[lusen]

how much of a problem are false accusations compared to not reporting sexual harassment or rape?

this is a really interesting point worth investigating. i don't have research on hand to link to (though it's fresh on my mind from reading Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist), but my understanding is that sexual harassment and rape are grossly underreported. false positives is not a huge problem. false negatives are.

by talking about false accusations you are placing greater importance on the suffering of the fewer people who are falsely accused compared to the suffering of the greater people who are falsely silent.

that's fine to intentionally value this, but do consider how this parallels rape culture and the protection of aggressors over the safety of victims. (for offenders, like priests who abused children, become repeat offenders)

as for the fact that men are also harassed and raped, and that male-male and female-female harassment and rape also exist: these are big problems, too, and the silence of the victims is even more complicated, for it doesn't follow the usual victim norm. people want to be heard. they want their problems to be seen and resolved. thus i contend that being heard is the greater problem. not false accusations.

[mafribe]

   my understanding is that sexual 
   harassment and rape are grossly 
   underreported.

My understanding is quite the opposite.

Recent media scares from the mattress girl to the UVA rape hoax to "Joey" [1], not to mention financial incentives (e.g. alimony in divorce cases), are exactly helping to convince me otherwise.

Historically, lynching was often justified by references to rape of some damsels ... Are you suggesting that these cases were anything but false accusations?

[1] http://wjbf.com/2016/06/15/facebook-post-gets-shared-thousan...

[mafribe]

Sorry, that should be: ... are not exactly helping ...