False accusation of rape
Encyclopedia
A false accusation of rape is an accusation, formal or informally made against another individual or individuals concerning a forcible sexual assault. Detailed investigations using differing samples and methodologies have found widely differing results ranging from as high as 41% to as low as 1.5%. As a scientific matter, the frequency of false rape complaints to police or other legal authorities remains unknown.
"The FBI knows the number of women who reported they were raped, but not whether the rapist was found guilty or innocent. In 47 percent of the cases, the alleged rapist has not been identified or found, or if he has been found, there was insufficient evidence to arrest him. The remaining 53 percent were arrested, but the FBI doesn't receive data as to whether they were eventually found guilty or innocent. In brief, as far as the FBI knows, the percentage of false accusations overall could be anywhere from zero to 100 percent." (The Myth of Male Power: The Politics of Rape, pg 323)
investigated the incidences of false rape allegations made to the police in one small urban
community between 1978 and 1987. He states that unlike those in many larger jurisdictions, this police department had the resources to "seriously record and pursue to closure all rape complaints, regardless of their merits." He further states each investigation "always involves a serious offer to polygraph the complainants and the suspects" and "the complainant must admit that no rape had occurred. She is the sole agent who can say that the rape charge is false." The number of false rape allegations in the studied period was 45; this was 41% of the 109 total complaints filed in this period.
, an associate professor of psychology and director of the Men’s Sexual Trauma Research Project at the University of Massachusetts Boston
. In an article in the September/October 2007 issue (vol. 11 no. 1) of the Sexual Assault Report, titled "False allegations of rape: a critique of Kanin," he states "Kanin’s 1994 article on false allegations is a provocative opinion piece, but it is not a scientific study of the issue of false reporting of rape. It certainly should never be used to assert a scientific foundation for the frequency of false allegations." Lisak cites page 13 of Investigating Sexual Assaults from the International Association of Chiefs of Police which says polygraph
tests for sexual assault victims are contraindicated in the investigation process and that their use is "based on the misperception that a significant percentage of sexual assault reports are false." Lisak argues that "It is noteworthy that the police department from which Kanin derived his data used or threatened to use the polygraph in every case… The fact that it was the standard procedure of this department provides a window on the biases of the officers who conducted the rape investigations, biases that were then echoed in Kanin’s unchallenged reporting of their findings."
Rumney notes that early researchers tended to accept uncritically Freudian theories which purported to explain the prevalence of false allegations, while in more recent literature there has been "a lack of critical analysis of those who claim a low false reporting rate and the uncritical adoption of unreliable research findings" (p. 157). Rumney concludes that "as a consequence of such deficiencies within legal scholarship, factual claims have been repeatedly made that have only limited empirical support. This suggests widespread analytical failure on the part of legal scholarship and requires an acknowledgment of the weakness of assumptions that have been constructed on unreliable research evidence."
's study, published in 2010 in Violence Against Women, classified 8 out of the 136 (5.9%) reported rapes at Northwestern University
over a ten year period to be false.
Taylor (1987) wrote that "suspicion and disbelief of women who charge men with rape have for centuries had a stranglehold on [...] laws nominally designed to protect women against rape. As a result, many women did not report or prosecute rapes because the process was so often humiliating."
FBI statistics
FBI reports consistently put the number of "unfounded" rape accusations around 8%. The average rate of unfounded reports for Index crimes is 2%. However, “unfounded” is not synonymous with false allegation. Bruce Gross of the Forensic Examiner's says that:FBI study criticism
In Warren Farrell's best selling book "The Myth of Male Power" he criticizes the "study" by the FBI:"The FBI knows the number of women who reported they were raped, but not whether the rapist was found guilty or innocent. In 47 percent of the cases, the alleged rapist has not been identified or found, or if he has been found, there was insufficient evidence to arrest him. The remaining 53 percent were arrested, but the FBI doesn't receive data as to whether they were eventually found guilty or innocent. In brief, as far as the FBI knows, the percentage of false accusations overall could be anywhere from zero to 100 percent." (The Myth of Male Power: The Politics of Rape, pg 323)
British Home Office
The largest and most rigorous study was commissioned by the British Home Office and based on 2,643 sexual assault cases (Kelly, Lovett, and Regan, 2005). Of these, 8% were classified by the police department as false reports. Yet the researchers noted that some of these classifications were based simply on the personal judgments of the police investigators and were made in violation of official criteria for establishing a false allegation. Closer analysis of this category applying the Home Office counting rules for establishing a false allegation and excluding cases where the application of the cases where confirmation of the designation was uncertain reduced the percentage of false reports to 3%. The researchers concluded that "one cannot take all police designations at face value" and that "[t]here is an over-estimation of the scale of false allegations by both police officers and prosecutors." Moreover, they added:Police in Victoria (Australia)
Another large-scale study was conducted in Australia, with the 850 rapes reported to the Victoria police between 2000 and 2003 (Heenan & Murray, 2006). Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, the researchers examined 812 cases with sufficient information to make an appropriate determination, and found that 2.1% of these were classified by police as false reports. All of these complainants were then charged or threatened with charges for filing a false police report.Kanin's report
In 1994, Dr. Eugene J. Kanin of Purdue UniversityPurdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
investigated the incidences of false rape allegations made to the police in one small urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
community between 1978 and 1987. He states that unlike those in many larger jurisdictions, this police department had the resources to "seriously record and pursue to closure all rape complaints, regardless of their merits." He further states each investigation "always involves a serious offer to polygraph the complainants and the suspects" and "the complainant must admit that no rape had occurred. She is the sole agent who can say that the rape charge is false." The number of false rape allegations in the studied period was 45; this was 41% of the 109 total complaints filed in this period.
