What happens when someone fakes being abused?

[Yonadav]

What if someone pretends to the police that they have been abused by a certain someone when that wan't the case? What if there is no third party? Even more, what if the liar is the actual abuser? What can happen?

Personally, I think that if there is no evidence one way or another, then there should be a wait and see approach. However, I think that it is just as acceptable to investigate the alleged victim as it is to investigate the alleged perpetrator (only when there is no evidence against the alleged perpetrator).

In Jewish law, a false witness receives the punishment that the victim of their false testimony would have received for the crime that the false witness tried to have them convicted of. I think that there is a good deal of wisdom to this. As a blanket policy, it would probably be unworkable and would maybe lead to some atrocities. An aggressive defense attorney might successfully distort witness testimony so that an actual victim gets convicted of false testimony, or a false witness might receive a much harsher punishment than would have been given to an actual perpetrator.

However, I think that the Jewish perspective on false testimony is instructive. It puts things into perspective by making false testimony about a crime equal to the crime itself. If I file a false police report, claiming that you assaulted me, then I'm assaulting you. It would be perfectly appropriate for me to be charged with assault, once my lies are proven. I intended for you to be punished for assaulting me. So why shouldn't I receive the punishment that I intended for you?

Here is a very interesting newspaper article about some high school girls who simply didn't like one of the boys that they went to school with. They made up stories about him sexually assaulting them. The boy was put through hell by police, prosecutors, classmates, and the public in general, and was fired from his job. Had it not been for one of the girls finally telling the truth, this boy would be in a state prison. When the girl who started it all finally told the truth, her reasons for doing what she did were absolutely shocking. Despite her unthinkable brutality, she isn't going to suffer any consequences for what she did at all.

Lawsuit accuses Seneca Valley 'mean girls' of targeting boy with false allegations | TribLIVE