Why Sexual Assault Statistics Don’t Add Up Amidst The Danger Of Accusations

Some statistics are thrown around so much that certain communities treat them as truisms, even though a moment’s thought reveals they don’t make much sense. As debates about sexual violence and false reports are once again center stage in the national conversation, many are confidently parroting various statistics that are both inconsistent and clearly unrealistic.

Countless people confidently claim that somewhere between 2% and 5% of sexual assault allegations are false, with the implication that, because of these low numbers, the overwhelming majority of accusations ought to be believed on statistical grounds alone. Some will admit that up to 10% of allegations could be false, but this one in 10 is treated as still quite minor, especially with the argument that factoring in the many women who never report their assaults pushes the real, uncountable number of false accusations even lower.