How to reduce rape

SEXUAL VIOLENCE is less common today than it was in earlier generations. But even in rich, peaceful democracies it is both widespread and distressingly easy to get away with. A fifth of American women will be raped at some point, by one estimate. Yet only a quarter of victims report it. Most stay silent despite the lifelong damage that rape can inflict and the desire to lock up a predator and deter others. They do so partly because the odds are stacked against them. In England and Wales in the 12 months to March 2019 only 1.5% of reported rapes ended in a criminal charge. With so little prospect of justice, many women are reluctant to undergo the ordeal of reporting an attack to the police.Many people think women often lie about rape. They do not. The precise figure is unknowable, but the most credible estimates are that between 2% and 8% of rape allegations are false. In surveys, many police officers presume that the figure is far higher, which surely affects how they handle complaints. When a British teenager reported that she had been gang-raped in Cyprus, local police grilled her for hours, while she was traumatised, without a lawyer present. She says they pressed her into retracting her allegations, which she now insists are true. On December 30th she was convicted of lying, and faces up to a year in prison. Other women thinking of reporting rape in Cyprus may now decide not to.