study claims "ireland has one of the highest rates of false rape accusations"

[mayorquimby]

www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/eyauidqlgboj/rss2/

www.goreyguardian.ie/breaking-news/national-news/ireland-has-highest-rate-of-false-rape-allegations- 1723441.html

the study was done by a department in trinity college, and claims that 9% of rape allegations in ireland are false and linked with over-consumption of alcohol.
now wether true or not i'm left wondering wether this is a responsible study to publish as it a)may reinforce the idea in certain victims heads that they are to blame
b)it has lead to some pretty knee-jerk ill-informed debate by some on what should be done with regards rape claims which are found to be untrue.

however on the other side i heard some contributions to phone in shows from both women and men that did scare me. women claiming that if they got drunk enough that they slept with someone when who they wouldn't have when sober then they would report that as rape because even though they may have consented at the time their judgment was infrnged by alcohol so the man was taking advantage. and that it didn't matter how drunk the man was he'd obviously consent to sex because men are just out for sex/impossible to rape a man etc.

and then certain men contributing with a mindset that i had thought had become extinct "women shouldn't be putting themselves in those situations/if they get that drunk it's your own fault etc"

sorry this is longer than i expected just wanted to know what posters,irish or otherwise made of the decision to carry out and release such studies. the timing is probably not the best because everyone is still talking about what should happen to the woman in the michael hannon case who made up false rape allegations agaionst him when she was 10 because the families where in a land dispute, but revoked her statement when in her 20's

You will need to look at the original report. The media always spin these so they get the most coverage and get the most knee jerk responses. The people who consider these thinsg don't join in so your getting an overrepresentation of fuckwits that make it look like a majority of people think like they do. They don't.

As for actually studying fasle allegations, this has to be done, as well as getting stats for other false allegations of crimes.

Just also want to say that these stats contradict the Home Office stats which put false allegation at 2-3% which is not more or less than any other crime. There might be cultural influences though. LIke I say, youd really be better off reading the report with as open mind as possible and not reading the headlines as being a true reflection on the aims of the study. Knee jerk reactions from either side don't help in getting to the truth of these matters in my expereince.

But how do they know whether it's false or not? Even if the woman turns round and says 'actually I made it up', how do we know whether she's telling the truth at that point or it's just that she can't face going through with the prosecution because of social stigma?
You'd hope TCD researchers would be using a rigorous methodology for this, but it would be interesting to know how they came to this conclusion.

ballina completely agree with you regards the over-representation of morons who seem to get airtime and focussed on because it makes beter copy than a reasonable balanced person. i'm tryting to get a hold of the report but don't know where to yet.

i did hear a spokesperson from the department on the radio yesterday who was at pains to point out the fact that alcohol also played a part in many many legitimate rape claims so the study was in no way trying to tar victims of sexual assaults with a sort of "if you get drunk you get whats coming to you" brush. just that the study found alcohol was a significant presence in false claims.

was hoping someone on here would have more info than i've managed to garner so far.

"But how do they know whether it's false or not?"

Exactly and that true or false will not always be a simple binary fact. Especially where alcohol is involved, even the victim may not be certain that it was rape. Predatory males do target the drunk and vulnerable, but there is a grey area between rape and seduction. Both being wrong.

"But how do they know whether it's false or not?"
this is why i've always had difficulty understanding certain rape (and in fairness other crime) statistics such as "95% of rapists walk free/there are x amount rapes each year but only z amount of convictions"
because surely to be classified as a rape there has to be a criminal trial.
i do agree with regards predatory males targetting comatose women and raping them, but then there is the other grey area where someone wakes up the morning after and can't recall wether or not they consented. i.e. two people meet in a club,both polluted drunk go back to a house...blank space due to alcohol, could well have consented also possible could not..wake up the morning after with stranger beside you. which is just an impossible situation in which to gain a conviction if the woman believes she was raped.or the woman may wake up and believe she was raped but she wasn't.

as i said that's why i was hoping someone better informed than me would post.
i know that as a man some might view my posts as inflammatory or trying to make excuses, and that is honestly not my intentions. i do not doubt most of the statistics i hear regarding the appauling sexual assault conviction rate, my confusion is to how these figures can be reached when there is either a) no trial,because the man in such an allegation is presumed innocent unless proven otherwise or b)found not-guilty so in the eyes of the law has committed no crime. this goes for other unreported crime statistics not just rape, how are they legally allowed to say a crime has been committed when the courts have not said so?

this might answer some of your questions. I'm afraid I am not as yet qualified to give a precis as it it very complex. But it's all in here.

There's a better report here
The study was based on a sample of 100 rape allegations from each of the 11 countries taking part. Not a statistical expert but surely there is a certain difficulty in drawing hard and fast conclusions from such a small sample.
And if you are worrying about the implications of the report, the angle the Irish Times led with might be a good place to start thinking.