A 23-year-old woman’s rape allegations were a lie, Anne Arundel County police now say.

Earlier this week, they said the woman called them around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday and told them she was sexually assaulted while walking in a wooded area in Severn about 90 minutes earlier.

Police soon concluded that claim wasn’t true, said Cpl. Sara Schriver, a police spokeswoman.

Schriver insisted she couldn’t legally release any more information about how or why police determined it was a false report, whether the victim recanted or what her motivation might have been. She also refused to identify the woman.

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Although filing a false police report is against the law, Schriver said no charges would be brought.

The woman has been referred to the appropriate medical and counseling services, Schriver said.

About 40 percent of the cases worked by the department’s sexual assault investigators turn out to be false, but the complainants are rarely charged, Schriver said.

“We don’t want to inhibit the real victims from coming forward,” she said.

Schriver said the decision to charge someone with filing a false report is made based on the effort and time expended by investigators, lab technicians and medical professionals. She said police would likely charge someone if police followed the case for a week only to have the alleged victim confess to lying about the incident.

“Within the first two days or so we usually notice something,” Schriver said.

Alleged victims whose claims are later proved false often report being assaulted as a way of seeking attention, Schriver said. Other people claim rape to make a significant other jealous or to get out of a bad situation.

There have been 78 cases of rape, including statutory rape, reported in Anne Arundel County so far this year, according to police statistics.

Schriver said she could not immediately provide statistics on the number police determined were falsely reported.

stracy@baltimoreexaminer.com