Will Gisèle Pelicot’s courage spell the end of rape victims being put on trial?

2 comments

1. [False rape accusations are rare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape#False_accusation), and [typically don’t name an offender](https://search.proquest.com/openview/6cdfce302d24baf26d72790d2bf2feba/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41641).

   Meanwhile, [only about 30% of rapes get reported to the police](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/11/20/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/). So, for [90,185 rapes reported in the U.S. in 2015](https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/offenses-known-to-law-enforcement/rape), there were about **135,278** that went unreported, and 811 false reports that named a specific suspect, and only **81** false reports that led to charges being filed. Since [about 6% of unincarcerated men have–by their own admission–committed rape](https://willamette.edu/about/leadership/president/pwgsah/pdf/lisak-undetected-rapists.pdf), statistically 76 innocent men had rape charges filed against them. Add to that that [people are biased against rape victims](https://web.archive.org/web/20180404081606/https://web.stanford.edu/group/maan/cgi-bin/?page_id=297), and there are orders of magnitudes more rapists who walk free than innocent “rapists” who spend any time in jail.

   For context, there were **1,773x** more rapes that went unreported than charges filed against innocent men. And that’s just charges, not convictions.

   For additional context, [in 2015 there were 1,686 females murdered by males in single victim/single offender incidents](http://www.vpc.org/studies/wmmw2017.pdf). So **22x** more women have been *murdered* by men than men who have had false rape charges filed against them.

   For even more context, there are about **10x** more people per year [who die by strangulation by their own bedsheets](http://tylervigen.com/view_correlation?id=7) than are falsely charged with rape.

   Meanwhile, by their own admission, [roughly 6% of unincarcerated American men are rapists](https://willamette.edu/about/leadership/president/pwgsah/pdf/lisak-undetected-rapists.pdf). And the authors acknowledge that their methods will have led to an *underestimate*. Higher estimates are closer to [14%](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.685.7650&rep=rep1&type=pdf).

   That comes out to somewhere between 1 in 17 and 1 in 7 unincarcerated men in America being rapists, with a cluster of studies showing about 1 in 8.

   The numbers can’t really be explained away by small sizes, as sample sizes can be quite large, and statistical tests of proportionality show even the best case scenario, looking at the study that the authors acknowledge is an underestimate, the 99% confidence interval shows it’s at least as bad as 1 in 20, which is nowhere near where most people think it is. People will go through all kinds of mental gymnastics to convince themselves it’s not that bad, or it’s not that bad *anymore* (in fact, [it’s arguably getting worse](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-sexual-attacks-teen-girls-increased-lockdown-rcna70782)). But the reality is, most of us know a rapist, we just don’t always know who they are (and sometimes, [they don’t even know](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquaintance_rape#Motivations), because [they’re experts at rationalizing their own behavior](https://web.archive.org/web/20191102225207/https://sapac.umich.edu/article/196)).

   Be wary of dudes who defend their “falsely accused” friends, since chances are their friends weren’t actually falsely accused, they are [just in denial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquaintance_rape#Motivations). By one study, [84% of men whose behavior met the legal definition of rape believed that what they did was “definitely” not rape](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1471-6402.00030), despite what the law clearly says. Add to that, [male peer support may be one of the most potent predictors of perpetration of sexual aggression](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/pdf/cc18aae49affdfaf83d776c88254faf9e56d4653), so chances are the friends of the “falsely” accused also have… problematic views towards women.

   r/stoprape

2. I don’t know about elsewhere but in America you’re innocent until proven guilty. That means defense lawyers can cross examine the witness or attempt to establish reasonable doubt.

   Going to an ER right after being raped helps a lot in proving the crime. Rape test kits are cost covered by the Violence against Women Act. But you may have to pay for other services like if stitches are needed.

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