Recently, I found an interesting study from the Australian government called: Challenging misconceptions about sexual offending: Creating an evidence‑based resource for police and legal practitioners

63daddy · 2021-08-13T13:59:49+00:00

Many studies I’ve seen similarly indicate about 5% of rapes accusations are PROVEN false, that is the person either confesses it to be false or it’s proven false in court.

To focus only on that however is misleading. A huge percent of rape accusations are dismissed due to lack of merit and clearly many of these are false as well, but there’s no telling exactly how many. There have been studies, but they vary widely in their estimates.

This study of one police jurisdiction found that over 40% of rape allegations were classified as false by investigating police. That’s notably more than the proven 5% figure.

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/false-rape-allegations

MadPooter · 2021-08-13T15:45:51+00:00

To add to what /u/63daddy posted, I've also seen the 5% number repeatedly mischaracterized. In fact, if you follow the citation in the link you provided, you'll come across this very phenomenon.

"The total false reporting rate, including both confirmed and equivocal cases, would be greater than the 5% rate found here."

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-015-0666-2

This is different than the language from the link you provided, which states "Studies estimate 5% of rape allegations are false (meta-analysis of seven studies in Western countries: Ferguson & Malouff, 2016). Therefore, the overwhelming majority of sexual offence reports are true."

There's somewhat of a corollary with lawsuits, at least in the U.S. Not many people know that only that approximately 80-90% of cases settle, which means that potentially only 1 in 10 cases is going to go to trial.

So what we're left with is that only 10% of civil cases are going to be tried by a jury, and if you're talking about a finding of proof one way or the other, it's a coin flip. This means that you're going to have a finding by a jury one way or the other in only 5% of the civil cases filed.

Getting back to your post--a more useful reference for this discussion would both present an accurate depiction of the likely total number of false sexual assault allegations, which would include both those that were confirmed false as well as equivocal cases, and also provide a comparison as to how many sexual assault allegations are confirmed to be true.

Unfortunately, a lot of the equivocal cases come down to a they said/they said (to use the parlance of our times) situation where it depends on who you believe. And the characterization that only 5% of sexual assault claims are false means that in any circumstance involving equivocation of a false assault allegation, there is going to be presumption that the allegation is true, which is a miscarriage of justice.

Title	Recently, I found an interesting study from the Australian government called: Challenging misconceptions about sexual offending: Creating an evidence‑based resource for police and legal practitioners
Author	JabMolassie
Upvotes	25
Comments	3
Date	August 12, 2021 6:33 PM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/p35vg5/recently_i_found_an_interesting_study_from_the/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/recently-i-found-an-interesting-study-from-the.1058680 https://theredarchive.com/post/1058680

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