Sexual Assault Allegation Research

Joseph and Potiphar's Wife /Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Called Guercino, 1649
National Gallery of Art

In an experimental study, people reading accounts of sexual assault performed worse than chance (45.3%) when judging whether a report was true or false. The more confident the judgment, the lower the rate of accuracy (Peace et al., 2012).

Charges of sexual assault are clearly a serious matter. Many people are sexually assaulted each year. Most of the victims are women. Yet many innocent people have been imprisoned on false charges and lost years of their lives, which cannot be recovered.

The story of Picking Cotton is a powerful reminder of a bright woman who appeared quite credible but was sadly mistaken. Jennifer Thompson was convinced it was Ronald Cotton who raped her. But it turned out she was wrong. Her story was presented in a 60-minutes special in 2011.

The point is, when an accused person claims innocence, the person may be telling the truth. In cases of sexual assault, observers may be limited to the claims of two people and no physical evidence.

Detecting Deception

The research reviewed by Peace and her colleagues indicates a history of difficulty in detecting deception with accuracy levels running close to chance levels but confidence levels running at inflated levels.

There is an emotional belief bias. That is, emotional stories add a believability factor. When a report contains emotional content, and is presented with intense emotion, the report leads people to believe the report as true. Reports of rape and other forms of sexual assault are the kind of reports that lead to credibility.

Some have wondered about the role of personality in judging the accuracy of reports. Unfortunately, research does not provide a consistent pattern.

RAND Corporation Report

In a massive report (319 pages), the Rand Corporation team compiled A Compendium of Sexual Assault Research. (Download pdf).

One problem is that although most agree that sexual assault is a widespread problem, estimates vary considerably from 15 to 51%. A study of men reported a 4% rate. On college campuses, the assault of women ranged from 21 to 42% in various samples.

Victims tend to know the perpetrators. The risk factors for predicting perpetrators were described as follows:

"Among perpetrators, hostile masculinity was most often found to be a significant predictor of sexual assault perpetration; men who adhered to aggressive sexual beliefs were also considered at high risk of perpetrating sexual assault, as were those with a history of being coercive or committing assault." (p. x)

Considerations

Psychotherapists and counselors have a different task than does the forensic psychologist. Clinicians are concerned with the well-being of their clients. Clinicians must deal with the symptoms reported and the client's perceived experience. Helping victims become survivors is the joint effort of clinicians and clients.

Anyone wanting to be objective about the evaluation of sexual assault charges may be on the defensive when faced with an emotional report of rape, which may be believed by many. When stories are published, the accused is judged in the court of public opinion.

The forensic psychologist seeks to determine credibility along with the mental status of the person reporting the assault. Efforts to be objective by examiners can be frustrating to victims.

The reports of sexual assault are often true even when some details may be incorrect. An incorrect detail or an inconsistency does not necesarily mean a claim is false.

But some reports of sexual assault are false for various reasons including mistaken perceptions and false memories.

To learn more, consider the RAND report and the Peace study along with the references provided in those documents.

Comments

Respectful comments are welcome, including corrections. Others will be deleted.

Reference

Peace, K. A., Porter, S., & Almon, D. F. (2012). Sidetracked by emotion: Observers' ability to discriminate genuine and fabricated sexual assault allegations. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 17(2), 322-335. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8333.2011.02013.x

Related reading on sex and morality  A House Divided

https://wipfandstock.com/a-house-divided-16708.html