Criticism
Critics of Dr. Kanin's report include Dr. David LisakDavid Lisak
David Lisak is an American clinical psychologist. He received his PhD from Duke University, and currently teaches at the University of Massachusetts Boston...
, an associate professor of psychology and director of the Men’s Sexual Trauma Research Project at the University of Massachusetts Boston
University of Massachusetts Boston
The University of Massachusetts Boston, also known as UMass Boston, is an urban public research university and the second largest campus in the five-campus University of Massachusetts system. The university is located on on Harbor Point in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States...
. In an article in the September/October 2007 issue (vol. 11 no. 1) of the Sexual Assault Report, titled "False allegations of rape: a critique of Kanin," he states "Kanin’s 1994 article on false allegations is a provocative opinion piece, but it is not a scientific study of the issue of false reporting of rape. It certainly should never be used to assert a scientific foundation for the frequency of false allegations." Lisak cites page 13 of Investigating Sexual Assaults from the International Association of Chiefs of Police which says polygraph
Polygraph
A polygraph measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions...
tests for sexual assault victims are contraindicated in the investigation process and that their use is "based on the misperception that a significant percentage of sexual assault reports are false." Lisak argues that "It is noteworthy that the police department from which Kanin derived his data used or threatened to use the polygraph in every case… The fact that it was the standard procedure of this department provides a window on the biases of the officers who conducted the rape investigations, biases that were then echoed in Kanin’s unchallenged reporting of their findings."
Rumney
A 2006 paper by N.S. Rumney in the Cambridge Law Journal provided an exhaustive account of studies of false reporting in the USA, New Zealand and the UK. A tabulated list of studies on false reporting published between 1968 and 2005 placed the percentage of false reports between a minimum on 1.5% (Theilade and Thomsen, 1986) and a maximum of 90% (Stewart, 1981).Rumney notes that early researchers tended to accept uncritically Freudian theories which purported to explain the prevalence of false allegations, while in more recent literature there has been "a lack of critical analysis of those who claim a low false reporting rate and the uncritical adoption of unreliable research findings" (p. 157). Rumney concludes that "as a consequence of such deficiencies within legal scholarship, factual claims have been repeatedly made that have only limited empirical support. This suggests widespread analytical failure on the part of legal scholarship and requires an acknowledgment of the weakness of assumptions that have been constructed on unreliable research evidence."
Lisak
Dr. David LisakDavid Lisak
David Lisak is an American clinical psychologist. He received his PhD from Duke University, and currently teaches at the University of Massachusetts Boston...
's study, published in 2010 in Violence Against Women, classified 8 out of the 136 (5.9%) reported rapes at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
over a ten year period to be false.
Other
DiCanio (1993) states that while researchers and prosecutors do not agree on the exact percentage of false allegations, they generally agree on a range of 2% to 8%.Taylor (1987) wrote that "suspicion and disbelief of women who charge men with rape have for centuries had a stranglehold on [...] laws nominally designed to protect women against rape. As a result, many women did not report or prosecute rapes because the process was so often humiliating."
See Also
- False allegation of child sexual abuseFalse allegation of child sexual abuseA false allegation of child sexual abuse is an accusation that a person committed one or more acts of child sexual abuse when in reality there was no perpetration of abuse by the accused person as alleged. Such accusations can be brought by the alleged victim , or by another person on the alleged...
- Recovered memory therapyRecovered memory therapyRecovered-memory therapy is a term coined by affiliates of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation in the early 1990s, to refer what they described as a range of psychotherapy methods based on recalling memories of abuse that had previously been forgotten by the patient...
- Innocence ProjectInnocence ProjectAn Innocence Project is one of a number of non-profit legal organizations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand dedicated to proving the innocence of wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing, and to reforming the criminal justice systems to...
- Centurion MinistriesCenturion MinistriesCenturion Ministries, Inc is a secular, non-profit organization located in Princeton, New Jersey whose primary mission is to free and vindicate from prison those who are completely innocent of the crimes for which they have been wrongly convicted and imprisoned for life or death.- History...