You’ve probably noticed an increase in media reports of famous men being accused of varying degrees of sexual violence, ranging from sexual harassment to sexual assault to rape.<\/p>\n
If you’ve been reading the news reports and following the reaction on social media, you’ve probably heard people saying that the accused persons deserve due process.<\/p>\n
Or perhaps you’ve heard people say that we should wait until we have the full story before we pass judgement. After all, some woman have falsely accused men of rape.<\/p>\n
Here’s why the idea of due process doesn’t work in this case.<\/p>\n
According to a 2002 study by C. A. Rennison, 63% of sexual assaults go unreported. Only 37% of women report when they’re sexually assaulted. That’s only a third.<\/p>\n
A 2006 study by Heenan & Murray showed that 2.1% of sexual assault cases end up being false reports.<\/p>\n
A 2009 study by Lonsway, Archambault & Lisak put that number at 7.1%, and a 2010 study by Lisak et al. put the number between the two at 5.9%.<\/p>\n
So, we have somewhere between 2.1% and 7.1% of sexual assault cases are false reports. In other words between 92.9% and 97.9% of sexault assault cases aren’t made up. And that’s for reported assault.<\/p>\n
Remember, only 37% of sexual assault cases end up being reported, so that’s 2.1%\u20137.1% of only a third of actual sexualt assaults. If every woman reported sexual assault, false reports would make up between 0.7% and 2.4%.<\/p>\n
In reality, between 97.6% and 99.3% of sexual assaults are not false reports. If someone claims to have been sexually assaulted, odds are pretty high that they were telling the truth.<\/p>\n
In fact, when you think about it, if someone accused of sexual assault claims to be innocent, they’re far more likely to be lying than the accuser is.<\/p>\n
But we still insist on giving the accused the benefit of the doubt. We insist on hearing their side of the story and on their receiving due process.<\/p>\n
But what does due process look like regarding sexual assault? Asking the accused if he did it? Of course, he’s going to say no. Then what?<\/p>\n
How can the victim present evidence of the sexual assault they experienced? Photos? Video? Witness statements? DNA?<\/p>\n
Expecting victims to prove they were assaulted is unrealistic, especially if it was a traumatic experience, or they didn’t realize it was assault until years later, or they were afraid for their job, education, or life.<\/p>\n
Current odds of winning the Lotto 6\/49 jackpot are 0.00000715%. If someone told you that if you bought a lottery ticket, your chance of winning was 99.3%, would you buy a ticket? What if your chance was only 97.6%?<\/p>\n
Why are we still refusing to believe sexual assault victims?<\/p>\n