As I had expected, the news about the woman who has been ordered by a judge to take her children to see their father, the man who had raped her, is bringing out the claims by men’s rights activists that women frequently falsely accuse men of rape. A big problem is including unfounded cases with cases of outright false allegations. When a rape case is deemed unfounded, it does not mean the woman was lying.
This blog continues with some excellent information on how statistics on rape cases may feed into the myth that most rape allegations are false and therefore no rape occurred.
“Every year since 1989, in about 25 percent of the sexual assault cases referred to the FBI where results could be obtained, the primary suspect has been excluded by forensic DNA testing….”
There is a huge flaw in using this data to say that 25% of the sexual assaults reported didn’t happen and therefore 25% of the alleged rape victims are liars.
In many of the cases handled by the Innocence Project (where the quote above came from), those cleared through DNA testing were convicted of rape/murders. So making a direct correlation between a DNA mismatch and a false allegation (as the phrase is commonly used) would mean that no murder occurred. Since we know this isn’t true, the use of this data is meaningless in determining the percentage of alleged victims (in non-lethal rape cases) who lie about being raped.
An alarming national trend: False Rape Allegations by Eugene J. Kanin, Ph.D.
The investigation of all rape complaints always involves a serious offer to polygraph the complainants and the suspects. Additionally, for a declaration of false charge to be made, the complainant must admit that no rape had occurred. She is the sole agent who can say that the rape charge is false.
and
First, with very few exceptions, these complainants were suspect at the time of the complaint or within a day or two after charging. These recantations did not follow prolonged periods of investigation and interrogation that would constitute anything approximating a second assault. Second, not one of the detectives believed that an incident of false recantation had occurred. They argued, rather convincingly, that in those cases where a suspect was identified and interrogated, the facts of the recantation dovetailed with the suspect’s own defense
The investigation process used as the basis of this study raises a huge red flag. Even though the official stance is that all rape allegations are investigated fully, it’s clear that in the recanted cases investigators quickly assumed the accusers to be liars. Combine that assumption with the polygraph and you’ve got everything you need to get false confessions (and false retractions).
In the city studied by Kanin, there is no mention whether the recantations were given in response to a threat of criminal charges against those who reported rape or whether the recantations were influenced by a “We investigated your allegations and know you weren’t raped. What really happened was ____, isn’t that right?” type of questioning.
It would be fascinating if someone did a survey of all those who made rape reports in that city during the period of Kanin’s study to see how they would evaluate the police response and ethics. If they were asked: “Were you pressured to recant your rape allegation?” what percent would answer yes?
About reports of a 50% rate of false rape reports on campus referred to by Kanin, I suspect the high rate is due to combination of a mismatch in where people draw the line between “real” rape and unwanted but non-criminal sexual contact and the college’s desire to look as safe as possible. Likely the campus police would ask questions to see if the alleged victim did anything wrong or “stupid,” and if the answer was yes then the campus police could decide that what happened to her couldn’t be rape.
In my post Abyss2hope: Gang rape and university culture – a case study the gang rape describedwasn’t classified by the university as a rape. In fact if it were included in a study like Kanin’s it very well could be classified as a false allegation of rape.
The bottom line is I can’t find a single scientific reason to believe the claims that more rape reports are false allegations than any other type of serious crime.
Note: Also posted on my blog, http://abyss2hope.blogspot.com
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I don’t think you can say there isn’t “a single scientific reason to believe the claims that more rape reports are false allegations than any other type of serious crime“, when there isn’t a single scientific reason to believe the number of false rape accusations are the same as false accusations for other crimes. Especially considering there isn’t a standard number of possible false accusations across crimes. Take assault for example, where: in a HUGE percentage of cases, both parties claim the other is at fault. Clearly, someone is falsely accusing someone. Am I to assume you think that false accusations of rape occur with this frequency?
I’ve seen a dozen different claims about the percentage of rape accusations that are false, but as far as I can tell, neither researchers nor law enforcment/prosecutors feels like there’s any reliable data on the subject. As you noted, the FBI data, which is often cited by men’s groups and defense attorneys, really says nothing about the percentage of false accusations. And Kanin’s data (especially from this paper) is, as far as I can tell, rejected by everyone but defense attorneys, because the methodology is terrible. The only possible benefit of Kanin’s research is in understanding the motivations for false accusations, but since we don’t know their prevalence, and we don’t have a good method for studying their prevalence, I’m not sure what good that understanding does us.
Of course, even if we did know the prevalence of false accusations with any degree of certainty, it would be irrelevant in individual cases. The evidence is all that should matter in individual cases.
