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The Dominion Post
January 22, 2004
Maths do not add up
Letter to
the Editor
by Loretta Kemsley
(California, USA)
Your report headlined, False rape complaints cost
millions (Jan 13) read, "Figures issued by the Office of the
Commissioner show police charged 471 people with making a false statement in
the year to June 30, 2003 . . . There are no records to show what they refer
to, but officers who spoke to The Dominion Post said the majority of false
complaints related to sex offences . . . Police in Wellington city dealt with
a spate of about 12 false sexual assault complaints in the space of a month
late last year"
Twelve false reports a month equals 144 false sexual assault complaints a
year.
One hundred and forty-four is 30.57 per cent of 471 -- so how does that equal
the majority of false complaints being related to sex offences? Of course,
the latter figure is assuming they've charged all the people who've made
false reports.
The figure for those charged (471) is higher than the annual average (444),
so I'm assuming they have. I suggest both you and police do the arithmetic
before making false allegations against victims of sexual assault.
www.peterellis.org responds:
This correspondent from California has
obviously little knowledge of New
Zealand, and makes a fool of herself in
the above letter.
.
The statistics referring to Wellington
of about 12 in one month relate to a city that had a population of 163824 in
the 2001 census.
The statistics issued by the Commissioner relate to the whole of New Zealand,
with a population of nearly 4 million.
Whichever way the statistics are viewed, the incidence of false allegations
of sexual abuse in New
Zealand are extremely high. Given that
proving a complaint is extremely difficult, it is likely that the 471 people
charged last year represent only a small percentage of actual false
allegations.
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