How often is a accusation of rape false? Made for revenge, blackmail, etc?

[Independent voter]

A false charge of rape being one where the police decide to press charges against the accuser, it becomes obvious that the accuser knew the charge was false.

In a lot of arguments on MMOC people are discussing rape and it invariably comes up that women falsely accuse men of rape. How frequently do you think this happens?

I also considered asking the question 'do you think you'll be falsely accused of rape during your lifetime' but I figured everyone would say no. Maybe I'm wrong on this.

[Xarkan]

A false charge of rape being one where the police decide to press charges against the accuser, it becomes obvious that the accuser knew the charge was false.

In a lot of arguments on MMOC people are discussing rape and it invariably comes up that women falsely accuse men of rape. How frequently do you think this happens?

I also considered asking the question 'do you think you'll be falsely accused of rape during your lifetime' but I figured everyone would say no. Maybe I'm wrong on this.

Noone knows. But supposedly the allegation is proven true roughly twice as often as it is proven false. (3% false, 7% right) According to the MMO Champion posts.

[drwelfare]

I have never known anyone who actually committed rape.

In high school knew someone who was accused and arrested for rape, girl dropped her story several weeks later. Guy and a friend of his had took some drugs from her and she accused them of rape as revenge.

About 5 years back met someone through work who had served time and been released for raping his wife. He was looking to get a new trial for it, his wife had recanted her testimony, as far as I know he still has not gotten new trial. His side of the story was that he got into a fight with his wife, she left and went to her sisters. Her sister convinced her to say she was raped to give her upper hand in divorce. Man plead to charges because he was offered 4 years on a plea compared to 20+ if convicted.

One situation in local news here where girl ran off with her boyfriend and accused her dad of molestation, and he was convicted. She has recanted the story now, but DA will not pursue perjury against her, and court will not offer retrial unless she is convicted of perjury.

[stabetha]

Back in high school a girl accused me of raping her after her boyfriend found out about us making out. She didn't call the police or anything but everyone in school heard about it.

[Deleted]

men have a rape problem and they do their utmost to deny this

[Anetulan]

I'd like to think at the very least the majority of accusations are true.

[Deleted]

Provably false?

Less than 5%, the studies i'm familiar with purport it to be at 3%.

Some others, when using a relaxed guideline (Circa Home office report) at 7%, but when examined using stricter guidelines it dropped to 2%?

[NineSpine]

The Kanin study shows an over 40% rate of false accusation. You can find a lot of law enforcement officials giving similar numbers on the record. The McDowell study showed something like 60%. The FBI says that 25% of cases referred to them are discounted because DNA evidence excludes the accused.

Prepare for the feminist head explosions, because of their sick attitude that it is perfectly reasonable to say some percentage of men are demented enough to be rapists, but it's unacceptable if even a quarter of that same number of women would make a false accusation, facts be damned. The sexism bottled up in that notion goes right over their heads.

[nextormento]

It's very convenient that the concern of being falsely accused is responded with false charges being low.

[NineSpine]

It's very convenient that the concern of being falsely accused is responded with false charges being low.

It's the usual tricks that get used to skew statistics to fit an agenda. You see the same thing with the numbers of overall rape, where feminists organizations commonly cite the number of "rapes" with a number that includes having sex while drunk.

[Deleted]

Less then 5%. For all you guys worried about it, I'll let you in on a little secret - women aren't out to get you accused of rape.

I do find it amusing how most of the voters think that either barely any rape accusations are false, or over a quarter are false.

[NineSpine]

Less then 5%. For all you guys worried about it, I'll let you in on a little secret - women aren't out to get you accused of rape.

I do find it amusing how most of the voters think that either barely any rape accusations are false, or over a quarter are false.

And the sexism of your argument goes right over your: The idea that 3% of men are scumbag enough to be rapists, but it's CRAZY that even 1% of women would make a false rape accusation.

[Deleted]

And the sexism of your argument goes right over your: The idea that 3% of men are scumbag enough to be rapists, but it's CRAZY that even 1% of women would make a false rape accusation.

Well I don't think the percentage of rape accusations are less than 1%. I don't really see any double standard in what I said anyway, because they're two separate crimes. So far as I'm aware the amount of false accusations for crime in general is pretty low.

[nextormento]

women aren't out to get you accused of rape.

Women no. Ideologues and idiots with false narratives poisoning the well may, though.

[NineSpine]

Well I don't think the percentage of rape accusations are less than 1%. I don't really see any double standard in what I said anyway, because they're two separate crimes. So far as I'm aware the amount of false accusations for crime in general is pretty low.

The double standard is that you accept that X number of men are demented enough to commit rape, but then you find it absurd that even a quarter of that number of women may be demented enough to make a false accusation. I already described some of the studies that have been done on this issue above. Within the context of rape accusations, false accusations are very common. This can be attributed to a lot of things, but the two most important are probably the following:

1. We have created a separate judicial system with special rules for sexual assaults and rapes.
2. False rape accusations are very rarely prosecuted.

[Anonymous1038853]

I think it's faulty to define a false allegation as one which yields charges levied against the accuser. This doesn't really fit the context of the debates most common on MMO-Champion, referred to in the original post. I would almost go so far as to argue that the frame of this discussion is intellectually dishonest, but I suppose the given definition isn't necessarily exclusive to false allegation. If the validity of a rape accusation is determined by reasonably similar metrics, then there are no potentially misleading implications. Though I'm not sure how that logic would apply to ambiguous cases, which are the great majority.

[NineSpine]

I think it's faulty to define a false allegation as one which yields charges levied against the accuser. This doesn't really fit the context of the debates most common on MMO-Champion, referred to in the original post. I would almost go so far as to argue that the frame of this discussion is intellectually dishonest, but I suppose the given definition isn't necessarily exclusive to false allegation. If the validity of a rape accusation is determined by reasonably similar metrics, then there are no potentially misleading implications. Though I'm not sure how that logic would apply to ambiguous cases, which are the great majority.

You are correct, but one way to possibly frame that more reasonably may be to use the percentages of cases with a resolution and extrapolate them onto the entire field. In that case, you would be looking at something like 7% guilty and 3% found to explicitly be false. That indicates roughly a 40-50% rate of false accusation, which does match the studies done on the issue that try to look beyond just the cases with clear resolutions.

[Maxie]

Low. But the important part is that it does happen. I've seen about three or four national cases regarding it this year in media/law related news sites. The fact that it happens is enough for it to be extremely important not to lower the degree of proof needed or putting the burden of proof on the accused. Rather let a thousand guilty go free than convict someone innocent etc.

[Al Gorefiend]

It isn't as damaging to a male victim as the Internet would have you believe. Its only the most extreme cases of court idiocy that get documented, often from the perspective of the helpless male victim - and his life is usually roughed up pretty bad (again, from the idiotic court). False rape claims are low, and they're well investigated (hopefully the majority of times) before making an arrest.

[Patife17]

I know a close person who lied about being raped just to try and get money from their parents. Sad but true. She lost tho.