I agree; it’s the evidence that matters. The reality is, if there were a way to determine who is telling the truth, and who isn’t, we wouldn’t need trials.
I’m slightly puzzled by all this. Surely a false allegation is a false allegation whether someone deliberately constructs a lie aimed at particular man or not. All that you need for something to be a false allegation is (a) whether the crime was committed and (b) whether the person who the finger is pointed at actually did it.
Look at the quote from Harry O’Reilly at the Countess’ site. He talks about 250 unfounded reports:
(1) 200 are what he calls ‘simple administrative errors’. Where a woman phones the station and yells rape [his words, not mine], but it isn’t.
(2) 20 cases of false report were inspired by a woman concocting an excuse which would enable her to account for her behavour to a tyrannical husband/father.
(3) 25 are women with psychological problems, who need someone to talk to.
(4) 5 are ‘women maliciously telling lies and deliberately falsely accusing men of rapes that had never been committed’ and concludes that ‘the bottom line, then is that out of 2000 charges of rape, there were five proven liars’.
Well sorry, but all the above cases are false allegations and lies. You can’t get around that simply by trying to redefine what’s meant by false accusation to a ‘malicious’ lie aimed at a specific person as he does.
The problem is how do you design a system that deters people from making these allegations (which would have to involve some sort of sanction), but which doesn’t force people who’ve made a false allegation into not owning up through fear of being punished if they do so. That’s a tricky one.
Don’t bother with the crap Anandaanswers site. You can find an unabridged copy of Kanin’s report here (.doc file).
Indeed there would be, several huge errors in fact, but Ms McElroy doesn’t make them.
Firstly she explicitly defines a false accusation as one where “the specific accused is innocent.” She points out that this “does not distinguish between accusers who lie and those who are honestly mistaken. Nor does it indicate that a rape did not occur”. Secondly she recognises the “fuzzy” aspects of the figure.
I do have some issues with McElroy’s analysis. She doesn’t appear to recognise any possibility other than “lie” and “honest mistake”. But there is a third: the complainant may have made a truthful, accurate report, but that some other person, (most likely the police) may have incorrectly identified the suspect.
This error is compounded by her use of the word “accuser” with all the unfortunate connotations attached to it. (I prefer “complainant”, though that’s not perfect either.) There may be many people involved in the process by which a suspect is identified and “accused”, and the complainant may be the least of them. (Or not involved at all. I am aware of one case in which the victim (it was undisputed that she had been raped) claimed all along that the suspect was not her rapist. She even testified at his trial. He was convicted anyway on DNA evidence that later turned out to be faulty.)
I think you are misreading the cite. It doesn’t come from the Innocence Project, but from this Department of Justice Report The authors of that particular section are the founders of the Innocence Project, but they are referring not to the Project’s cases, but to the “roughly 10,000 sexual assault cases” which have been “referred to the FBI” and “where
results could be obtained”.
Indeed the most remarkable thing about that cite is how he manages to get from 250 putative false allegations to 5 without identifying a single true allegation among them.
I don’t see that it’s that important to deter any but the minority of false allegations which are credible. Most of the examples which O’Reilly gives are really cries for some form of help. You could perhaps deter them by providing other avenues for these people to obtain help, but that they do get the help they need is more important, I think, than they way they obtain it.
Daran
Consider your second statement in light of your first statement. It doesn’t make much sense to call someone calling 911 and saying “Help! I’m being raped!” a false allegation if the caller then says “No, sorry, I was just being punched, but I thought saying rape might get a faster response, or better deter my assailant.” The statement in the call wasn’t true, but it is irrelevant to measuring meaningful false allegations. There are only two kinds of false allegations that matter: category 2 and category 4, and category 2 matter only to the extend that the police are willing to pin an imaginary rape on someone innocent (and that the complainant is willing to carry their lie through to a conviction, or that the police are willing to fabricate such damning evidence that a negative ID doesn’t matter). And false convictions based on police being willing to pin a rape on someone innocent are probably just as likely to happen for actual stranger rapes (in which the rapist isn’t caught immediately) as they are for false claims of stranger rape. If the police can’t find the actual rapist, they may pin it on someone else.
Also, Daran,
To conflate false convictions with false accusations is ridiculous and irresponsible. Wildly misusing a term for maximum rhetorical effect and then caveatting your misuse by explaining the incorrect way you are using the term half way through the article is simply inexcusable. Furthermore, while she caveats her misuse of the term, she does not in any meaningful way remain consistent in her use of the term. Instead, she calls false convictions false accusations, and then uses the stats for false convictions to talk about false accusations. She makes exactly the mistake that abyss2hope accuses her of (except, of course, that it is not a mistake, it is a calculated rhetorical trick and a lie).
