False rape accusations are a lot rarer than people suggest though.
Said studies obviously use wildly differing methodology, but it's muddled by the general unwillingness to report rape cases at all.
From what I can see, no one here is turning on victims. The only people who are turned upon are people who falsely accuse other people of rape (most often women who accuse men of rape).
Of course, no one does take rape seriously even if it is true rape, as long as the victim is a man and the rapist is either a woman or an inmate in a prison. Don't pick up the soap, buddy!
So out of thousands of cases, you "cherry pick" 2 where you feel justice isn't done and from that you conclude rape is not taken seriously? C'mon we know better than that.
False rape accusations are a lot rarer than people suggest though.
What are the specific stats on false rape reports? Of all the reported rape cases, what percentage of them are false accusations? I haven't seen those studies. Also, what percentage of false accusations is acceptable to you?
is extremely difficult to assess the prevalence of false accusations. Not all jurisdictions have a distinct classification of false accusation, resulting in these cases being combined with other types of cases (e.g. where the accuser did not physically resist the suspect or sustain injuries) under headings such as "unfounded" or "unproved." There are many reasons other than falsity that can result in a rape case being closed as unfounded or unproven.
FBI reports from 1996 consistently put the number of "unfounded" rape accusations around 8%. In contrast, the average rate of unfounded reports for "Index crimes" tracked by the FBI is 2%.[14]
However, "unfounded" is not synonymous with false allegation. Bruce Gross of the Forensic Examiner says that:
This statistic is almost meaningless, as many of the jurisdictions from which the FBI collects data on crime use different definitions of, or criteria for, "unfounded." That is, a report of rape might be classified as unfounded (rather than as forcible rape) if the alleged victim did not try to fight off the suspect, if the alleged perpetrator did not use physical force or a weapon of some sort, if the alleged victim did not sustain any physical injuries, or if the alleged victim and the accused had a prior sexual relationship. Similarly, a report might be deemed unfounded if there is no physical evidence or too many inconsistencies between the accuser's statement and what evidence does exist. As such, although some unfounded cases of rape may be false or fabricated, not all unfounded cases are false.[2]lse.[2]
Thanks, Jade.
I agree.
What percentage of reports are false accusations? That's all I was asking at the time.
Of course there are cases where the rape victim becomes the accused. Taking that to the extreme, one need look no further than Shari'a law.
(I might be in the wrong thread here)
To be honest, the posts in the thread so far have only served to show that rape ISN'T being taken seriously, because rather than discuss the very real and sadly common problem of sexual assault and the inept way our justice system handles abusers, most of you are concentrating on the relatively few cases where someone -isn't- raped...