Game Theory Help to Prevent Rape
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/can-game-theory-prevent-rape/405607/
In this article, an app was introduced to help resolve the reluctance of sexual assault victims to report the crime. A poll showed that only 11% of the women who attended college in the past four years and claimed to had been sexually assaulted reported to the police or college authorities. Their hesitations to report consist of four main reasons: Victims don’t want to draw attention to themselves or their assailants, don’t know if the incident truly constituted “rape,” are worried they won’t be believed, or don’t know whom to report to. The app introduced in the article, Callisto, makes it easier for college students to document or report(if they wish to) sexual assaults. Three options are provided: 1. The student can report directly to college authorities. 2. The student can save it and decide whether to file it later. 3. Since most rapes are committed by repeat offenders, the student can put the report into “matching”, which means that the report will only be filed if someone else report an assault by the same perpetrator. The third option is the unique feature of this app: it helps the users to avoid having the first-mover-disadvantage.
I believe that this is an effective method to encourage the victims to report the crime. It resolves the victim’s concern of having to face the incident on her own. As some game situations taught in class, if you learn what other players actions’ will be, you will be able to make the decisions best for yourself. In this case, if we think of it as a game, and the dominant strategy is to have the victims of the same perpetrator to report together. The app hereby provides the tool for the players to “collude” — the “game” is set to only execute when they have support from each other and adopt the dominant strategy.