"A viral bar chart circulating on X (see screenshot below) paints a disturbing picture. At the very top, a red bar labeled "United Kingdom" extends far beyond every other, accompanied by the all-caps headline: "rapes in Europe." According to the graphic, the number of rapes in the UK per 100,000 people in 2022 appeared to be exponentially higher than in Spain, Greece, Germany and the rest of Europe."
"The figures are drawn from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). They also warn, "the challenges of cross-national comparability are considerable." The site itself cautions readers, noting the "apples-to-oranges nature of international rape statistics" due to major differences in legal definitions, reporting practices, and cultural factors."
""It's taken from a source and used in a way that the source literally says, 'don't do this because it's not accurate,'" explained Tanya Serisier, a lecturer in criminology at the Birkbeck University of London and author of "Speaking Out: Feminism, Rape and Narrative Politics," in an interview with DW."
A viral bar chart claimed the United Kingdom had far higher rape rates per 100,000 people than other European countries. The figures cited trace to World Population Review and are based on UNODC data. The UNODC warns that cross-national comparability of rape statistics is problematic. Major differences in legal definitions, reporting practices, and cultural factors make direct comparisons unreliable. A criminology expert noted the source itself cautions against using the data that way. The cited UK rate was updated from 109 to 117 per 100,000 and reflects a rise from about 25 per 100,000 in 2003, with rates near 100 between 2018 and 2020.
Read at www.dw.com
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