> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Seeking justice for abuse shouldn’t require bravery
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/russell-brand-seeking-justice-for-abuse-shouldnt-require-bravery/
- Published: 2026-11-12T11:13:43.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-12T11:30:14.000Z
- Description: Police promise compassion after Russell Brand’s sentencing, yet the justice system still re-traumatises survivors
- Author: Hannah Couchman
- Tags: Policing, violence against women and girls, sexual abuse, Russell Brand, Criminal Justice System, Domestic abuse

In the wake of Russell Brand’s sentencing, survivors of rape and sexual violence are being encouraged to speak to the police. The lead detective from London’s Metropolitan Police stood outside the court to praise the investigation and promise other victims considering coming forward that they would be listened to, supported and treated with care and compassion. 

This does not reflect the experience of many women who engage with the criminal justice system after traumatic experiences of violence. Often, they are left re-victimised and profoundly mistrustful of a process that they are told is there to support them and bring perpetrators to justice. This is particularly the case for Black and minoritised women, whose communities are subject to the discriminatory policing that we know is rife. 

We at Rights of Women support thousands of these women in England and Wales every year, providing legal advice and working with them to protect their rights. We see that trust in the police and criminal justice processes is vanishingly low. Many women are fearful of the police and the systems they feed into, having been shown time and again that, far from protecting them from violence, powerful institutions are often complicit in it. 

When women report crimes committed against them, they’re too often disbelieved, disrespected and ultimately discouraged from seeking accountability. Instead of offering survivors a trauma-informed service, the criminal justice system regularly perpetuates problematic attitudes: shifting blame, distorting reality and ultimately re-victimising survivors. 

Those survivors who make it through the investigation process, in the tiny number of cases where the man who abused them is charged and goes to trial, are unlikely to find solace in the courtroom. Brand’s trial highlighted how survivors are undermined and discredited using rape myths, such as problematic and offensive assumptions about how a victim of sexual violence should behave, which persist despite recognition that they are damaging and grounded in a fundamental misunderstanding of trauma.

It goes without saying that a defendant is entitled to a robust defence, put forward by a lawyer who will advocate for them fearlessly. In any criminal trial, the evidence of a witness will be tested, and rape trials will very often involve questions around consent or reasonable belief in consent. What a defendant saw and heard, and how this affected his understanding of consent, may be an important issue to be explored. But this does not require reliance on stereotypical suggestions that a victim should have fought back against her rapist or told someone about what happened sooner. 

There is a legitimate question to be explored about whether, how and when a judge should speak to a jury about rape myths. Of course, judicial directions cannot undo the assumptions that have shaped how sexual violence is understood, both during a trial and more widely. Nor can they address the serious social injustices that have enabled violence against women and girls to become so entrenched in our society. The responsibility for challenging these assumptions around sexual violence cannot continue to fall to women, many of whom are already required to recount deeply traumatic experiences under intense scrutiny when they have been harmed. 

If we are serious about encouraging survivors to come forward, we must be honest about what awaits them when they do and what support is available to them. A prosecution that results in conviction is not the only measure of whether the criminal justice system has served a survivor. To be treated with dignity and respect, a standard that should constitute the bare minimum a survivor can expect, is still lauded as a radical approach by police responding to sexual violence – perhaps so radical that many police forces still decline to meet it. 

Women who come forward and report violent crimes have undoubtedly demonstrated enormous courage. Their bravery is often praised by the very institutions that perpetuate misogynistic cultures requiring their bravery. Women should not have to be brave to seek justice and safety. 

Instead of calling for courage from survivors, those in power must give women reason to believe that coming forward will not exacerbate the harm they have already experienced and deepen their trauma. The police may promise survivors that they will be listened to, supported and treated with care and compassion. But those promises mean little until survivors see and experience a criminal justice system that delivers on them.