If you are affected by false sexual misconduct allegations, you are NOT alone. Since 2013, Families Advocating for Campus Equality (FACE) has assisted thousands of accused individuals and provides confidential support for victims of false allegations and their family members. If you have been accused, please review What to Do if Accused. To learn more about how to protect yourself from false sexual misconduct allegations, please check Avoid Allegations. Students or faculty members accused of sexual misconduct are strongly encouraged to seek the advice of legal counsel immediately, regardless of any local law enforcement involvement and any procedural guidelines or restraints on legal representation at the school. Although separate from our civil and criminal court system, the school disciplinary process can have devastating life-long effects on future educational and employment opportunities. Sexual misconduct (i.e., assault, rape) should be handled by courts of law rather than unqualified campus tribunals.
What FACE Does
FACE supports and advocates for equal treatment and due process for all affected by campus disciplinary processes. Furthermore, we support projects to create balanced Title IX procedures and protections against false or untrue accusations and criminal behavior on campus. We believe that many untrue accusations in campus tribunals are not knowingly untrue but are likely misremembered or otherwise distorted by intoxication, peer pressure, activist misrepresentation, and campus culture. Whether the false accusations are deliberate, misguided, or misremembered is irrelevant to those accused; they have been implicated for something they did not do and will suffer devastating consequences. We will refer to all untrue accusations, including deliberate, misguided, or misremembered, as “wrongful.”
Why Advocate for Those Wrongfully Accused
When it comes to sex-related offenses, there are many organizations devoted to supporting and advocating for victims of rape and sexual assault. Still, very few organizations exist that support and advocate for victims of wrongful accusations of such offenses. FACE is committed to filling this gap so the voices of the wrongfully accused will be adequately heard. Because, unlike accusers, wrongfully accused individuals will be publicly humiliated and vilified based only on an accusation and will gain little or nothing from publicly insisting that they were wrongfully accused, many people will assume the accusation alone proves guilt. If found not responsible and they go public, many people will still think they did it and say, “They just got off.” There is nothing to gain and much to lose by telling someone you were wrongfully accused of a heinous offense. Contrast that with the incentives for accusers. If they win their case on campus, most will go public, claim the mantle of victimhood, and be honored for their bravery in speaking out. If they lose their case, they can still claim the mantle of victimhood and accuse the school of getting it wrong. This is why the stories of accusers, not the wrongfully accused, dominate the public sphere. Whether they prevail or not, wrongfully accused victims rarely gain from publicly telling their stories, so FACE is committed to speaking for them.