Resilience and Coping Strategies in the Face of False Allegations: A Review

Nowadays a lot of attention is rightly given to victims. However, in life or in court the truth may not always be what it seems. What happens when a "criminal" is actually just a victim of a false allegation? This is a literature review about false allegations and how this crime's victims can effectively demonstrate resilience and cope with the pain inflicted to them through the lies or genuine unawareness of the perpetrators. False allegations and their psychological correlates as a research topic has only fairly recently been gaining traction, therefore the literature on the resilience factors, as well as coping strategies involved remain scarce. This humble work aims at contributing to a surge in scientific interest regarding the topic, in hope of improving the conditions of falsely accused men and women. Overall, resilience and coping for survivors of false allegations seemed to function in accordance to current trauma treatment theory as well as post-traumatic growth theory. Individuals who used problem, social and meaning-focused coping strategies produced better coping and potential for post-traumatic growth, whereas emotion-focused strategies produced more ambiguous results. In the present study, the populations of falsely accused individuals and exonerees are analysed together. Further research trying to reduce the methodological weaknesses of this area of study is needed. As more studies are carried out on the subject, the two populations will naturally be explored separately. A curious effect of psychotherapy on false allegations also calls for more research in this direction.