Journal of Forensic Psychology

Peter J van Koppen

Publications

• Research Article
  The Prevalence of False Allegations of Rape in the United States from 2006-2010
  Author(s): Andre W. E. A. De Zutter, Robert Horselenberg and Peter J van KoppenAndre W. E. A. De Zutter, Robert Horselenberg and Peter J van Koppen
  
  False allegations constitute a public problem since they result in a waste of time spent by the police and justice departments, and may cause public and individual harm. A prevalence study was conducted to obtain recent and valid figures of the prevalence of unfounded allegations of rape and unfounded allegations of other crimes. The most recent published prevalence figures on false allegations in the U. S. are from 1992. At the time cases were cleared by labeling cases as unfounded crimes. Since then guidelines to label a case as unfounded have become more strict. To test whether the new guidelines issued by the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) were followed we compared the current results with the prevalence rate of false and baseless allegations of rape before the guidelines were issued. Over a five-year period, from 2006 until 201.. View More»
  DOI: 10.4172/2475-319X.1000119

  Abstract PDF