A ten year old girl admitted that she hadn't been a victim of an attempted "hair kidnapping", as she and her brother had found scissors in their basement, and chopped off each others hair instead. Fearing punishment from her parents, she told her convincing tale to a neighbor,who in turn called the police. The girl later admitted it was a hoax hours later when the police questioned a change in her story. There was no intruder, she admitted, and she simply feared punishment from her parents for chopping off her brother's hair, and he her's.
We've seen these stories so much within the last few years. A 19 year old girl partying in Scotland cried rape after celebrating too hard at an Irish day parade. She felt like she couldn't tell her family she had been partying, so she sent her neighborhood and police into a frenzy looking for a "long black car." that she alledged she had been dragged into and raped. We've seen the fame hungry Heene family from Colorado claim that a helium filled balloon had their son in it. Their 6 year old son later admitted to Wolfe Blitzer that he had been hiding in his closet, as the hoax was for " a reality show." Instead of getting the reality show they wanted, the boy's father Richard got 90 days in jail. My dad sat on a jury here in Pittsburgh where a girl alledged her boyfriend had raped her, only to confess that the sex had been consentual shortly before the jury announced the verdict. My dad told me later that they were going to find him guilty.
I don't like giving these types of stories coverage, to be honest. But there are so many social media platforms, such as CNN, that label these as "must reads." For the life of me, I don't understand why a child feels that punishment would be so severe for consentual sex or cutting hair that they need to create outlandish stories instead. It damages reputations of people, sends families and their surrounding areas into a frenzy, and wastes the time of police. Homicide investigators have been pulled off cases to work these as well, and as I noted, some go all the way to trial. I often wonder about the environment that these adolescents and teens live in that they feel an elaborate hoax is easier to tell rather then the simple truth.
Is it any indcitment on the parenting or eniviroment these children live in that they feel they need to cry rape or kidnapper rather then admitting the truth?
What level of accountability should children such as the 10 year old from Germany be held to for lying about such serious allegations?
Any other thoughts on this?
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/03/girls-hair-raising-kidnap-tale-a-hoax-police-say/
A 10-year-old girl in Hanover, Germany, told neighbors and police that a scissors-wielding man had tried to kidnap her and cut off her hair Tuesday, but that wasn't quite true.
In fact, it wasn't true at all, the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported.
After police spent several hours searching the girl's neighborhood for the perpetrator and guarding her house against his return, the girl admitted she had made the whole thing up.
The real story, the paper reported, was that the girl and her younger brother had found a pair of scissors in their basement and haphazardly cut off each other's hair. Realizing their parents would be upset, she told the kidnap story to a neighbor, who called police.
However, the police became skeptical when the girl's story changed after a couple of hours. She at first said the man had entered the house and confronted her; she later said she had run into him outside, and he followed her into the house, intent on stealing her hair.
We've seen these stories so much within the last few years. A 19 year old girl partying in Scotland cried rape after celebrating too hard at an Irish day parade. She felt like she couldn't tell her family she had been partying, so she sent her neighborhood and police into a frenzy looking for a "long black car." that she alledged she had been dragged into and raped. We've seen the fame hungry Heene family from Colorado claim that a helium filled balloon had their son in it. Their 6 year old son later admitted to Wolfe Blitzer that he had been hiding in his closet, as the hoax was for " a reality show." Instead of getting the reality show they wanted, the boy's father Richard got 90 days in jail. My dad sat on a jury here in Pittsburgh where a girl alledged her boyfriend had raped her, only to confess that the sex had been consentual shortly before the jury announced the verdict. My dad told me later that they were going to find him guilty.
I don't like giving these types of stories coverage, to be honest. But there are so many social media platforms, such as CNN, that label these as "must reads." For the life of me, I don't understand why a child feels that punishment would be so severe for consentual sex or cutting hair that they need to create outlandish stories instead. It damages reputations of people, sends families and their surrounding areas into a frenzy, and wastes the time of police. Homicide investigators have been pulled off cases to work these as well, and as I noted, some go all the way to trial. I often wonder about the environment that these adolescents and teens live in that they feel an elaborate hoax is easier to tell rather then the simple truth.
Is it any indcitment on the parenting or eniviroment these children live in that they feel they need to cry rape or kidnapper rather then admitting the truth?
What level of accountability should children such as the 10 year old from Germany be held to for lying about such serious allegations?
Any other thoughts on this?