Here is a list of highly questionable to outright fraudulent statistics on gender issues. Many of these statistics are commonly cited by politicians, media sources and gender activists. This list will be updated over time. There are many statistics I am still researching and have yet to include. A statistic’s omission from this list should not be considered an endorsement of its credibility.

Please contact me with any suspicious statistics on gender related issues you find that are not currently on the list.

Statistics are (kind of) sorted alphabetically with lower numbers being place before higher numbers.

Statistics:

1 in 4 (American) college women are raped

Source: 1987 The Scope of Rape: Incidence and Prevalence of Sexual Aggression and Victimization in a National Sample of Higher Education Students (aka the “Ms. Report”) The study is commonly referred to as the “Ms. Report” because it was commissioned and promoted by Ms. magazine, a large American feminist magazine. The study is the source for what become one of the most famous “1 in [X] women are [Y]” statistics for years. The study found that “27.5% of college women reported experiencing[…]an act that met legal definitions of rape, which includes attempts” [emphasis added]. Adding attempted rapes (12.1% attempted + 15.4% completed = 27.5%) greatly increased the studies final number (168).

The credibility of the study really starts to fall apart upon the realization that only 27% of these rapes were “acknowledged as rape by the victim” (169), yet all were counted by the study. An excellent examination of this study and others like by the Toledo Blade reveals that 42% of the study’s supposed “rape” victims even reported having sex with their supposed rapist at a later date (8A). Christine Hoff Sommers wrote an excellent indepth critique of the study, which she also writes about in even more detail in her book “Who Stole Feminism?”. She points to (likely intentionally) misleading survey questions as a possible cause.

Despite the obvious flaws in the study (which were largely hidden from the public eye for years), “1 in 4” became a feminist rallying cry. Mary Koss, the study’s head researcher, continued to be seen as reliable expert in the field of sexual assault research, even going on to work for the CDC. Koss has since repeated stated she believes male victims of female rapists should not be considered true rape victims in the eyes of the law.

1 in 4 Asian men admit to raping women

Source: Why Do Some Men Use Violence Against Women and How Can We Prevent It? Quantitative Findings from the UN Multi-country Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific

The participants were asked indirect questions, none of which actually included the word “rape” and may have misclassified consensual sex as rape. The researchers admit their sample size is too small to represent all but one of the six Asian countries sampled, much less all of Asia. Despite a few token disclaimers, it is clear the researchers (and others who use their research) are misrepresenting the results by capitalizing on the double meaning of “Asian men,” which could mean either all men in Asia or all the men in the study who happened to be Asian. The study report also shows a strong feminist bias in intrepreting data.

1 in 5 (American) college women will experience a completed or attempted sexually assault

Source: 2007 CSA (Campus Sexual Assault Study)

Commonly misquoted as:

“1 in 5 (American) college women will be sexually assaulted”;

“1 in 5 (American) college women will be raped”

The CSA only took samples from two American colleges. The CSA’s definition of sexual assault was also incredibly broad, lumping together everything from rape to attempted “sexual” touching. The study found that an incredibly high number of respondents that it classified as “rape” victims, maintained they were not actually victims of rape. Even after the term “rape” was strictly defined, only “64.6% of physically forced rape victims and 37.8% incapacitated rape victims considered the incident to be rape” (pg 5-21). In a 2014 editorial, the CSA’s lead researchers back-tracked on the studies findings, claiming the study was not actually representative of the American college population.

Please read this post for more details.

1 in 5 (American) women are raped

Source: 2010 CDC NISVS (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey)

The CDC NISVS suspiciously found a much higher rate of rape victimization than a similar Bureau of Justice survey (NCVS). NISVS survey questions omitted the word “rape” in rape victimization questions and included questions that may have misclassified consensual sex as rape.

Please read this post for more details.

1 women is raped every 30 minutes in India

Source: Preliminary Analysis of Some Statistics relating to the Offence of Rape as Reported by the National Crime Records Bureau for the Period 2001-2013

This statistic got a lot of press in Indian media when it was released. However, the actual study cited to make this claim states:

“On an average, a little more than 57 rapes are reported to have occurred every day across the country during this 13 year period.6 That averages to more than 2 rapes across the country, every hour, every day, during the last 13 years.”(2)

This is actually an extremely low number (approx. 20,805/year) of reported rapes considering India’s incredible size. The study uses India’s National Crime Records Bureau’s statistics on reported rapes from 2001-2013. However, the study’s figures don’t well represent the current number rape reports in India, because the National Crime Records Bureau’s stats shows a significant increase in reported rapes from 2001 (16,075 reports) to 2013 (33,707 reports; a strange sudden jump from 24,923 in 2012 and 24,206 in 2011). However, its important to remember these are only reported rapes (not rape convictions). These means that unreported rapes are excluded, but it also means false reports may be included and there is evidence that India may have a significant amount of false rape reports.

2% of rapists will spend a single day in prison

Source: RANN infograph

Misattributed to: FBI or other law enforcement agencies

RANN recklessly mixes data on estimated unreported rapes with data on rape convictions. However, it is only outside of the infograph that RANN admits it is “[f]actoring in unreported rapes.” Furthermore, RANN blatantly ignores contradictory data from its own cited sources, which actually show the vast majority of convicted rapists are sentenced to prison.

