The low-down on false rape claims
Often when we are delivering consent training in schools, we will get a question from students about the prevalence of false rape claims.
Contrary to popular belief, false rape allegations are very rare. In her book ‘Fixed it’, journalist Jane Gilmore writes (2019):
‘For every single false report of rape, 130 rapes are actually committed’.
Estimates vary, but the most commonly cited figure is that around 5 per cent of formal reports of rape are false (The Australian Institute of Family Studies). According to criminologist Dr Bianca Fileborn, from the University of Melbourne, it's a "huge misconception" that false reports are common, and that myth is likely rooted in misogyny, sexism, and historical stereotypes about womens' trustworthiness in the criminal justice system.
But here’s the thing – according to research, we know that rape and sexual violence is significantly underreported. Research has found that 9 out of 10 incidents of sexual assault are not formally reported to the police. There are many barriers to reporting sexual offences and conviction rates here in Australia are extremely low (approximately 2%). Of the 10% of incidents of sexual assault that are formally reported to police, only one in ten results in a conviction.
The vast majority of victims who experience sexual offences will never formally report their experiences to police. Overall, it’s estimated that only 8 to 10 percent of victims of sexual violence will report their experience to the police, which means that we can infer that 90 percent of rapes go unreported.
Obviously, only those rapes that are reported in the first place can be considered falsely reported, so that 5 percent figure only applies to 10 percent (at most) of rapes that have actually occurred. The National Sexual Violence Resource Centre estimates that 0.5% of all rapes (reported and unreported) turn out to be false allegations. Teach Us Consent recently summarised the stats like this:
Men are statistically more likely to get raped than they are to be falsely accused of rape.
Of the estimated 0.5 percent of ‘false rape allegations’, not all are maliciously made up reports. Reports can be labeled as ‘false’ for a range of reasons, including situations where there's not enough evidence to support the report, or if a report has been made on behalf of a victim - and the victim then chooses not to pursue it in the criminal justice system.
To read more, check out the below articles exploring false rape accusations, low conviction rates of sexual assault, and sexual violence reporting stats:
