Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Chris Kilmartin (ckilmart)" <>]

Certainly anyone who is falsely accused of any crime is entitled to feelings 
about it, but when a story like this comes up, it nearly always suffers from 
lack of context.  So here's a mathematical estimation:

only about 5% of rapes are ever reported to police

about 2% of reports are considered unfounded, which could mean false reports 
or simply that there isn't enough evidence to go forward.  

Even if that whole 2% are false (which is almost certainly an overestimate),  
for every 1000 rapes, 50 are reported.  2% of 50 is one.  

So for every 1000 rapes, you have one false report and 950 unreported rapes.  

Now, you tell me which is the bigger problem.


Christopher Kilmartin, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
University of Mary Washington
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
540-654-1562

________________________________________
From: 

 
[]
 On Behalf Of Juliette Grimmett 
[]
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 4:15 PM
To: 
;
 

Subject: Re: SAPC Digest, Vol 1319,Issue 1-Newsday story about Hofstra  false 
rape claim

all excellent points wendy, thank you for sharing.  these stories make my 
skin crawl, not only for all of the points you mentioned, but also because 
who knows why she dropped the charges.  Yes, it could be that very very rare 
instance of false allegations - and if so, I would guess she is suffering 
from something painful if she chose this type of situation.  But what we more 
likely see is that the charges are dropped because they are fearful, being 
threatened, dont want to go forward anymore, don't want parents to know, etc.



>>> <>
>>>  11/12/09 12:36 PM >>>







Re: the Newsday piece on whether the Hostra recantation case will hurt "real" 
victims -



I teach and write about this issue in my lecture on the language and
reporting on sexual violence.   one of my pet peeves is exactly this
type of story -



In the section I call "what stories get written" - I note the knee-jerk
and predictable way the media writes about the impact on "real" victims
whenever there's a false claim of rape - and I contrast this story with
the absence of ANY such "news" stories about whether the criminal fraud
of people like Bernie Madoff will have a negative impact on ALL fund
managers, wealthy men, etc.



The fact that this type of story is written is part of the reason the public 
has such skepticism about victims' allegations.



The story itself (iin part because it is never written about OTHER false 
claims) makes the reader think there is a unique problem in
society with women making false reports - even though the data is very
well established that false reports of theft crime - and even false
reports of one's own death - are far more common than false reports of
rape.  This is because false criminal complaints are usually tied to
insurance claims.



Anyway - this became a pet peeve of mine a few years back when there
were a series of sexual assaults at U.Mass. Dartmouth, I believe, and
then one woman reported being attacked by a knife-wielding man who cut
her cheek.  This woman later recanted amid claims of mental health
issues - and then the Boston Globe wrote a story about whether her
recantation would hurt the credibility of "all real rape victims".



I sent a letter straight away - though it was never published - not
only because the story perpetuated an ugly myth - but also because the
woman who recanted DIDN'T EVEN CLAIM RAPE.  so at most, it should have
been a story about whether a recantation re a knife attack will
undermine the claims of REAL knife-attack victims.  Of course, the
Globe never ran that story. And never does.



Years later, I wrote a letter to the Globe about a story involving an
"upstanding businessman" who was on trial for stabbing himself and
falsely accusing his son of committing the act. i asked why there was
no story about whether this man's false allegation would undermine the
credibility of "all welathy white businessmen".



no reply. no story.



Wendy Murphy







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