Not sure if it’s just luck of the draw or what, but scanning the headlines this morning, I see three cases involving people falsely reporting crimes to the police:
#The Star Press has an AP story about a New Jersey woman who lied about being gang raped, resulting in the conviction of a man who ended up serving three years of a twenty year sentence.
#Seth Slabaugh, also writing for the Star Press, has an article about a Ball State student who lied about being attacked by a man as she walked back to her dorm.
#Holly Abrams, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, has a story about an Ohio man who faked an attack on himself, claiming he’d been hit in the head with a bottle and shot in the leg.
I’m not sure if these folks are just desperate for attention or what. Our perceptions of risk are skewed enough by the emphasis on real crime that we see in the news. We don’t need people faking attacks to exacerbate the problem.
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