In the wake of Russell Brand’s rape conviction, there’s been a spate of people mouthing off about it. Among the usual handwringing and vague notions that for whatever reason, Brand’s conviction is somehow unreasonable, comes the oft-repeated statement, ‘women lie’.
Yes, women lie. Men lie too. The people who repeat their worn out mantra ‘women lie’ are often quiet about the dishonesty of men. Men lie to cover up the crimes of themselves and other men. Not only that, but the general, persisting trend of misogyny in our society tends to favour doubting a woman’s word over a man’s.
Detractors of this concept might argue that men get jailed because of the false statements of women. It’s true that this happens from time to time, but it is equally true that men evade and avoid punishment for their crimes, because of falsehoods. Rape and other forms of sexual assault often go unreported, because of lies, coercion and threats issued by men. Alas, the more casually misogynistic members of society would rather not face this fact.
I put a question to Google Gemini. The answer confirms what I suspected:
Statistically and legally, a woman not being believed or crimes against women going unpunished/underreported happens at a vastly higher rate than a man being falsely accused and jailed based on a woman’s lies.
Underreporting and Attrition of Crimes Against Women
- High Rates of Unreported Assault: Studies and official figures (such as from the Office for National Statistics) show that the vast majority of sexual assaults and rapes—estimated between 63% and over 80%—go unreported to the police. [1]
- Low Conviction/Prosecution Rates: A high percentage of reported sexual offenses do not result in a conviction or even reach court, meaning victims are frequently not believed, lack sufficient corroborating evidence, or face systemic hurdles within the legal process. [1]
Rarity of Proven False Accusations
- Low Percentage of Lying: Criminological and legal research consistently shows that proven false allegations of sexual violence are rare, typically estimated between 2% and 6% (rates comparable to or lower than false reporting rates for other crimes). [1]
- Statistical Comparison: Men are statistically far more likely to be victims of sexual assault or to be wrongfully convicted of other crimes (like murder) than to be falsely accused and convicted of rape. While false accusations do occur and can lead to legal action or a prison sentence for perverting the course of justice, they represent a small fraction of overall reported cases. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Now, I am quite certain detractors of this will already be honing in on the line ‘lack corroborating evidence’, and they will casually ignored the points about victims not being believed and systemic hurdles. Why might people ignore these elements? Because these elements do not marry up to the dishonest narratives playing out in their heads.
It doesn’t matter that the evidence for false convictions shows false convictions are in fact very low. It doesn’t matter that the rate of false convictions is so low men are more likely to be victims of sexual assault than falsely convicted of it. The mantra ‘women lie’ will be repeated ad nauseum, because why let facts get in the way of a soundbite?
The legal system to this very day puts roadblocks up where rape is concerned. Indeed, casual misogyny puts up barriers. ‘Why didn’t she come forward at the time?’ Well, people threatened her, bullied her, and implied she was attention-seeking to destroy a man’s reputation. ‘Why did she wait 20 years?’ Because people threatened her, bullied her, and implied she was attention-seeking to destroy a man’s reputation.
Perhaps, instead of creating no-win scenarios for victims of rape, and treating rape victims as though they should somehow be on trial, we could show a bit more compassion in our justice system?
