Comment by purringmeow | Hacker News Reader

Comment by purringmeow | Hacker News Reader

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False allegations are far from being rare.

You also have to acknowledge that when you have a rape accusation, there isn't a boolean result(either the allegation is false, or it's true, meaning there was rape). It's a broad spectrum, with only around a third of the cases resulting in conviction.[1]

As far as I understand, only if there wasn't a sexual contact will the allegation be considered false. In other cases, there will be some sort of investigation. So, it's possible to have basis for allegation and NOT have rape.

Correct me if I am wrong though.

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Of the 136 cases of sexual assault 8 (5.9%) were coded as false reports, 61 (44.9%) did not proceed to any prosecution or disciplinary action, 48 (35.3%) were referred for prosecution or disciplinary action, and 19 (13.9%) contained insufficient information to be coded (see Table 2).

[1]http://www.icdv.idaho.gov/conference/handouts/False-Allegati...

"False allegations are far from being rare."

"Of the 136 cases of sexual assault (5.9%) were coded as false reports..."

I grant rare is subjective, but doesn't that statistic say that only 1 in 17 of the reports in the study you're citing were found to be false? I get what you're saying about "not boolean," but the handout on false allegations from that conference you linked to (your link doesn't work, but if you take the first part of "http://www.icdv.idaho.gov/conference/" you get the full schedule) says, "when more methodologically rigorous research has been conducted, estimates for the percentage of false reports begin to converge around 2-8%." I don't see anything that suggests the allegation is only false if there wasn't sexual contact, either.

"The determination that a report is false can then only be made when there is sufficient evidence to establish that the sexual assault did not happen (was not completed or attempted). This does not mean that the investigation failed to prove that the sexual assault happened--in that case the investigation would simply be inconclusive or unsubstantiated. It also does not mean that the suspect was unable to successfully complete the sexual assault--this would be an attempted sexual assault and/or some other sexual offense."

(I should note I'm not taking any position on the allegation against Max Temkin here.)

I think you missed purringmeow's point. Yes, 6% of cases were determined to be false reports but how many of the remaining 60% were also false reports and we simply don't know?

what remaining 60%?

I assume the 60% is:

(44.9%) did not proceed to any prosecution or disciplinary action (13.9%) contained insufficient information to be coded

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