The saddest graph you’ll see today

[caseymoz]

51. And I can't believe the statistics cited.

Last edited Wed Jan 9, 2013, 12:56 AM - Edit history (1)

Not for a second. Sorry, 41 percent of reported rape accusations being false reminds me of pro-gunner statistics that a million crimes are thwarted by citizen use of firearms per year, or that 100 percent of strippers get sexually assaulted, or that there are a half-million trafficked minors working in the sex industry.

As far as I'm concerned, that's an extraordinary claim. It requires extraordinary proof. Not just a few studies depending on the word of law enforcement.

No, there's no way false accusations are that close in number to true ones. Forty percent of women are malicious and will hurt you even though doing so involves her taking months or years of hassle and humiliation. That requires a reality check. I think I've rarely, if ever, met a person like that, male or female.

Even if it's based only on victim retractions, the problem with using that as the standard is this: if you argue that she could lie in making the accusation, she can also lie about the retractions. The article cited the fact that the particular police department was very thorough: might the trauma of thorough investigation cause a higher number of false retractions? I think there's a strong case to be made that it could. Most rape victims cite the worst trauma is simply not being believed. That provides extra difficulty for investigating cases.

When you have a stat like that, it indicates there's either been a major methodological error, or somebody just made the stat up, and it's been quoted forever. I go with the methodological error. Something was wrong with the statistics provided by police. It might be that the investigators came to the conclusion the accusation was false. However, in this case, it's a matter of the criteria itself. The retraction, not the accusation, might be the lie.

However, people believe what they want to believe. If these stats didn't set off your bullshit alarm, I'm thinking you're numb to the counter-proposition: that false reports are rare. There's not to much reward for lying about it, and not much could explain such a lie.

I think the NCVS has it right. And they arrived at the statistics through large surveys independent of law enforcement by asking men if they've ever been falsely accused. That number is reflected in the graphic by the OP. That's close to the actual number of false accusations.