british study shows false rape claims are complicated matters

[niyad]

British Study Shows False Rape Claims are Complicated Matters

The United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) recently released a report highlighting the complexity—and SCARCITY—of false rape allegations. The report was issued in response to a 2010 court appeal in which a woman pleaded guilty to falsely retracting true allegations of rape that she had made against her husband, and was then sentenced to eight months imprisonment for “perverting the course of justice.”

CPS considered whether the woman should be prosecuted for false allegations or protected as a victim of rape. The case inspired a closer look at circumstances surrounding alleged false claims of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence, and ultimately proved that false allegations are not as common or straightforward as sometimes thought. Most importantly, this report confirms what feminists have known for years: Victim-blaming is totally uncalled for.

Women are frequently accused of fabricating sexual assault to gain sympathy. According to CPS, such accusations hold almost no weight. Throughout a 17-month period in England and Wales, CPS found only a small number of false allegations: 35 out of 5,651 prosecutions for rape, 6 out of 111,891 for domestic violence and 3 for both rape and domestic violence.

Furthermore, these few false allegations were often complicated by other factors, such as victims having mental health difficulties or someone other than the victim making the false allegation. Perhaps more concerning was some cases of false claims revealed abusive situations where victims were “put under pressure to admit to having made a false allegation.” CPS shows us that false allegations are likely red flags for mistreatment, and the victim probably isn’t lying about abuse. In a world where rape survivors are sometimes branded
#Whore and accused of ruining their rapists’ “promising futures,” it’s hard to believe that women would want to lie about sexual assault.
. . . .

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2013/05/07/british-study-shows-false-rape-claims-are-complicated-matters/

[niyad]

1. a very important point in the article:

. . .

When people exaggerate the likelihood of false rape allegations, THEY VALUE THE ATTACKER OVER THE ATTACKED (emphasis mine).
. . . .

[zerosumgame0005]

7. personally, while I hate when someone is raped

I also feel for the 35 guys (in this one study) falsely accused and marked for life by the accusation...

[niyad]

8. welcome to DU

[redqueen]

9. Did you miss this part?

some cases of false claims revealed abusive situations where victims were “put under pressure to admit to having made a false allegation.” CPS shows us that false allegations are likely red flags for mistreatment, and the victim probably isn’t lying about abuse

Perhaps you meant to say that although you feel bad for all those thousands of women who were raped and beaten, you also feel for however many of those 35 guys weren't simply coercing their partners to recant their accusations.

[niyad]

12. and then, of course, we have the problem of da's who arbitrarily decide that a victim's claims are

false, based only on their own unwillingness to prosecute a rape case, as I read years ago.

[redqueen]

13. Yep. Many are only too happy to count those cases as 'false allegations' to push their propaganda.

It's sickening.

[Orrex]

23. Out of curiosity...

Do you suppose that it's more a matter of difficult prosecution, or simply the prosecutor's unwillingness to pursue a case?

I suspect that it's a mix of the two in some proportion, which is another problem altogether, and it probably leads assholes to conclude that false accusations are far more common than they really are.

[niyad]

31. no doubt there is a mix of the two, but more often, I think, simply the da's unwillingness to

pursue (we won't say sheer laziness, or hatred of women, will we?)

[zerosumgame0005]

18. "some cases"

does not mean all of those cases. and the last part does not convince me, seeing we have had recent cases freed by DNA of raping anyone. The Central Park 5 comes to mind right away. So yes, SOME men are falsely accused, but that does not in any way say there was no rape. Simply the wrong man or men were accused. Clear enough for you now?

[redqueen]

22. lol, yeah, I know what "some" means. Thanks, though.

Welcome to DU.

Enjoy your stay.

[niyad]

38. looks like someone needs to change their socks, eh?

[redqueen]

54. Hahaha... YEP! nt

[bettyellen]

11. that's not what the article says though. try again?

[zerosumgame0005]

19. look above

then try to widen your viewpoint to include reality.

[Orrex]

21. Golly!

I predict that you'll be a long-lived and productive member of the DU community.

[zerosumgame0005]

27. what did I post that was incorrect?

Look into the Central Park 5 case, it is just one case with 5 kids falsely accused of a rape that did happen meanwhile the real rapist was still out there doing more. I never denied that rapes happen, simply that emotion and being lazy and going after low-hanging fruit to boost numbers for the political career of some DA does not help anyone. Do you really disagree? How many innocent men would it take for you to agree? There have been other cases too. no, not the majority, we are talking about only 35 out of 10's of thousands of cases after all. Do not make the stupid mistake of trying to put words in my mouth.

[Orrex]

30. Golly!

I predict that you'll be a long-lived and productive member of the DU community.

[zerosumgame0005]

34. spamming that

only shows you have no point...

[Orrex]

48. Golly!

I predict that you'll be a long-lived and productive member of the DU community.

