Accusations of rape and abuse are the more widely known despite the fact that these kinds of accusations are very rare. However many may wonder why would someone want to accuse another person of such horrible crimes. The answer to that is that people want attention, and also because they view it as a twisted way to get back at someone they dislike, similar to what Abigail did in The Crucible.

As we know, in the book, Abigail had been in an affair with John Proctor while she worked in his house, an affair which John had ended to the dismay of Abigail. Abigail however, hasn't moved on and forgotten, she stays obsessed with him, hoping to be able to be with John again. It is because of Abigail that the fear of witchcraft is spread through the people of Salem, it is because of her that the other girls lie to accuse innocent people of witchcraft.

Abigail is a manipulator, she knows the court and Judges will believe her over others because they can't accept the belief that a child would lie in such an awful way. The same is what happens in todays modern world. Most of the accusers in these cases of false rape and abuse report are women, and guess what? The modern court system favors women over men. Therefore they're more likely to believe a woman's false claims until there's clear evidence to disprove it.

This can also be related to a flawed justice system in both in both our time and in The Crucible. The Judges in the Crucible are shown to be irrational, making claims without proper evidence like believing everything Abigail and the Girls say while ignoring the rational arguments made by John and Giles. While in our time, courts seem to have gone soft on criminals despite what they've commited, with some criminals committing violence and only receiving few years.