Wrongly accusing someone of a crime is generally intentional tort cases. An intentional tort is a deliberate attempt of causing harm to another and differs from most civil cases based on negligence. Negligence arises in unintentional accidents where the liable party carelessly causes the incident rather than deliberately trying to cause harm.
As most personal injury claims do not involve deliberate wrongdoing, they do not qualify for punitive damages. However, intentional tort cases are different since the defendant deliberately injured the plaintiff by making a false statement. Therefore, punitive damages, designed to punish the wrongdoer, can be more common with defamation lawsuits and other intentional torts.