On false rape allegations

"A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat." - P. J. O'Rourke

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Some material on false rape allegations:

CJR - The Elusive Numbers on False Rape, by Dick Haws - "If you talk to sexual assault counselors, you'll most likely hear the low figure: that 2 percent of all accusations of sexual assault reported to law enforcement across the country are later found to be false, which, the counselors say, is the same rate as for other crimes... Allison and Wrightsman simply chose the study that showed 2 percent... The FBI has been saying since 1991 that the annual rate for the false reporting of forcible sexual assault across the country has been a consistent 8 percent (through 1995, the most recent year available). That's four times higher than the average of the false-reporting rates of the other crimes tracked by the FBI in its Uniform Crime Report. The agency's guidelines define a report as false when an investigation determines that no offense occurred. A complainant's failure or refusal to cooperate in the investigation does not, by itself, lead to a finding of false report... A low number would undercut a belief about rape as old as the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife: that some women, out of shame or vengeance or, more recently, the desire to circumvent restrictions on their ability to get or pay for an abortion, claim that their consensual encounters or rebuffed advances were rapes. If the number is high, on the other hand, advocates for women who have been raped worry it may also taint the credibility of the genuine victims of sexual assault. Yet the times may be changing, and while some women still make false charges, true rape victims don't seem to be feeling the backlash... The clearest example of compelling motive can be found in the Sexual Allegation in Divorce (S.A.I.D.) syndrome. In such cases questionable allegations multiply because the accuser has far more to gain than to lose. Simply charging a divorcing spouse with child molestation — or wife battering or spousal rape — can turn a hot but evenly balanced custody battle into a rout."

Believe Her! The Woman Never Lies Myth - "Wendy Kaminer (1993) reported that "it is a primary article of faith among many feminists that women don't lie about rape, ever; they lack the dishonesty gene" (p.67). Eight years earlier, in 1985, John O'Sullivan discovered a widespread defense of the belief that "no woman would fabricate a rape charge" (p.22). Feminists themselves admit as much. Law Professor Susan Estrich stated that "the whole effort at reforming rape laws has been an attack on the premise that women who bring complaints are suspect" (Newsweek, 1985, p.61). Some feminists believe that even defending that premise is a sex crime. Alan Dershowitz (1993) reports that he was accused of sexual harassment for discussing in class the possibility of false rape allegations. Believing the self-proclaimed victim of sexual misconduct has thus evolved from ideological conviction to legal doctrine and, in some jurisdictions, into law. California now requires that jurors be explicitly told that a rape conviction can be based on the accuser's testimony alone, without corroboration (Associated Press, 1992; Farrell, 1993). Canada is proposing that a man accused of rape must demonstrate that he received the willing consent of a sexual partner... The McDowell team studied 556 rape allegations. Of that total, 256 could not be conclusively verified as rape. That left 300 authenticated cases of which 220 were judged to be truthful and 80, or 27%, were judged as false. In his report Charles McDowell stated that extra rigor was applied to the investigation of potentially false allegations."

False rape allegations, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Volume 23, Number 1 / February, 1994 - "With the cooperation of the police agency of a small metropolitan community, 45 consecutive, disposed, false rape allegations covering a 9 year period were studied. These false rape allegations constitute 41% the total forcible rape cases (n =109) reported during this period. These false allegations appear to serve three major functions for the complainants: providing an alibi, seeking revenge, and obtaining sympathy and attention. False rape allegations are not the consequence of a gender-linked aberration, as frequently claimed, but reflect impulsive and desperate efforts to cope with personal and social stress situations."
That there was corroborating evidence from 2 colleges where half of rape allegations were false, and were motivated by similar reasons, is remarkable.

Salon Newsreal | Who says women never lie about rape? - "All too often, however, feminist rhetoric merely replaced the old stereotypes that viewed most rape complainants as scorned women or sex-crazed neurotics with an equally simplistic cliché: "Women don't lie about rape." Legal theorist Catharine MacKinnon asserts that "feminism is built on believing women's accounts of sexual use and abuse by men." Some colleges with speech codes have equated talk of false rape allegations with "discriminatory harassment." Activists may even refuse to believe "victims" who admit that they lied, suggesting that women recant out of fear or denial, and many bristle when the media publicize stories of falsely accused men... A Washington Post investigation in Virginia and Maryland found that nearly one in four rape reports in 1990-91 was unfounded. When contacted by the newspaper, many "victims" admitted they lied... Feminists often decry our culture's alleged eagerness to believe the "myths of the lying woman." But it seems that it's the "victims don't lie" myth that is entrenched today. There is virtually no research on false allegations; Kanin's study (which he says a female colleague tried to discourage him from pursuing) received no press coverage. The "believe the woman" principle has also gained ground in the legal system... Of course, it then follows that to be "fair," we should convict defendants in rape cases on less evidence -- and give the accuser's word more weight -- than in other crimes... The trouble with the feminist position is that it seems to leave no room for the presumption of innocence when a woman accuses a man of violating her"

False Rape Accusations Are Not Rare - "In 1985, a study of 556 rape allegations found that 27% accusers recanted when faced with a polygraph (which can be ordered in the military), and independent evaluation showed a false accusation rate of 60%. (McDowell, Charles P., Ph.D. “False Allegations.” Forensic Science Digest, (publication of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations), Vol. 11, No. 4 (December 1985), p. 64.) One interesting discussion on the internet is at the CrimProf Blog, where this topic was raised, and a number of former AFOSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) comment on [Ed: and agree with] this 30% number."

From the Rape Investigation Handbook by John O. Savino, Brent E. Turvey, John J. Baeza: "An editorial in The New York Post on the now-infamous Oliver Jovanovic false report case (Dunleavy, 1999) quoted District Attorney Linda Farstein from an interview in Penthouse magazine where she stated, "There are about 4,000 reports of rape each year in Manhattan. Of these, about half simply did not happen." In a more recent article, it was stated that out of 2000 uninvestigated cases in Philadelphia, PA, from 1995 to 1997, investigators determined that "600 were false reports or allegations that did not amount to crimes" (Inquirer Staff 2000)... MacDonald (1973) shows that, in 1968, the national average for false reports of forcible rapes was 18%. He further shows that, in a 1—year period in Denver, Colorado, 25% of all forcible rapes were unfounded. He goes on to explain that this is a conservative figure, as the police in Denver did not record as false reports any cases where there was a doubt as to the veracity of the complaint. In the same study, MacDonald (1973) states that 20% of the forcible rape complaints were actually in doubt. He does not footnote or otherwise reference this information."

Also, quoted in Until Proven Innocent by Stuart Taylor, Stuart S. Taylor, Jr., K. C. Johnson: "False rape accusations occur with scary frequency and "any honest veteran sex assault investigator will tell you that rape is one of the most falsely reported crimes", Craig Silverman, a former Colorado prosecutor know nfor his zealous pursuit of alleged rapists, said in 2004 as a commentator on the Kobe Bryant case for Denver's ABC affiliate. Silverman added that a Denver sex-assault unit commander had estimated that nearly 50 percent of reported rape claims are false."


Unfortunately, although data on false rape allegations is hard enough to find, non-anecdotal data on false marital/spousal rape allegations seems non-existent, though various sources do allude to their use in child custody/divorce proceedings.