A 25% false conviction rate in some category of rapes is a real problem, but it is not a problem with rape accusations. Instead, it is a problem with law enforcement techniques and particularly with methods of identifying suspects. Although McElroy does spend a line or two on the actual problem, it isn’t what she focuses on (unsurprisingly, while painting rape victims as liars won’t hurt your chances to get to write for Fox, painting LE as over-eager to convict someone – anyone – probably would).
Central Content Publisher:
By the very nature of your example the assault occurred so there is no false accusation of assault. There is a very real and significant difference between a false allegation and conflicting statements about the same event which at least one person believes may be criminal.
In most rape cases that are called “he said, she said,” the defense attorney doesn’t argue that the alleged actions didn’t happen, only that those actions are not criminal. And if the alleged actions took place there is no false allegation even if the defendent is found not guilty.
For me the problem is that every rape report except those that end in a conviction (that nobody disputes) gets lumped into some people’s calculations of false allegations. But then that fuzzy number is applied far more specifically when an otherwise respectable man is charged with rape to say the odds are good that this alleged rape victim is a liar who should be convicted of a felony.
Could false accusations be higher in a culture or sub-culture where a woman’s “purity” has very high stakes? That is, she has too much to lose from being thought of as sexual? Or do such cultures give so little credibility to women that their accusations are less believed? Is the message from “To Kill a Mockingbird” not only that the false rape claim was believed because of race, but that the young white woman had too much to lose if people knew she was sexual, especially with a black man?
A young college student in my town was prosecuted for filing a false report. She claimed she was kidnapped and raped. Later the papers reported that she had been afraid of pregnancy from sex w/ a boyfriend and made up the story. They pled it down to some misdemeanor and the prosecutor ended up being rather compassionate towards her in his comments.
This happened two years ago. All I could think of was: where on earth is this girl from that she had unprotected sex, had never heard of Plan B, and thought that a good way out of her predicament was a false police report just in case she got pregnant? Either she was one sheltered and frightened woman, or she was a little unstable. Maybe both. She didn’t accuse her sexual partner, but a stranger. Her story fell apart right away, as I’m sure many such stories do these days with more sophisticated police.
Charles:
Actually, if you read her article, the reference Abyss2hope made came from another study. The writer accurately quoted a refernce, then commented on it. Strange, but the article from which the original quote came was a condemnation of the president’s anti-terrorism law and it’s chilling affect on the rights of those we can prove were falsely convicted.
Thank you, Daran, for pointing out that while the Innocence Project does deal with rape and murder convictions, the quoted reference does not come from their work.
I’m suprised that Abyss2hope didn’t take on the author of the Fox News article a bit more directly, as she is a self proclaimed feminist who herself points out:
Feminism is great when it promotes the equal treatment of men and women. It fails when it generates hyperbole in an attempt to marginalize men in general.
First, the police do not consider instances of using a rape claim in a 911 call as rape allegations. Please, give our police a little more credit for asking a few questions before filing out their police reports. Secondly, I find it a bit sick that you suggest people should yell rape to get faster attention from the police. I’ve been involved in a few 911 calls, and trust me, it doesn’t make any difference. As soon as they know they need to send someone, the closest officer will get there as soon as they can. Anyone taking your suggestion would only further marginalize real rape cases.
Abyss2hope,
The remainder of your article laments on the inability of our police to investigate rape. Yes, this is a problem. Aside from insisting that police try harder to convict more men of rape, do you have any suggestions?
To quote ifeminists.com:
The only solution I can think of would be to mandate that all sex acts need to be videotaped to ensure the right of the public to judge and critique the level of consent garnered and granted.
This blog continues with some excellent information on how statistics on rape cases may feed into the myth that most rape allegations are false and therefore no rape occurred.
What myth? Who is proposing that most rape allegations are false?
Abyssehope:
By the very nature of your example the assault occurred so there is no false accusation of assault.
One of the problems with the term ‘false allegation/accusation’ is that the word “false” has two quite distinct meanings: It can mean factually or logically untrue as in ‘2 + 2 = 3 is false’, or it can mean ‘wrongful’ as in ‘false arrest’.
Most assaults begin with one person attacking the other. If each accuses that the other of starting it, then one of those accusations will be false in the factual sense. Furthermore, if the assailant intentionally accuses the victim of launching the attack, then it is false in the ‘wrongful’ sense of the word.
