A couple more statistics:

• In the Australian state of Victoria, from 2000-2003, police classified only 2.1% of reported rapes as false reports. (Statewide Steering Committee to Reduce Sexual Assault. Study of reported rapes in Victoria. Office of Women's Policy, Department for Victorian Communities, Melbourne, July 2006.)
  
  
• In 1991, the San ( Read more... )

Although it's a common belief that women frequently falsely report rape, there is no evidence that this is the case, and some evidence that women do not often make false reports. In 2007 I made a series of postings in which I outlined some of the research. I'd like to follow those up now with some more facts and figures specifically about false ( Read more... )

• "The Portland Oregon police reported in 1990 that of the 431 rape and attempted rape complaints received, 1.6% were determined to be false compared with 2.6% of stolen vehicle reports that were false. A 1989 comparative analysis of data on false rape allegations reported a rate of 2%." (Schafran, Lynn Hecht. Writing and Reading About Rape: A ( Read more... )

• UK figures from a 2005 Home Office Research Study, A gap or a chasm? Attrition in reported rape cases: "Nine per cent of reported cases were designated false... However, closer analysis of this category applying Home Office counting rules reduces this to three per cent. Even the higher figure is considerably lower than the extent of false reporting ( Read more... )

Good grief. I tried a simple Google search for any information on the rate of false reports of rape, but any reliable information was utterly swamped by bullshit. What I want is research, not factoids, whining from convicted rapists, conspiracy theories, and - I'm trying to think of a polite way to describe the pandering to men by faux "feminists ( Read more... )

• "Some women do lie, of course, but the number of women who make false reports is negligible in comparison with the number of valid complainants. In a six-month period in New York City there were around 2000 reported rapes, of which about 250 were unfounded reports. But 'unfounded' does not mean lying... After analysing all the 'unfounded' reports, ( Read more... )

• There's often confusion between reports which were recanted, and reports which did not lead to prosecution for one of many reasons. "This is one way in which rates of false allegation have been inflated and misrepresented. It may be reported that false allegations of rape occur at the rate of 30%, for example, when what is really meant is that 30% ( Read more... )

There's a widespread belief that women often make false reports of rape, posing a serious risk to innocent men. For a long time now, I've been meaning to write an essay challenging this view. To the best of my knowledge, there is no real evidence that women often make false rape reports. The incorrect belief that they do has had serious ( Read more... )

U-Turn on Memory Lane

As a younger woman I was a big fan of myth-busters like James Randi, and joined the Australian Skeptics. After a blazing row (IRL!) with a Skeptic who argued that rape was a largely harmless crime, I quit them. More recently, I discovered the close connection between CSICOP and the FMSF. Talk about feet of clay. :-(