open Democracy News Analysis - Tackling rape in the UK, Sarah Campbell - Comments

sendtosadie@gmail.com on ""She was probably glad of the attention": tackling rape in the UK"

sendtosadie@gmail.com — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:36:18 +0000

Arakano, This is an argument that I often come across as an explanation for the low conviction rate. In fact, there is supporting evidence in 86.7% of charged cases of rape - so in the majority of cases it is not simply a matter of the victim’s word against the defendants (see this report: http://www.hmcpsi.gov.uk/reports/Without_Consent_Thematic.pdf). Supporting evidence could include: previous convictions or violent behaviour; forensic evidence (including evidence from the crime scene); evidence of a drink being spiked; supporting witnesses to events or behaviour surrounding the alleged rape. In many other crimes, there are no eyewitnesses to the event itself - rape is not in fact unique in this regard. What I'd argue is that far more could be done to make the gathering of effective evidence in rape cases a priority, and to ensure that the victim is in a position to give the best evidence possible. Cases aren't only dropped as a result of lack of evidence - in many cases, victims choose not to pursue the case, sometimes as a result of poor treatment by the police. And police often 'no crime', and so do not investigate cases where there is evidence of previous offences by the accused - see http://www.newstatesman.com/200704160015.

Arakano on ""She was probably glad of the attention": tackling rape in the UK"

Arakano — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 18:57:38 +0000

A thing that always puzzled me about rape cases: since most of them happen with no witness, and so basically the victim/alleged victim and the rapist/alleged rapist contradict one another, so it is word against word... how is the true guilt of the accused ever found out? Especially given the benefit-of-the-doubt that is part of almost every modern legal system.

Tackling rape in the UK, Sarah Campbell

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:22:04 +0000

Globally, the prosecution of rape is given a low priority by criminal justice agencies, and across most of Europe the rape conviction rate has fallen continuously in the last thirty years. In the UK, in 1977 33.3% of all rapes reported to the police led to a conviction. In 2007, this figure has fallen to 5.7%. The shockingly low rate of conviction for rape has made headlines numerous times in the intervening years, most recently as the government announced reforms to rape trials this week.

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