For campus sexual assaults, false reporting is a false measure

Article here. Excerpt:

'The conversation about campus sexual assault lacks trust, most notably around the idea of false reporting. The wedge this issue drives between women and men has to be addressed when developing sexual assault legislation.

There are several numbers in circulation that claim to represent false reporting. One study often quoted by women’s rights groups found only 2 percent to 8 percent of reports to be false. A different study, often quoted by men’s rights groups, predicted that anywhere from 40 percent to 50 percent of cases are false.

Trying to put a number to false reports is pointless and even harmful. “False” report statistics can include not only the honest-to-God, outright lies that are provably false, but also cases that are dropped — a common occurrence in legal proceedings. A case can be dropped if there is a lack of evidence, the complainant tires of the reporting process or the case lacks a clear legal definition. At one university, this left only 35 percent of the cases viable for a day in court.'