I was up at Notre Dame this weekend, where I saw the following flyer in Lewis Hall:

The statistic wasn’t attributed to any source — how could it be? The very definition of the statistic makes it unknowable. Whoever wrote that statistic just made it up.

Rape statistics are often inflated in order to add urgency to the situation — [1] particularly on college campuses. Unfortunately, this kind of ploy is destined to backfire if people do their homework.

Yes, rape is awful. Rape victims should come forward, and we should put rapists away for a long, long time. But artificially inflating the number only discredits women and may lead to a “cry wolf” situation in which legitimate rape accusations are doubted.