How many false allegations of rape are there?
There is a commonly held belief that the figure for false allegations is high. In fact there is no evidence to suggest that it is any higher than false reporting of any other crime – around 2%. In fact research conducted by the NYPD and other research conducted in Sweden (Persson, 1981) and recently in New Zealand (Jordan) also found a false accusation rate of 2%. Importantly none of those cases reached court. In fact for some crimes (for example house theft and car theft), false reporting is much higher because of insurance claims.