2% of rape reports are false

Source:”Against Our Will” by Susan Brownmiller

Commonly misattributed to the FBI

Edward Greer published a comprehensive examination of this statistic in the April 2000 Loyola of Los Angeles Law review. He traces the source to Susan Brownmiller’s “Against Our Will” which appears to have cited a speech by a New York City judge. However, when Greer contacted the “judge’s law clerk, and all those involved with the preparation” of the speech to find the source of the statistic, he found that “their best recollections are that they did not rely upon any report but cannot remember precisely how they did obtain the two percent figure” (957). Ultimately, he comes to the conclusion that “[a]s far as can be ascertained, no study has ever been published which sets forth an evidentiary basis for the “two percent false rape complaint” thesis” (951) and “[i]t seems clear that the two percent false claim figure […] has no basis in fact” (972).

This statistic is very commonly misattributed to the FBI. I’ve caught well-known feminist pundits Laci Green and Amanda Marcotte doing this. However, in the 1995 (sec 2, 24), 1996 (sec 2, 26) and 1997 (sec 2, 26) FBI UCR consistently found an 8% rate of “unfounded” (defined as “false or baseless”) reports of foricble rape. This was significantly higher than the average 2% rate of unfounded reports for other recorded crimes. Unfortunately, the FBI stopped including information on unfounded reports in its UCR reports in 1998. I know of no other publicly available source by the FBI that lists more recent data related to “unfounded” or false reporting rates.

2-8% of rape reports are false

Source:The Voice - False Reports: Moving Beyond the Issue to Successfully Investigate and Prosecute Non-Stranger Sexual Assault

Commonly misattributed to the FBI

The Voice misleadingly states “estimates for the percentage of false reports begin to converge around 2-8%.” In fact, the studies the Voice cites to make this claim found the following false report rates: 7%(MAD), 6%(Clark/Lewis), 8.3%(Grace/Loyd/Smith), 10.9%(Harris/Grace), 8 or 2.5%(Kelly/Lovett/Regan) and 2.1%(Heenan/Murray). Notice the studies average about 7-6% (depending on how you want to deal with Kelly/Lovett/Regan). Most rates are far closer to 8% and one is far above it.

This statistic appears to have risen to popularity after being intentionally miscited by the Enliven Project (the infograph only cites it as 2%, even though the project admits it is 2-8%). This statistic is often misattributed to the FBI, even though the Voice excludes official FBI UCR data on false reporting and appears even critical of the FBI’s research on false reporting

Women are half the world’s population, working two-thirds of the world’s working hours, receiving 10% of the world’s income, owning less than 1% of the world’s property

Source: Unknown - speculated to come from comment made by someone at the U.N.

Although often quoted, this figure appears to have no verifiable primary source. The figure has been debunked and it’s origins investigated by both Christina Hoff Sommers and Philip Cohen of the Atlantic.

Currently Researching:

These are statistics I am currently researching. Please feel free to send me any useful information on them.

1 in 3 women worldwide will be victims of violence in their lifetime

Source: UN

The UN’s new favorite gender statistic; sometimes quoted as a somewhere around 30%. Just the fact it comes from the UN makes me skeptical, because the UN has a long history of producing biased, shoddy and outright deceptive information on gender issues. The source for this statistic appears to be the WHO’s Global and Regional Estimates of Violence against Women.

This appears to be an extremely large metastudy. Metastudy’s are very difficult to do well because you have mix together different sets of data that were likely acquired in different ways. The more studies you include, the harder it gets. Also, if you have any bias (such as the UN’s instiutionalized feminist bias), it is very easy to cherry-pick studies that come to the conculsions you like. It is also often difficult to debunk metastudies, because you need to track down the original studies. I found a list of the studies the UN supposedly used and I don’t think its feasible for me to go through all of them (especially the one’s written in languages I can’t read). However, I notice they include the CDC’s NISVS. While it’s not surprising they included it, I have written at length about the problems with this study that, among other things, defined “non-contact unwanted sexual experiences” as “sexual violence”.

9 out of 10 rape victims are women

Source: “An Analysis of Data on Rape and Sexual Assault: Sex Offenses and Offenders”?

1 in 3 college age men admit they would commit rape if they could get away it.”

Source: Denying Rape but Endorsing Forceful Intercourse: Exploring Differences Among Responders

The study uses an incredibly small (73 male students at only one university) sample size. Participants also appear to be chosen non-randomly, raising questions about participant bias. The survey specificially avoided using the word “rape.” There are also other possible problems with the study’s survey methodology. Although, the study has recieved much press, it has been heavily criticized.

91% of victims of rape and sexual assault are female

Source: An Analysis of Data on Rape and Sexual Assault: Sex Offenses and Offenders

The sources data appears to come largely from the 1993 BOJ NCVS, which would largely ignore boys and male prisoners (it has been suggested that U.S. male rape victims in prison may vastly outnumber U.S. female rape victims), two of the most at risk populations for rape and sexual assault.

99% of rapes are committed by men

Source: An Analysis of Data on Rape and Sexual Assault: Sex Offenses and Offenders

Statistics on which gender prepatrates more sexual abuse are often unreliable, since they often omit female sexual abuse of men or fail to qualify a women forcing sexual intercourse on a man as rape. The CDC NISVS actually found that men and women are victims of forced sexual intercourse at an almost equal-greater to the forced sexual victimization.

Women earn 77 cents for center dollar a man earns for doing the same work

Source: ?

The wage gap may be technically true, but it reflects different career choices and not sex discrimination. The statistic has been soundly debunked by many different sources! The only reason it is in the “Currently Researching” section is because I’m trying to find the original primary source for the statistic.