[CTcard]

People often exaggerate the rate of false accusations -- the real stats are in line with false accusation of other crimes -- from 2-8%.

There are a bunch of studies that try to guess at this, but it is worth remembering that this is both an unknown, and probably unknowable, number.

In fact in that plagues the whole issue of sexual assault. If you read around enough, it's clear that the prevalence of such problems is way too high, but also pretty clear that nobody knows reliable numbers.

It probably doesn't matter because there is certainly enough of a problem that society needs to take corrective action, but some humility about what is really known seems worthwhile to me.

[CTcard]

People often exaggerate the rate of false accusations -- the real stats are in line with false accusation of other crimes -- from 2-8%.

There are a bunch of studies that try to guess at this, but it is worth remembering that this is both an unknown, and probably unknowable, number.

In fact in that plagues the whole issue of sexual assault. If you read around enough, it's clear that the prevalence of such problems is way too high, but also pretty clear that nobody knows reliable numbers.

It probably doesn't matter because there is certainly enough of a problem that society needs to take corrective action, but some humility about what is really known seems worthwhile to me.