Overview
- A sexual assault report in Stuttgart that triggered protests in late July was later shown to be fabricated, prompting fresh public and expert scrutiny of false allegations.
- The Bundeskriminalamt records 'vorgetäuschte Delikte gegen die sexuelle Selbstbestimmung' and reported 334 such cases last year while the Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik logged nearly 14,000 rapes in the same period.
- Victim groups and some organisations such as Terre des Femmes say provably false rape reports make up roughly 2–3 percent of reported rapes, though academic studies give wider ranges of about 3–20 percent when broader sexual offences and differing methods are included.
- A BKA dark‑field study indicates fewer than one in ten rapes are reported to police, meaning official complaint numbers understate the true scale of sexual violence and complicate comparisons with false‑report counts.
- Experts and victim‑support groups urge careful, proportional media coverage and call for proven false reports to be prosecuted while warning against politicised or sensational reporting that could erode trust in real victims and reduce reporting.