Module 1
Why Should Sexual Assault Victim Advocates Understand the Criminal Justice System?

False Reports

The myth that false rape allegations are rampant is pervasive, despite the extensive, published research on this issue. The best estimates, drawn from careful analyses of police reports, indicate that only between 2 and 8 percent of rapes reported to police are false.

The National Institute of Justice funded a study published in 2010 titled “Police Investigations of Rape – Roadblocks and Solutions” to assess the perceptions of law enforcement with respect to the prevalence of false reports.  Municipal and campus officers’ estimates of the percentage of reported rape cases that were false ranged from 10% to 95-100%. The study concluded, “[T]his entire analysis suggests that a great many police officers still believe in rape myths, and specifically the one that women lie.”1

Disclaimers and Footnotes

1. Martin Schwartz, National Institute of Justice Visiting Fellowship: Police Investigation of Rape—Roadblocks and Solutions. https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/232667.pdf.

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