I cannot, therefore agree with your statement that ‘there is no false accusation’ in this case
My understanding is that it is a rare case indeed in which no material facts at all are in dispute. I suspect that what commonly happens is that the basic fact of an act of sexual penetration is undisputed, but that other facts which tend to imply force or it’s lack, or consent or its lack, are disputed.
If the actual facts of the matter are that intercourse between complainant and defendant took place, force wasn’t used, and consent was granted, then the accusation was false (in the factual sense of the word) to the extent that the complainant alledged force or non-consent. If further, she made these allegations knowing them to be false, then the accusation is false in the ‘wrongful’ sense.
Indeed, a not guilty verdict does not constitute a finding that the accusation was false in either sense of the word.
I agree that is a problem with some people’s figures for false allegations. The reverse is also a problem. For some people, the only accusations which are false are those which are verifiably so, and maliciously made. Brownmiller is one such person. Harry O’Reilly – whose department was the ultimate source of the 2% figure usually traced back to Brownmiller – is another.
The difference is that the people who worry you tend to be isolated figures crying in the wilderness, and who are rightly regarded as lunatics by all right-thinking people. The people who worry me are influential feminists and former policemen who have been very successful in promulgating their bogus figures to the feminist movement at large, to law enforcement, and to government.
Azbballfan wrote:
Azbballfan, I’m getting the impression that you’re approaching this conversation with an attitude of mockery and contempt for the feminists here. That’s not allowed on this blog. Either start writing as if you actually have some respect for people who don’t agree with your every view, or go away.
By the way, it’s not at all true, as McElroy says, that “women perpetrate violence against their children and spouses at rates that are at least comparable to those of men.” Part of the problem with McElroy – and with people who repeat what she says without a bit of skeptical thought – is that she’s so dedicated to the idea that women are Equal Victimizers (At Least) that she ends up very much distorting the truth.
On a related note: S. African ex-deputy president cleared of rape. The judge made his finding in part because the accuser “had a history of making rape claims that turned out to be false, and said he did not believe that Zuma [the accused] would risk raping her when a police guard and his daughter were nearby.” If you want some of the background, I wrote a little bit about this story on my blog.
For those who were confused by the link between the DNA mismatch statistic of 25% and the Innocence Project, I’ll clarify. I know the data didn’t originate with the Innocence Project. However, the Innocence Project’s work clearing men wrongly convicted of real rape/murders demonstrates that the percentage of DNA mismatches tells us nothing about the percentage of rape cases where the accuser fabricated a rape.
I’ll make myself perfectly clear: Just because a DNA test proves that a particular man didn’t commit a rape doesn’t mean the rape never happened.
Daran,
By bringing up disputes over details in rape cases and in assault cases, you’re going off on a tangent that has nothing to do with false (fabricated) allegations of rape.
Abyss2hope:
My suggestion requiring videotape evidence for all sexual encounters was not intended to offend. It was intended to express dismay. As you pointed out, in rape cases, investigators can far too easily steer either party to get to a pre-desired outcome. “So you aren’t sure you said no?” – “So you aren’t sure she didn’t say no?”
The prevalence of video cameras built into just about everything is creating more cases which provide video evidence. This evidence seems to be the most compelling available when it does exist.
Aside from there being evidence of physical trauma or witnesses, there’s not much available to corroborate either side’s story in a he said/she said dispute.
I still ask what more can the authorities do – and what laws can we pass which will help us better ascertain 1) if a rape occurred and 2) when confirmed, who did it.
DNA evidence seems to be flawed. There are some standard consent forms circulating on youth websites to use, but there is always the chance of coersion.
What the Innocence Project’s work clearing women and men wrongly convicted of murder and rape does indicate is that our system of justice has been willing and able to convict the wrong person for a crime they didn’t commit.
The statistics quoted in the article do indicate that 40% of reported rapes do not have DNA evidence to corroborate the accuser’s identification of her attacker.
Azbballfan,
You aren’t worth the time to refute. Go back to comment #4, look at the 4 categories of false rape allegations, and you will see that category #1 (the largest category) is women calling 911 and saying “rape” when they weren’t being raped. Give the police enough credit that they do actually note down what crime is alleged in 911 calls.
Your initial dismissive comment is so incoherent and lacking a referent that I have no idea what you think you are talking about. I made no discussion of the papers McElroy referenced, only a discussion of McElroy’s choice of terminology. I have no doubt McElroy is just your sort of feminist , but she is also a demagogic hack.
Also, your attempt to conflate “should” and “do” is laughable, but it does show that you are working hard to learn the rhetorical techniques of your favorite feminist.
Azbballfan, you are going off on a tangent that has nothing to do with the subject of this post.
Um, no.
