Interesting Links for 10-01-2013

[andrewducker]

• The Enliven Project's false rape accusations infographic: great intentions, but it isn't accurate.
  (tags: rape statistics )
• Twitter Trend Reveals Transgender Discrimination from GPs
  (tags: lgbt nhs uk )
• The Story of the PING Program
  (tags: internet technology history )
• How to survive on 1.5kW.
  (tags: energy electricity )
• Using the firefly

Comments

[steer]

There's a more important problem not listed there with the Enliven project graphic which I tried to point out on twitter but it's hard in so few words. The main problem I see is this.

OK -- you need an estimate for falsely reported rapes:
They use this:
http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/the_voice_vol_3_no_1_2009.pdf
That is actually a meta review but cites 2-8% as the rate of false rape reports. (The other link reports that as incorrect).

They take the bottom end figure of 2%. Then they say that this only applies to accusations which are reported to the police (logic is reasonable-ish -- can't be a false accusation unless it is an accusation).

They are then left with the bulk of the figure -- these are claims of rape not reported to the police. Now we have no way of knowing whether someone who claims they have been raped but does not go to the police is more or less likely to be lying than someone who does. However, there's no reason to think that absolutely none of them lie. They don't know whether the claims in this area are false or true claims. The label they choose for that is "rapist".

[andrewducker]

I was hoping you'd come over here and point that out somewhere you could use more words - thank you!

[steer]

Glad to be of service. As you can probably tell, the issue bothered me. I've no problem with people pointing out that false rape accusations are over-exaggerated and we should not worry about them so much as we do... but the whole graphic seemed dishonest to me.