General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Would a woman ever falsely accuse somebody of rape? [View all]pnwmom
(108,973 posts)But I no longer think it's as extremely rare as I used to. Mentally disturbed people like the Duke accuser, men and women, are capable of a lot of behaviors healthy people wouldn't engage in.
This SLATE writer says the research "converges" at a false rate of 8-10%.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2009/10/how_often_do_women_falsely_cry_rape.html
Rumney's smart debunkings leave us with a group of American, British, Canadian, and New Zealand studies that converge around a rate of 8 percent to 10 percent for false reports of rape. Not all of these studies are flawless, but together they're better than the rest of the lot. They include a massive 1997 report on sexual assault by the U.S. Department of Justice, which includes data from 16,000 local, county, and state law enforcement agencies. The DoJ found that "in 1995, 87% of recorded forcible rapes were completed crimes and the remainder were classified as attempts. Law enforcement agencies indicated that about 8% of forcible rapes reported to them were determined to be unfounded and were excluded from the count of crimes."