Law & Order Special Victims Unit (SVU) Season 6 (2004-2005):

Trauma-informed but some episodes may confirm false accusation CSA myth

A reflection by Dr. Ailise Bulfin

Episode 5 ‘Outcry’

‘Outcry’ features a teenager who appears to have been abducted and raped by multiple assailants who may be students at a military college. This turns out to be a false accusation as the abuser was in fact the victim/survivor’s father’s employer, whom she was afraid to name for fear of repercussions for her father. While the narrative is a little reductive, it makes important points about the impact of abuse on the victim/survivor from a trauma-informed perspective. Though the narrative is about the detectives and the process of solving the crime, the detectives’ focus is very much on the victim/survivor character so they’re modelling victim centred-ness and they demonstrate a lot of trauma awareness. For example, they’re very concerned with trying to protect the victim/survivor’s identity and they understand the impact on somebody of being unwillingly ‘outed’ as a rape victim. They are also aware of the issues victim/survivors face when assaults happen on college campuses and voice scepticism that the college authorities will help them: ‘we know all about college procedures – rape victims intimidated and persuaded to drop charges’.

However, the plot fundamentally turns on whether the victim/survivor character is lying or telling the truth about her experiences and her assailants. And over the course of the narrative, aspects of her story are shown to be lies. The detectives discuss false accusations and one of them explains to the victim/survivor’s father: ‘You know the most common reason women make false rape allegations is to explain away a consensual sexual encounter to a partner or a parent’. This could create the impression that false accusations happen frequently and risks endorsing the myth that victims frequently lie. This plotline intensifies when the victim/survivor recants her disclosure on national TV due to harsh public scrutiny and is promptly arrested for wasting police time. The detectives are shown debating the veracity of her case, with the male detectives arguing that false accusations hurt real victims. Only Benson, the female lead detective, continues to believe the victim/survivor and convinces her to reveal at last that the perpetrator is her dad’s boss. Benson also counters the myth that victims lie when she explains that many victims recant because victimhood is a difficult position to be in and the criminal justice process is so difficult. 

The episode ends with the trial, which the victim/survivor is warned will be very difficult because she is known to have changed her story multiple times. Benson advises her to go ahead with the trial nonetheless because Benson says she has known a lot of victims who have regretted not going to trial but never any who regretted doing so. This seems like an unrealistic statement given the potentially retraumatising nature of sexual violence trials. The false rape allegation issue comes up predictably at trial, with the defence lawyer stating that 10% of rapes are proven to be false and that some experts put the figure higher. While this figure is at the upper boundary of the widely accepted 2-10% statistic on false accusations in the U.S.A., stating this figure outside the context that most sexual assaults are never reported can make it seem disproportionately significant. 

Ultimately, the defendant is found not guilty, but the victim/survivor states she doesn’t regret going to trial. Her decision is validated in the narrative’s conclusion when another young girl approaches her on the courthouse steps, thanks her for being brave enough to come forward, and then says that the same perpetrator assaulted her. But this victim/survivor-centred ending may not be sufficient to counterbalance the impact of dramatizing the false accusation myth on viewers, a myth which is known to be particularly sticky.

Episode 11: ‘Contagious’

Five episodes later, Episode 11 ‘Contagious’ returns to the territory of the false accusation. Here another child is shown to falsely accuse someone, again out of fear as the real perpetrator has threatened her family. This time the child names a neighbour and school coach as the perpetrator in response to intense questioning from the law enforcement team. When news of this leaks out, two more girls come forward and name the same perpetrator. Ultimately, all three are revealed to be lying – the first to protect her family and the latter two as a result of their mothers’ contagious hysteria. The grave effects on the falsely accused man and his family despite the recanted accusation are shown in detail – he loses his job and they move town. While the narrative is again strongly survivor centred – the detectives believe and support the child throughout and go to great lengths to find the true perpetrator – the narrative’s focus on false accusations and their deleterious effects on the falsely accused again risks confirming the harmful CSA myths that victims frequently lie and false accusations are common.