Controversial Statistics

Let's start by saying all statistics are controversial.

Mark Twain coined the phrase 'lies, damned lies and statistics' and most people know that you can make statistics say pretty much whatever you want. However:

We know that most women who are raped do not report it.

We know that most women who report never make it to court because over two-thirds of cases drop out at the police/cps stage and do not make it as far as the courts.

We know that only 5.6% of 11,766 reported rapes in 2002 led to a rapist being convicted - and we know that this is a rate that is getting worse each year.

We know that the figure of 94% of men walking free is an UNDER ESTIMATE - if we take the figure of 47,000 incidents of rape or attempted rape (2002 British Crime Survey) and that there were 352 convictions of adult rape in 2002 (this figure includes rape of men too) then we are actually erring on the VERY generous side. We could be saying 99% of rapists walk free and that would be closer to the TRUTH.

Of course we are trying to highlight the desperately poor attrition rate in relation to court cases and if you feel that is being controversial - then good -  isn't that what an awareness campaign is all about?