In the previous thread, SP1814 stated the following:
When a woman claims to have been raped, I automatically assume she's telling the truth, because the number of false allegations compared to the number of real rapes is tiny. I find this an interesting statement since rape is one of the most difficult things to prove.
Purely from statistics, less than 10% of cases that are reported result in a conviction (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7496013.stm) so
purely from a statistical point of view it is more likely that a woman is lying when she cries rape.
And of course there are (according to research) a lot of cases that aren't reported
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6314445.st m But and it is a big but, as I mentioned, rape is one of the hardest crimes to prove - and there will be a percentage of men (maybe even on a jury) that will think that since the girl was out drinking and wearing revealing clothing that she 'didn't deserve it, but.......' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7275588.stm)
Some politician made ment
So, to the questions:
1) when a local newspaper reports that someone alleges that she has been raped, do you automatically feel that she is telling the truth or that she is making it up?
2) What can be done to encourage women to report rape crimes and to secure more convictions (if of course you do believe that in the majority of cases the woman is telling the truth)