The remarkable thing would be that people act as if all 250 of the unfounded allegations involve women deliberately lying just so they can get someone in trouble.
The vast majority of these 250 women are simply following the same advice my self-defense instructor gave my class. She told us to yell “rape!” rather than “stop!” or “no!” (and to never just yell “help!”) if we were attacked (even if we weren’t sure if rape was our attacker’s intent) because people are more likely to come running to help you.
Arguing that those 200 women filed false rape charges is kinda like saying that if I yell “fire!” instead of any of the above (another common suggestion) I might as well have filed a full on police report that a specific person is guilty of arson.
Actually, there was a rape case just recently in the Chicago-area courts where there was a video made.
Three teenage boys in a wealthy enclave got together with a girl about the same age (we’re talking ~17 years old at the time of the acts) at one of their parents’ house when the parents were away. This happened about 1 mile from my house as the crow flies (although my neck of the woods is decidedly not wealthy). All of the boys apparently had sex with the girl. One of them had a video camera and made a lengthy tape of the encounters. Later on, the girl accused the boys of raping her. Two of the 3 boys fled the country. One later returned. The two that were in-country were put on trial. All the principals testified. The tape was played for the jury.
The jury returned a verdict of “not guilty”. The jurors were later quoted as saying that the girl seemed to be enjoying herself and was cooperating with the boys. I can’t comment on the jurors’ judgement, as obviously the tape has not been played publicly. I wish I could provide a link, but I’m not able to come up with one after doing a Google search.
“Not guilty” does not equal “innocent”, but given the fact that there was a videotape I’m inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the boys and conclude that the allegations were false. Would the study above count these as false allegations?
Ronf,
Is this the case you are referring to? If so, I find it deeply troubling that you could even consider calling that a false allegation of rape.
The vast majority of these 250 women are simply following the same advice my self-defense instructor gave my class. She told us to yell “rape!” rather than “stop!” or “no
Really? All my instructors said to yell “fire” as that was most likely to bring people running than “help” or “rape”.
Abyss2hope, that is the case in question. Thanks for the link. Understand that while the prosecution said that the video showed the girl too drunk to give consent, the defense disagreed and so did the jury, all of whom have had the advantage over us in having actually seen the tape.
There is a huge flaw in using this data to say that 25% of the sexual assaults reported didn’t happen and therefore 25% of the alleged rape victims are liars.
There is also a huge flaw in asserting that because 25% of those accused of sexual assault could not have been the perpetrator, that the woman is telling the truth in those 25% cases and pointed out the right man.
If I am robbed, and accuse someone who could not, did not rob me, and then his innocence is proven in court, only a sophist would argue that I am not guilty of falsely accusing him.
He didn’t do it. The court says so. I picked him just to have someone to blame.
ergo I have falsely accused him. Yet I have still been robbed.
Just because someone was raped doesn’t mean that they accuse the perp.
To accuse the wrong man is the definition of falsely accusing.
Lee:
That might be your motive, but you are making a huge jump to make that the cause of all DNA mismatches. You are also assuming that the primary suspect was falsely identified by the victim when that isn’t included in the original data. Witnesses could have seen the primary suspect in the area where the rape occurred. Cops could have pulled the primary suspect’s name from the sex offender registry.
Since some rape victims are subsequently murdered, your blanket statement can be blaming victims who didn’t live to make an identification – accurate or mistaken.
Lee:
The sophistry is on your side.
As Marcella pointed out, the mere fact that a suspect was identified does not mean that he was identified by the complainant. A lot of identifications are made by the police. Perhaps you could answer the questions I pose here to see how it fits your framing of “false accusation”.
Secondly to accuse the wrong man is not “the” definition of false accusation. It “a” definition. Another definition of “false”, very commonly used in legal contexts is “wrongful”. When we talk about a false arrest, we aren’t saying that the person wasn’t really arrested. We’re saying that they were really arrested, and they shouldn’t have been. Ditto “false conviction”. Antifeminists typically confuse these two meanings when they attribute “false accusations” to “lying women”, as implied by your robbery example above. To “lie” implies wrongful intent, malice. Mistaken identity does not factor into consideration.
Conveniently ignored by antifeminists is the fact that out of the twenty-eight cases discussed in the report from which this figure comes, only one fits the stereotype of a “lying woman”. Mistaken identification by the complainant, while significant, is not the overarching causal factor. “Lying expert witnesses” caused more false convictions than “lying women”.
But let’s go with your definition. The problem now is that the courts don’t make the determination you claim they do. They don’t declare a charge to be false. All an acquittal means is that there is reasonable doubt that the charge might not be true.
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