The 2%
The 2%* refers to the number of false accusations of rape that are brought forward. 2% is less than the national average of false accusations of other violent crimes such as armed robbery, assault, and attempted homicide. However, the 2% of false accusations gets a lot of the spotlight in the ongoing sexual assault and sexual harassment conversation. The attention received by the 2%, outshine the remaining 98%.
Let’s break down these numbers:
Out of all cases of sexual assault, only 35% are reported to authorities.
Out of all reported cases of sexual assault, only 2% are false accusations.
Out of all false accusations, only 19% named a suspect.
Out of all named suspects, only 16% accused were arrested.
Therefore, out of the 135,755 rapes cases reported in 2017, it can be calculated that the actual number of rape crimes that were committed is 387,871 and the number of falsely accused individual cases that led to an arrest was 83. That means that out of all occurrences of rape, only 0.02% of those instances led to a false arrest.
Since 1989, there have been 52 cases of falsely committed criminals exonerated for rape, where 790 were exonerated for murder. Additionally, the vast majority of perpetrators of sexual assault will not go to jail in comparison to other crimes: out of every 1000 sexual assaults, 995 assailants will walk free.
National Sexual Assault Hotline | 800.656.HOPE | online.rainn.org
Visit rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system for full citation.
18% of adults in the US agree that false sexual assault allegations are a bigger problem than sexual assault. There are instances of inaccurate and inappropriately conducted studies that will claim that the rate of false reporting is sometimes greater than 40%*, continuing the trend of believing false science. The act of falsely accusing someone of a felony, and the idea of an innocent person serving time in prison for a crime they did not commit, is horrible. There is no excuse for it. But, why is the outcry for justice against the 2% far greater than for advocating for the safety and healing of the 98%?
The majority of individuals who believe there is a problem with false accusations of sexual assault are white men and married white women who are Donald Trump supporters, and throughout the process of the Brett Kavanagh hearings were advocating his innocence. However, in this country, 47% of exonerated persons who were convicted wrongfully were African American.
“A black prisoner serving time for sexual assault is 3.5 times more likely to be innocent than a white sexual assault convict… they constitute half of sexual assaults with eyewitness misidentifications that led to exoneration.”
If POC aren’t constituting the majority of those who believe there is a problem with false accusations of sexual assault, despite being the community that are most affected by it, the reasoning behind the disbelief of sexual assault survivors needs to be evaluated.
Increased stigma against victims leads to a decrease in reporting. Sadly, the greatest group of offenses that go unreported are from victims who are from the ages of 12 to 17 and of 76% of total violent crimes committed at school are not reported. Lack of trust in the police and judiciary system is the leading reason for victims not reporting.
Lack of trust in the police is something that is not new in under-served communities of color in the United States and the increased awareness of their struggles through the Black Lives Matter movement has only led to some increase in dialogue, but has given rise to the Blue Lives Matter movement.
Then you have the origins of Blue Lives Matter and people taking Black Lives Matter not as an affirmation of value, not as a movement focused on reducing fatalities … but as anti-police, and I think it completely misses the story, the context, the history, and the necessity of affirmations of value in the Black community
-Michele Jawando, vice president of legal progress at the research and advocacy organization Center for American Progress
With an increase in accountability and charges made against police officers for police brutality, the increase in outcry against the “naïve community” comes from the majority white republican supporters for the majority white police force. This disparity of trust with the police may be why WOC constitute 82.3% of all female rape victims and only 20% of all complainants.
It is also important to note the increased risk that LGBTQIA+ community of color have for sexual assault compared to all other demographics, especially trans women of color. 44% of lesbian women, 61% of bisexual women, and 35% of heterosexual women experienced rape, 26% of gay men, 37% of bisexual men, and 29% of heterosexual men experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime. Among Transgender POC, American Indian (65%), multiracial (59%), Middle Eastern (58%), and Black (53%) estimated will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.
It is important to recognize that there are false accusations of rape that do transpire, but the likelihood of their occurrence is extremely rare compared to the validity of the complaint and the assailant’s identification. Also, it is significant to acknowledge the role that race and sexuality has on the general public’s, and your own personal, beliefs surrounding sexual assault accusations and use this information to better combat personal biases and educate those in your surrounding community. I believe amplifying actual statistics and scientific studies is the only way to educate individuals who do not support or believe victims of sexual assault. Emotional arguments need to be combated with factual evidence.
In conclusion, the 2% of 35% does not represent the 98.98% of the total victims of sexual assault, and we need to start believing in their stories.
* Certain studies can show the percentage of false accusations extending anywhere from 2-10%. “Estimates of the number of false reports vary widely. This reflects a lack of conceptual clarity (Saunders 2012), a confounding of police decisions to unfound and false reports, and inappropriate research strategies. Many research ers (Jordan 2004; Kanin 1994) either did not explicitly explain how they defined a false rape allegation or used a definition that is inconsistent with policy statements by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). FBI guidelines on clearing cases for Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) purposes state that a case can be unfounded only if it is "determined through investigation to be false or baseless" (UCR Handbook 2004: 77).” Despite the FBI guidelines, there are instances of police departments mislabeling baseless accusations as false accusations (“truthfully accounted, does not meet… the legal definition of a sexual assault”) and “researchers have documented that police unfound sexual assault reports inappropriately (they categorize as unfounded allegations involving complainants who engaged in risky behavior at the time of the incident, complainants who were unwilling to cooperate in the prosecution of the suspect, complain ants who delayed reporting, or complainants whose allegations were inconsistent or contradictory.” For the purposes of this article, 2% is used as the percentage of false allegations made because it is the most consistent value among reputable studies.
Spohn, C., White, C., & Tellis, K. (2014). Unfounding Sexual Assault: Examining the Decision to Unfound and Identifying False Reports. Law & Society Review, 48(1), 161-192. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43670379