[Squinch]

51. .

[niyad]

32. you keep referring to the central park 5, which has NOTHING to do with false allegations of rape.

Last edited Wed May 8, 2013, 08:05 PM - Edit history (1)

the VICTIM in the central park case had NOTHING to do with bringing charges against those young men. She was so badly injured she had no memory of the attack itself, and was not the one claiming they were responsible.

there is a difference between a person supposedly falsely claiming rape, and the police and the da's office wrongly prosecuting people. conflating the two is disingenuous, to say the least. nice try, though.

[zerosumgame0005]

33. yes it does

it is about 5 guys falsely accused of rape. they were tried and convicted in the press for something they did not do. Are you trying to re-define the word "accuse" or something? Or do you just not understand the question?

[niyad]

37. keep trying. the study, and the issue, is about the number of false CLAIMS of rape. it is NOT

about wrongful prosecutions for rape. but you just keep trying. some might actually believe your nonsense.

[zerosumgame0005]

41. these guys might

http://q13fox.com/2013/04/12/dna-frees-man-after-38-years-in-jail-for-a-rape-and-murder-he-didnt-commit/#axzz2SkfaAl5g

http://www.9news.com/news/article/265717/188/DNA-evidence-could-free-man-convicted-of-rape-murder

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/11/2672832/dna-test-frees-selma-man-accused.html

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20110124_DNA_test_frees_rape_suspect.html?id=114470804

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/01/27/hearing-to-look-at-dna-from-1986-sex-assault-case/

and to top it all you are basing you fevered replies with the ASSumption made by the authors of the study that ALL 35 of the ones they cannot show as actual rapes HAVE to be under duress without anything to support it in all 35 cases. Which is where all this started with some of you feeling it was somehow wrong to feel bad for those few who ARE falsely accused of rape. As if that somehow means I approve of rape. Screw that noise

[niyad]

42. keep trying, sweetie. the study was about the very low incidence of false CLAIMS of rape.

it has NOTHING whatsoever to do with wrongful arrests and prosecutions. since this is clearly one of your issues, please feel free to post your own threads about a subject which, once again, has NOTHING to do with the subject of this thread. reading comprehension is your friend. remdi95

[redqueen]

50. He is trying to derail by focusing on an entirely separate issue.

It's an extremely common tactic in discussions issues that certain types of people would rather not be discussed.

[niyad]

52. and, a tactic to which they think we are completely oblivious. they are so cute sometimes, aren't

they?

[redqueen]

53. LOL...

Yes indeed.

[nomorenomore08]

36. "There is a difference between a person supposedly falsely claiming rape,

and the police and the DA's office wrongly prosecuting people."

And I would suspect that the latter is a good deal more common than the former. Also that neither is as common as many people assume.

The case of the Central Park 5, while appalling, most likely had more to do with racial bias/profiling on the part of law enforcement and the legal system, than anything else. Certainly it wasn't the victim's fault.

[niyad]

44. this from The Nation about this case (you are correct, it has NOTHING to do with the victim)

 
On April 16, PBS broadcast The Central Park Five, a film by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon. The documentary, based on Sarah’s book of the same name, reviews the hysteria that accompanied the 1990 trial of five young men accused of raping and beating Trisha Meili as she was jogging. Those young men—Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, Korey Wise and Kevin Richardson—were exonerated in 2002 when convicted murderer Matias Reyes confessed, and his DNA was found to match the evidence from Meili’s rape and a string of other unsolved rapes in or near the park.



I sat in on the trial and have written in these pages about my concern that there was no evidence linking the defendants to the crime (“Reasons for Doubt,” December 12, 2002). The footprints and semen didn’t match; there was no blood or mud on the defendants’ clothing; their supposed confessions were factually wrong; and one police officer testified that the wording in three of the written confessions was his own. A forensic expert testified that the hair samples were “more consistent” with Caucasian than African-American hair, but the prosecution successfully argued that this meant they were not inconsistent. Even after their exoneration, prosecutor Linda Fairstein maintained that the young men had to have been responsible for a number of other park muggings that night, but the timeline does not add up, and none of the victims of those muggings were able to conclusively identify any of the defendants. Finally, no less than Bob Herbert called the victim “the single most effective and sympathetic witness I have ever seen.” Sympathetic she surely was. Except that she didn’t “witness” anything related to the defendants; her injuries were so severe she could remember nothing about the attack.

If ever there was a cautionary tale about why our system presumes innocence, this was it. Yet as Herbert has reflected, in 1990 New Yorkers, including himself, “wanted them to be guilty. And when a desire is strong enough it can overwhelm such flimsy stuff as facts and truth. Reality is a funny thing. It is what we say it is.” Alas, that’s not the definition of reality: it’s the definition of a lie, imposed violently, carelessly, with the full power of the state. So what is the takeaway from the ruined lives of five young men?

