Re: Frequent false reports: where's the evidence? (was: Re: Rape Education Story #60

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kate Orman) wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> Daran <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...

> > Another blunder/fib/distortion (delete as applicable) is that you are
> > framing the discussion as though all these figures are estimates of the
> > number of false accusations.  
> 
> Reports.
> 
> > This is completely incorrect.  These numbers
> > are all ostensible *lower limits* to the number of false accusations.  And
> > the firmer the criteria become for so classifying a report, the more likely
> > it is, that it is an *underestimate* of the real false reporting rate.
> 
> While I take your point, that doesn't make evidence of lots of false 
> reports magically appear.

And here's another problem, pointed out in the paper cited below. What 
happens when a woman reports, encounters poor treatment and skepticism 
from police (good heavens, some states used to *polygraph* rape 
victims!!!), realises she cannot face going through the whole legal 
process - and so recants? She's counted as a false allegator, another 
"lying bitch", even though she is a genuine rape victim. Unless those 
counting false reports take this issue into consideration, their 
figures may *overestimate* the incidence of lies.

Rozee, Patricia D. and Mary P. Koss. Rape: A Century of Resistance. 
Psychology of Women Quarterly 25, 2001, pp 295-311.

Yours,
- Kate Orman