Whether or not this graphic turns out to be true, Washington Post’s Dylan Matthews provides a peek into modern journalistic integrity.
He rehashed a rehash of a cutesy, digestible graphic on the disparity in rape incidents, arrests for rape, and incarceration for rape. The original graphic was provided by a group called Enliven Project and supposedly based on data from the Department of Justice. The link provided by Matthews has the following statement setting us at ease on the strength of the research:
The fear of getting falsely accused of rape just doesn’t compare to the fear of an actual rapist getting away with his or her crime. Statistics from Justice Department, National Crime Victimization Survey: 2006-2010 and FBI reports.
Matthews followed the daisy chain from a Huffington Post writer named Laura Bassett who linked to the catchy graphic which suggests that for every 1000 rapists there are 2 men falsely accused of rape. That 0.2% false accusation figure doesn’t match even the most conservative estimates. So since that figure is so far off the commonly-cited mark, it seems incumbent on Matthews/Enliven/Bassett to do their homework first and show their work to us while doing it.
I tweeted at Matthews and Bassett asking about the data to back the graphic. I’ve discussed rape statistics and false rape statistics and have a certain opinion on the topic, but I’d be willing to change my mind if shown proper data. But even Matthews admits that he doesn’t have that data. Even so, he posted the graphic anyway and pushed the discussion to a huge pool of passive readers:
I think he did it backwards. (h/t Robert VerBruggen)
Addendum: It is a fact that many actual rapes go unreported. Nobody can deny that. But it seems incomplete to look at the incidents where rapes were not reported to the police and then compare that to falsified rape accusations. What about rape accusations that are tossed around in social circles or used as threats against men but which don’t make it up to the police level? Could the DOJ or any other agency even count those?
Like this:
Like Loading...
Two men falsely accused for every ten in jail sounds like it might be reasonable. It’s the eight hundred (I may have counted all those little unnumbered person icons wrong) who supposedly commit rape but who are never even reported that makes me skeptical.
And who is to say that eight hundred unreported rapes are committed by eight hundred men? It could be (and by “could be”, I mean “certainly is, but for the chicanery of rabid feminists”) a small number of men raping over and over.
very true. there was a recent discussion at Good Men Project which found that most rapes are committed by a small number of men. good reminder, thanks. i might try to put these facts together.
What about rape accusations that are tossed around in social circles or used as threats against men but which don’t make it up to the police level? Could the DOJ or any other agency even count those?
I suppose they could reliably count them in just the same way as they could reliably count the ‘rapists’ figure on the WaPo’s pictograph – ie not at all.
If .01 percent of gun owners committing crimes is bad enough to talk about a gun ban then .2 percent of rape cases being falsely accused then we should probably ban all rape accusations.
Here’s something that the hegemonic left always fails to notice:
http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_4_snd-punitive-segregation.html
Peek, not peak. Unless you mean to say Mathews is the high point of journalistic integrity…
Also, you regularly make typos in your posts. I don’t intend to start an argument about the importance of spelling/grammar – if you don’t care, that’s fine. I just want to make sure that you know.
i put in typos to check to see if people are reading. thansk for reading.
Roosh’s reply tweet on that thread was the highlight for me.
icymi, here was my reply to him.
If rapes are not reported to police/FBI, then where do they get reported to? Twitter? Rapebook?
Not a data cruncher by nature, but these figures seem preposterous. These figures say that for every false accusation of rape, there are 500 (or 499) rapes, the vast majority unreported. Give me a break.
Anecdotal here would be in bad taste, but again, no way.
**********************
fnn, i do not know what your opinion is on that quote, but the prison system is a mess every which away. the gist of your quote, i would agree with, if it is that the punishment seems to be, how to say, evened out, or doled in equalized portions. which is consistent with the principles of anarcho-tyranny. in other words, non-violent offenders, up to those convicted of “rape”, really (though of course that is contentious; though a fair contention, that many such are in fact non-violent) doing hard time next to real bad guys, for whom there a case for clemency, made for them by the principles of liberalism and anarcho-tyranny.
Further on that quote from fnn, i find the problem of punishment or retribution kind of impossible. Sorta like the reason it is a bad idea to trust the police: those with an opinion a either not disinterested enough (due to sad circumstances), or by their sadistic. So an emotional or sadistic reaction; neither makes for good jurisprudence.