. . . .

http://www.thenation.com/article/173910/lessons-central-park-five#

[nomorenomore08]

46. But of course, someone other than the cops/prosecutors/judge HAS to be blamed, right?

Because we all know those folks are perfect and can do no wrong.

[niyad]

47. you are correct.

[BainsBane]

43. That was the police's doing

not the victims. She was passed out.

[Aerows]

60. Some person, somewhere

might falsely get accused of rape, so we shouldn't pursue cases where a woman alleges to get raped, is that what you are trying to say here?

[niyad]

2. . . . .

[niyad]

3. . . .

[Recursion]

4. Oceanographic study shows water is wet

Ya think?

[niyad]

5. yes, we know this, but there are those who insist that false claims are epidemic. sometimes

they need to be reminded of facts.

[geek tragedy]

6. Lots of people who think they're swimming in the sand, then.

Including lots of so-called liberals.

[redqueen]

10. I hope it's not lots.

It seems like just a noisy obnoxious few.

There is the possibility as always that there are many who agree with them who won't admit it.

[el_bryanto]

14. Why do people want to believe there are a lot of false accusations of rape?

One simple answer is identification and empathy - just like white judges look at white youth and feel empathy and identification and look at black youth and throw the book at them. Males can imagine themselves being falsely accused of rape and have a more difficult time time imagining themselves as victims of rape, so they identify and empathize with those who are falsely accused of rape (even if it turns out that the number of people falsely accused of rape is vanishingly small).

Just some thoughts. I don't know if this is accurate, and I don't know if this helps at all.

Bryant

[niyad]

15. or maybe because admitting just how many victims of rape there are would be admitting just

how much hatred there is toward women? and just how ugly is the conspiracy of silence about this fact?

just a thought.

[el_bryanto]

16. I suppose that's possible as well

What percentage of males hate women in your estimation? What percentage of the male population are rapists or likely rapists?

[niyad]

35. sorry, not going there with you. nice try, though

[nomorenomore08]

39. Those who overtly despise women? A minority, though not a tiny one.

Rapists or likely rapists? Once again, a minority, but a large enough number to present a serious social problem.

[Nye Bevan]

17. Many DUers seem to believe that the rape allegations against Julian Assange are false.

Based upon the article linked in the OP, this would seem to be unlikely.

[stevenleser]

25. While I dont think the allegations against Assange are false, using these stats this way

to infer something about an individual case is I believe an example of an ecological fallacy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_fallacy

[Shivering Jemmy]

55. That's terrible statistics

You can't make an inference about P(x) simply on the strength of knowing P(X) where x is a member of X.

[Orrex]

20. I'm sure that lots of women file false accusations of rape

Because, you know, rape victims are always treated so well by police, the media, and politics.

Hell, who wouldn't want to make a false rape accusation?

[redqueen]

24. What woman wouldn't want to have every choice she'd made scrutinized with the intent to blame her?

I mean, just think of all that sympathy!

[geek tragedy]

28. And that's just the defense/perp side.

Because we all know that cops and prosecutors are perfect angels on this subject. Never known to treat victims of rape or domestic violence poorly.

And, they really should charge for the dream-come-true of having to go through a medical exam to produce a rape kit.

[redqueen]

29. Spraking of rape kits... i wonder how much of that backlog in untested ones is still waiting.

I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation, though. It's nothing to do with an insidious current of misogyny that permeates society, no way.

[mythology]

45. I know I wish I were a woman so I could make a false rape allegation

for all the fringe benefits like having a rape kit taken and having somebody pry into your life. Them womenfolk don't know how lucky they are.

If one is unable to discern the sarcasm intended, please pretend I inserted a sarcasm smilie.

[Shrike47]

26. The pressure to recant when the accused is a family member is frequently overwhelming.

I have seen quite a few cases where the whole family turns their back on the victim and ostracizes her. She loses everything.

[nomorenomore08]

40. They just don't want to believe. Sad and appalling, but not terribly surprising.

nt

[niyad]

49. . . .

[Shivering Jemmy]

56. I wonder if the incidence of lying about rape

is lower than lying about other crimes.

From this data, it looks at least plausible.

This would make our cultural bias against believing rape victims even more pointed and sad.

[niyad]

57. if you are correct (and I seem to remember some data to that effect) you are right, it is even

more pointed and sad.

[niyad]

58. . . .

[Donald Ian Rankin]

59. This is an appallingly shoddy piece of journalism - they're conflating "disproved" with "false".

What they're counting is the number of rape claims that were proven to be false in court.

That's a lower bound for the number of false claims of rape, but not an estimator.

I have no idea what fraction of false accusations of rape result in a conviction, but I suspect it is low.

This could be used as part of a "how not to use statistics 101" course.