In a post that was about a funny (and slightly very rapey) gif, I incidentally referred to Africa as the "rape capital of the world".

Here is that post for those interested.

Well anyway, someone called me out and so I was forced to do some quick research to defend my statement xD. What I learned rather surprised me.

Yeah, sure. Here is a good starting point, because it attempts to account for how under-reported rape is, particularly in less-developed nations.

It's interesting to note that we have to separate estimated cases of rape here from reported cases of rape. If we consider reported cases, then the countries ranking highest include Sweden, and the US. Countries that also, incidently, have some of the strongest women's lobbies and the most widespread adoption of feminist attitudes.

And of course these statistics are only based on data for male-female rape. If we take a look at male-male rape, outside of prison populations, It seems male victims of rape also are most common in African nations, based on the findings of ethnographic studies (particularly related to the genocidal civil wars and as a form of anti-gay violence due to virulent homophobia in African countries). OF course we can't know this for certain since this particular class of rape victim is the most under-reported of all [1],[2],[3].

As a small aside, if we account for prison populations, the US likely is in fact the rape capital of the world. And not only that, but There are more male than female victims.

But I was mostly referring only to the kind of rape that people actually care about, which is the kind that the UN keeps and reports statistics on (M-F).

Essentially, if we first include male victims or rapes in statistics, and second include prison rapes, the US is the rape capital of Earth, and not only that, but most rape victims are male.

I dunno about you, but I felt a bit like "Sudden Realization Ralph" when I found this out.