminology and Justice Studies from Avila University. She hopes to counsel and advocate for incarcerated individuals, women who are survivors of trauma, and the LGBTQIA+ community.

Madison Self

Madison Self is a law student at University of Missouri-Kansas She received her bachelor’s degree in both Psychology and Criminology and Justice Studies from Avila University. She aspires to complete her J.D., become a defense attorney, and focus on sentencing mitigation.