Girl ‘cried rape after living out fantasy of having sex with two strangers’
I’ve seen official figures (which of course I cannot find now) which state that some 6% of rape allegations are in fact false in hte UK (that is, I think, the UK Govt’s own estimation/figure).
Around 6% of rape allegations lead to a conviction for rape as we are endlessly told.
Two interesting figures, no?
12 responses so far ↓
1 Brian, follower of Deornoth // Nov 6, 2009 at 10:46 am
An interesting figure would be how many allegations of rape lead to prosecutions for perjury.
2 JuliaM // Nov 6, 2009 at 11:09 am
At least, after the ruling the other day, prison should be ‘inevitable’ when they do…
No, I’m not holding my breath either.
3 JuliaM // Nov 6, 2009 at 11:10 am
Gah! Wrong link.
4 Unity // Nov 6, 2009 at 11:33 am
An interesting figure would be how many allegations of rape lead to prosecutions for perjury.
Perjury cases are extremely rare anyway, and in the majority of false cases the deception is uncovered before the case gets to trial, which makes the appropriate charge one of wasting police time or attempting to pervert the course of justice.
5 Unity // Nov 6, 2009 at 11:36 am
Tim:
The data you’re looking for is in the Home Office report on attrition in rape case – http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hors293.pdf.
Somewhat unusually for recent times, that’s a damn good piece of research that genuinely does highlight the complexities of dealing with rape allegations.
6 ukliberty // Nov 6, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Unity, agreed.
Possibly because it wasn’t done in-house and manipulated by politicians?
7 john b // Nov 6, 2009 at 1:43 pm
So it’s 3% (per that report). I’d still class that as ‘low’.
8 Ross // Nov 6, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Looking at the Home Office report that Unity links to, I’m reading what they are saying as being that the false accusation rate is supposed to only includes those cases where the police believe that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that a case is false. Although the report says they over estimate that rate.
However they appear to therefore conclude that none of the remaining cases where there is insufficent or even no evidence to prosecute an alleged rapist are also false, which seems a bit of a presumption to me.
9 rumpole // Nov 6, 2009 at 5:44 pm
“The trial continues.”
Careful what you say, Mr Worstall – sub judice, etc.
10 Jim // Nov 7, 2009 at 11:05 am
@JohnB:
Its 3 (or 6)% of cases are PROVEN to be false, just as its 6% are PROVEN to be true. The 88% in the middle is open to question. Given that rape is binary (sex either happened or it didn’t, and if it did happen she either consented or didn’t) that 88% must be split into two on some ratio. The size of that ratio is the bone of contention.
What little studies that have been done on the subject conclude that between 25 and 40% of rape allegations are false – ie never took place or consent was given.
That is the issue that needs addressing – if women did not make false allegations, it would be much easier to prosecute the guilty parties who are currently getting off scot free.
11 JuliaM // Nov 7, 2009 at 12:35 pm
“That is the issue that needs addressing – if women did not make false allegations, it would be much easier to prosecute the guilty parties who are currently getting off scot free.”
That message is getting through to the judiciary, at last, as yet another of those ‘rare’ cases shows:
“A judge told a nursery assistant who falsely cried rape three times she had to be jailed for four months because she made genuine sex attack victims look like liars.”
12 john b // Nov 9, 2009 at 1:24 pm
@10, d’you fancy citing those studies? Because otherwise the number sounds somewhat arse-pulled: it certainly isn’t supported by the study upthread.
@11, we can both agree this is a very good thing.
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