The problem of punishment or retribution makes the case for Bowery’s idea, which is from Old Europe or something: the right to single combat, to the death (though perhaps it could be modified to allow for other options, i might think, such as banishment or loss of status), for all members of standing in a community.
So it works that punishment can not be doled out through another’s hand. If the cause is righteous, a man must take it on himself, with the pursuant risk.
If you don’t report a crime, then you have to assume the person will get away with it, and therefore you probably aren’t living in fear of that happening.
The ‘unreported’ rapes statistics comes from that same college questionaire that finds that 1 in 4 college women gets raped as she matriculates, but almost none of them acknowledge it as rape (because it’s not).
So basically a lot of what almost everyone would call consensual sex and what is legally determined to be consensual sex is going ‘unreported’ and therefore a lot of ‘rapists’ are walking the streets.
I’m willing to bet that the false rape accusation number is based almost wholly on post-conviction exoneration, which practically never happen because there is no purpose in continuing an investigation after it has produced a conviction.
So what about the terrible monster who eats children, who happens to be big and strong. Would there not be rules to prohibit that?
There would not need to be, in a society of free men. Such ethics are part of the fabric, and there will be many with the desire to do justice upon the monster.
What this graph shows, is that it isn’t easy to convict someone of rape. Since it is a serious crime, that carries a long prison sentence, that makes sense.
It’s a fact that many rapes go unreported? Really? How do you know, if there is no report?
Even while attacking feminist luncy, you carry water for feminist lunatics
gg chuck
most “rapes” are committed by men who could (and do) easily get consensual sex
anonymous,
your approach is much more effective, i’m sure.
http://www.innocenceproject.org/
Illegitimate Rape Accusations Are Real.
angry harry’s article on rape baloney.
http://www.angryharry.com/esRapeBaloney.htm
Most black rapes get plead down to something less than rape and generally don’t get included in charts like these.
Pingback: A Graphic Display: The Anatomy of a Lie « Gucci Little Piggy
Pingback: A response to @AmandaMarcotte, @DylanMatt, and @EzraKlein « Gucci Little Piggy
Preface: Rape is a heinous crime that, in my opinion, should merit the strictest penalties that the law allows.
That said, this graphic epitomizes Mark Twain’s quote of “Lies, damned lies, and statistics”. If you use distortions and misrepresentations to support your cause, no matter how noble it may be, then you poison your own cause.
It is quite apparent that *no one*, to date, has actually looked at the “source” for this graphic. The ONLY listed source is the “National Crime Victimization Survey: 2006-2010″. The other listing of”FBI reports” is meaningless as there is no way to verify the data used, without a specific citation.
So, lets examine the only listed source. For brevity’s sake, lets only look at the “not reported to police” portion of this graphic, since that portion is the most dramatic, and compare this to what is shown in this graphic:
First, let’s just take the source of the data at face value. There is a lot to discuss about this source, but let’s just assume that the source used means “all rapes”. The graphic states that 90% of rapes are not reported. Yet, their *only* cited source says that the number of unreported “rapes” is 65%.
That means that at the very basest of levels, this graph is inaccurate to the only cited source to the tune of 350%. Yes, this graph is inaccurate by 350%. But it is much worse than that.
However, let’s first look at how they came up with a 90% figure. Well, they just assumed it. Yep, they just made it up. They say so themselves. I quote: “We assumed 10%” .
So, a factor of 3.5 times wrong is not so bad, is it? Well, looking closer at the data’s source, “rape” includes actual rape, sexual assault, attempted rape, and the verbal threat of rape. So, this graphic is saying that the mere verbal threat of rape is as good as rape itself.
If we look at actual physical rape, then the data source states that only 35% of those cases are actually unreported. That means that 65% of actual, real, physical rapes (not verbal threats) are actually reported, meaning this graphic has now distorted the data by 650%.
There is much more to be said about how bad this graphic is, but this will do for now. The comparison of “false accusation” (which is in their words also “assumed”) is an apples-to-oranges comparison, meant only to minimize the real pain felt by those falsely accused of rape. This graphic is a disgrace to those falsely accused, and to real rape victims. The use of lies to achieve your ends will only result in negative consequences for the real victims.
Pingback: Dålig statistik är dålig statistik, om än i snygga grafer « No size fits all
Pingback: Rape Statistics: The Anatomy of a Lie » SAVE: Stop Abusive and Violent Environments