Warning: this article contains discussion of sexual crimes and abuse.

Preface: This article will be discussing the topic of rape in a female-exclusive point of view. The topic of male rape victims is crucial and under-discussed, however it is a separate one. This piece specifically targets the historical disbelief of women, a concept which does not extend to male victims.

Fact: 1 in 3 women will be the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime [5].

Fact: 64% of those rapes will go unreported [2].

Fact: Approximately 850,000,000 women will suffer the burden of a rape in silence for the rest of their lives.

And it is not because it isn’t a detrimental crime. Rape has the highest rates of mental distress for the victim of any other violent crime [4]. Victims carry the emotional scars of rape for the rest of their lives. Those scars are passed on to their children, to their grandchildren, creating generations of unresolved anger. It can affect their self-confidence and security, every aspect of their interaction with their world.

Yet sixty-four percent of rape victims will never speak out about their assault because of fear of societal rejection; taboo, shame, ostracism that can destroy their lives and livelihoods; threats of more physical violence or extortion from their attackers; post-traumatic stress or shock; and personal blame. On top of these systemic barriers to reporting sexual crimes, many women know they simply won’t be believed.

Despite the media’s conjectures about malicious exes seeking revenge, evil mistresses ruining lives, and rejected women spinning vicious lies, rates of falsely reported rapes are not significantly different from any other crime [1]. The duplicitous perspective on rape victims comes from the deeply-rooted societal disbelief in female credibility, especially when men’s reputations are at stake.

The further decrediting of victim’s voices is only reinforced by inflated statistics presented by old men terrified of the word of a woman. Research has often grouped the terms “unfounded” and “falsely reported” together, lending a vastly different statistic of falsely accused rapists [2]. Unfounded crimes have no evidence to suggest the victim was in any way misleading investigators, rather that the case did not have significant evidence to prove a crime was actually committed. Even in the case of falsely reported sexual crimes, which are vastly rarer than unfounded ones, 50% of cases in one study included an admission of guilt from the accuser, indicating that half of women who do falsely report rape will admit their fabrication [2]. Another study found that the majority of actually falsely reported rapes don’t have a named perpetrator, rather a vague description of a stranger, and are identified as false early on in the investigations [1].

And yet, the topic of falsely reported rapes is consistently brought up in arguments surrounding rape accusations.

While the results of believing rape victims are rarely disastrous, the consequences of not believing them are vicious and cyclical. The mentality feeds into women not advocating for themselves, encouraging more rapists to strike, until the vicious circle is re-formed whereby this world becomes a place fundamentally unsafe for women. One in three is a shocking, terrifying statistic. It means your mother, your sister. It means 30% of women you pass on the street. It means your daughters, your granddaughters.

Yet the cries of women are ignored, to the detriment of many other victims.

In the case of Malcom Rewa, a serial rapist, the de-credibility of the victim’s accusation enabled the perpetrator to continue raping dozens of women over the next decade [1]. The original report of rape was never pursued because of an alibi Rewa’s fellow gang member provided. The detailed outline of the crime given by the woman was not believed over Rewa’s close friend’s. It was because of this clear judicial bias that the rapist was able to inflict the same trauma on twenty more women.

It was the police, society, and the systems which enabled them that let down these women. And we continue to let it happen.

Femininity does not equate deception. Ovaries and a uterus do not de-credit the words of the woman who holds them. The concept of estrogen rendering its holders manic is ancient, and frankly outdated. Science has evolved around us, we no longer need to cling to these biases founded before the invention of running water.

Fact: Women are victims.

Fact: Every single day, more women become that one in three.

Fact: Your disbelief contributes to that statistic.

Works Cited

[1] Lisak, David, et al. “False allegations of sexual assault: an analysis of ten years of reported cases.” Violence Against Women, vol. 16, no. 12, 2010. Pubmed, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21164210/. Accessed 16 February 2024.

[2] Liz, Kelly. “The (in)credible words of women: false allegations in European rape research.” Sage Journals, 2012. Pubmed, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21164212/. Accessed 16 February 2024.

[3] “USA - percentage of violent crimes reported to the police 2022.” Statista, 20 October 2023, https://www.statista.com/statistics/251934/usa-percentage-of-violent-crimes-reported-to-the-police/. Accessed 16 February 2024.

[4] “Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics.” RAINN, https://www.rainn.org/statistics/victims-sexual-violence. Accessed 16 February 2024.

[5] “Facts and figures: Ending violence against women.” UN Women, 21 September 2023, https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures. Accessed 16 February 2024.