They were saying it is a generally under-reported crime. Saying that there was 706 reported cases doesn't change anything.
https://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/reporting-r...
Overall, your "feel" about a large number of reported cases being skewed are nothing but a feel. Proves nothing.
It is completely valid to discredit a point with no source. And there's sources that say it is 2% false accusations (like most other crimes) and there's sources that says is 40%. Why are numbers so separate from each other? Because it's a shot in the dark.
It is unfortunate how popular your opinion is among young men: rape really isn't an issue; lots of "angry ex-girlfriends" and "intoxication" skewing those reports (factually incorrect, my friend). Being raped really sucks and is a continuing issue for those who experience it and those around them.
If someone was complaining about being overcharged, everyone would accept it without question and wouldn't say "it's not an issue" for Uber/consumer/whoever. But it seems that being overcharged is a complaint that is legitimate because men believe that it happens without the customer being in the wrong. Rape, on the other hand...
Also, not sure about other countries, in India a woman's statement is enough for a man to be arrested immediately, even if it was a false accusation.
> but being falsely accused of rape is even worse
Wow. Just wow. I'm pretty disgusted by this comment. Hopefully you've just phrased it badly, and can edit it to make it less like you're saying that men get a bum deal in India.
Having seen people report rape in the US, it is certainly not enough for anyone to be arrested immediately. There's the question of evidence, and whether anyone will look at the evidence, and whether the victim can be talked into ignoring it. In 2013 there were about 20,000 untested rape kits in Texas alone -- 20,000 crimes that were reported, where a woman had semen, hair, and other evidence collected through an invasive procedure, that were entirely ignored [1]. And that's only reported rapes. None of my friends who have been sexually assaulted have ever reported it (although these were all assaults by "friends", not strangers). They just wanted it to go away.
To top it off, in many locations in the US women still have to pay for their own evidence collection. If you haven't got the $600-$1200 it takes to pay for the exams yourself, you're out of luck on the prosecution front! (Yes, this is sort of illegal, but it's still happening [2].)
So rest easy -- come to the US where a woman's statement will probably be ignored for a long time [3].
[1] http://www.texastribune.org/2013/01/04/clearing-texas-rape-k... [2] http://www.nola.com/health/index.ssf/2014/09/state_leaders_p... [3] http://gawker.com/who-wants-to-remember-bill-cosbys-multiple...
I'm sorry for the state of affairs in the US about the claimed report ratio of the crime - however, a mere statement of anyone, by itself should never lead to an arrest, be it a man or a woman, because in a lot of cases there are ulterior motives in play.
Post some examples of all these men's lives that have been ruined. Let's see whether these examples are, actually, worse than having been raped.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/indore/Woman-sentenc...
If you search online, you'd find that there are many, many cases where an Indian girl elopes/lives with a man on free will, has consensual sex but after a few days, months, or even years files a rape case for various obvious reasons, surprisingly often when forced by parents.
You wouldn't 'like' to believe, but Pune police once said 74% of rape cases reported to them were consentual sex later turned rape. In fact Mumbai police says the main reason of the low conviction rate is false rape cases.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Rape-convicti...
https://www.facebook.com/notes/deepika-narayan-bhardwaj/fals...
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Lured-by-comp...
And a lot, lot more, just help yourselves with some Googling.
What are you actually trying to say here? How are these cases skewed?
What were you implying? That there's some easy answer here?
Why would you think I'm implying anything?
I would still argue that there is a high amount of under-reporting because people are embarrassed, just want to put it behind them, etc. However, I also feel a large number of the reported cases are skewed due to angry ex-girlfriends, intoxication, etc.
Specifically, in this case if he was not convicted it's not the responsibility of Uber to disclose that information (instead it's the driver). Uber (in the U.S.) cannot even disclose if someone was accused of rape (unless there was a felony conviction), conversely it is the drivers responsibility to share any convictions upfront (though a background check should still be done).
Overall, I believe this has more to do with Uber's business practices. The rape wouldn't have even been an issue if Uber was capable of helping the police or explaining some basic questions.
In other words, if Uber was able to say, "We did a background check, and he wasn't convicted" then there wouldn't have been an issue. However, Uber couldn't even be contacted, and was breaking transportation laws.