Assessing Police Classifications of Sexual Assault Reports: A Meta-Analysis of False Reporting Rates

Ferguson, Claire; Malouff, John M.

doi:10.1007/s10508-015-0666-2

Cited by 54 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Our 5% figure is also consistent with findings of other researchers in the field of allegations of rape. Ferguson and Malouff [21] found a rate of 5% confirmed false allegations in their meta-analysis on seven studies on the prevalence of false allegations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Prevalence of False Allegations of Rape in the United States from 2006-2010

Zutter¹,

Horselenberg²,

Koppen³

2017

J Foren Psy

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False allegations constitute a public problem since they result in a waste of time spent by the police and justice departments, and may cause public and individual harm. A prevalence study was conducted to obtain recent and valid figures of the prevalence of unfounded allegations of rape and unfounded allegations of other crimes. The most recent published prevalence figures on false allegations in the U. S. are from 1992. At the time cases were cleared by labeling cases as unfounded crimes. Since then guidelines to label a case as unfounded have become more strict. To test whether the new guidelines issued by the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) were followed we compared the current results with the prevalence rate of false and baseless allegations of rape before the guidelines were issued. Over a five-year period, from 2006 until 2010, the prevalence of false and baseless allegations of offences in the U. S. was studied. We found that the new guidelines were followed by law enforcement agencies. We performed a Kruskal Wallis Non Parametric Chi Square test of Goodness-of-fit on the proportions of false and baseless allegations to test whether the proportions were equal for all offence types. False and baseless allegations were not equally distributed across offence types X 2 (7, N=8000)=120.19, p<0.0001. The post hoc test revealed significant differences with the group average of 1.16% for false and baseless allegations of murder X 2 (1, N=1000)=39.94, p<0.0001, false and baseless allegations of rape X 2 (1, N=1000)=171.94, p<0.0001, and false and baseless allegations of robbery X 2 (1, N=1000)=187.78, p<0.0001. Approximately 5% of the allegations of rape were deemed false or baseless. That was at least five times higher than for most other offence types.Keywords: Crime; Allegations; True; False; Rape; FBI; Unfounded The Prevalence of False AllegationsNot all allegations of crimes are truthful. Sometimes people who present themselves as victims make false claims of victimization. A false allegation is defined as an allegation of a crime filed by a complainant to the police while in reality no crime has occurred, the complainant is not a victim of the alleged crime.False allegations constitute a public problem since they result in a waste of time spent by the police and justice departments, and may cause public and individual harm. It seems imperative to know the prevalence of a problem in order to contain or solve the problem. In other words, the prevalence is a prerequisite to outline an effective policy to eliminate false allegations as much as possible.False allegations of rape, in contrast with other offence types, received a lot of attention from scholars. There is a heated debate about false allegations of rape with extreme claims at both ends. Brownmiller [1] claims that almost all allegations are true, and Kanin [2] that all allegations are false.Whereas Greer [3] claims Brownmiller's false rape figure is untrue since this figure was not based on...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Prevalence of False Allegations of Rape in the United States from 2006-2010

Zutter¹,

Horselenberg²,

Koppen³

2017

J Foren Psy

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“…This is often overlooked and scholars examining false report data and should make this a point of emphasis for combating the disproportionate amount of concern about false allegations. For example, Ferguson and Malouff () lamented the plight of the falsely accused and implied that an individual is wrongfully accused for each and every false report, a conclusion not supported by the research.…”

Section: Challenging False Report Mythsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The inaccurate belief that women often lie about sexual assault and blame innocent men for a crime they did not commit is a harmful myth circulating in the wider culture, including on college campuses. Although empirical evidence indicates that false reports of sexual assault account for less than 10% of cases reported (Ferguson & Malouff, ; Lisak, Gardinier, Nicksa, & Cote, ; Lonsway, ), there is a sentiment among some people that feminist advancements with Title IX on university campuses have overcorrected the issue to the point that many innocent college men are being unfairly persecuted (e.g., Yoffe, ). The rationale underlying concerns about overcorrection dovetails with the inaccurate belief that false reports are common and that innocent individuals are therefore frequently accused of sexual assault.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Confronting Myths About Sexual Assault: A Feminist Analysis of the False Report Literature

Weiser¹

2017

Family Relations

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Inaccurate beliefs that women commonly lie about sexual assault and target innocent men are pervasive in the United States, particularly on college and university campuses. Research consistently demonstrates that false reports of sexual assault account for less than 10% of reported cases and that individuals are unlikely to be wrongly accused of sexual assault. Thus, to pursue justice on campuses and beyond, family scholars must challenge misinformation about false reports in their teaching and scholarship to shift the narrative away from these prevalent and harmful rape myths. Doing so will allow for a more comprehensive and informed dialogue about how to address sexual assault on university campuses. This article offers a feminist analysis of the issue, clearly delineates the definition of a false report, critically reviews the false report literature, and presents suggestions for educational efforts by family professionals.

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“…Concerns about wrongful allegations of abuse in the wake of the case are beginning to surface (Burnett, 2016) and specifically allegations made against those in occupations of trust (Hoyle et al, 2016). While police and activist accounts tend to minimize the scale of false allegations, a recent meta-analysis indicates that, across all categories, this is higher than reported (Ferguson and Malouff, 2016) while Piper and Sikes (2010) and Webster (2005) identify false allegations in respect of those in loco parentis roles to be a major social problem.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%