If I might have one want for the brand new 12 months, it might be for Britain’s legal justice system to be reformed in a approach that will make sure the arrest, prosecution and conviction of each single rapist within the nation. I don’t imply, in fact, any man accused of rape, however each man who has really dedicated rape.
One of the vital prevalent and persuasive myths about rape and sexual assault is that numerous allegations are false and males who’ve been publicly accused of rape however couldn’t be convicted in a court docket of regulation are the victims of grave miscarriages of justice.
Based on the United Nations, “globally, an estimated 736 million ladies – nearly one in three – have been subjected to bodily and/or sexual intimate associate violence, non-partner sexual violence, or each not less than as soon as of their life.” Regardless of such shockingly excessive figures, there may be nonetheless a presumption that many ladies make false allegations about male violence – particularly, rape.
In the UK, the federal government estimates that false allegations and circumstances of mistaken id make up simply 2 to 4 % of reported rapes – a determine believed to be broadly correct throughout nations. After all, males’s rights activists and different anti-feminists by no means point out this determine of their unhinged rants about how ladies routinely lie about being sexually assaulted and raped.
Presently, in England and Wales, the conviction fee for rape is at an all-time low. Of these reported to police, identified to be simply small a minority of sexual assaults really dedicated, just one % finish in a conviction. Meaning, if we additionally keep in mind the small share of false allegations, nicely over 90 % of rapists get away with their crimes. These males are certain to be emboldened by their potential to evade justice and can nearly actually do it once more. Given the horrible, devastating influence that rape usually has on ladies subjected to it – leading to chaotic life, drug and alcohol abuse, and different actions fuelled by trauma – victims of rape usually tend to find yourself in jail than their rapists.
The largest obstacles to securing rape convictions within the UK are prejudiced jurors and the reluctance in each degree of the justice system to prosecute “troublesome” circumstances – equivalent to these involving ladies in prostitution, drug and alcohol customers, and teenage women, all of whom are sometimes seen as unreliable witnesses.
Opposite to what’s usually mentioned in defence of the low variety of circumstances attending to court docket, there isn’t any such factor as a intercourse crime prosecution that’s “too troublesome to prosecute”. Within the UK, the Crown Prosecution Service solely takes intercourse crime circumstances to court docket if it believes there may be not less than a 50 % likelihood of a conviction. This usually signifies that the extra difficult circumstances, or these involving victims who’re thought-about imperfect, are dropped.
The benefit of the system in the USA is that prosecutors in Particular Victims Models work solely on intercourse crimes and obtain intensive and ongoing coaching from specialists. These prosecutors play a pivotal function from the second a rape is reported, working with police to research the case and creating an intimate understanding of the main points of the crime. This provides them an apparent benefit on the subject of presenting their case clearly and persuasively in court docket. By comparability, within the UK, the primary time the complainant will meet the prosecutor is on the trial.
For this reason I advocate for using specialised prosecutors in intercourse crime circumstances within the UK too. The UK does have prosecutors educated in rape and critical sexual offences, however all that’s required is to have attended a coaching course. These prosecutors additionally tackle a spread of different circumstances, and their “experience” is, subsequently, restricted.
What we want is a kind of super-lawyer, extremely educated in each element and facet of intercourse crimes. This would come with laws, forensic science and sufferer/jury psychology, equipping them, as an illustration, to elucidate to jurors that if a complainant laughs or seems bored or distracted within the witness field, this might be the results of trauma.
Prevailing rape myths, equivalent to “She was asking for it,” “He’s good-looking and doesn’t ‘want’ to rape” and “If she didn’t need it, she would shut her legs,” can poison the thoughts of a juror towards the complainant, regardless of the proof towards the defendant. Ladies and women are routinely blamed for being raped – which implies the perpetrator, even when it’s abundantly clear that he’s responsible, is simply too usually absolved. That is how patriarchy works: Preserve ladies and women in fixed concern of male violence, after which when it occurs, put the duty for it firmly on their shoulders.
One other potential reform put ahead by feminists is the abolition of the jury system on the subject of rape and sexual assault trials. Once we make this suggestion, nonetheless, we are sometimes countered with the argument “Our jury system, the bedrock of a good trial, is underneath menace as it’s.” Whereas that might be the case, if we’re to make sure victims of rape and sexual assault are to seek out justice, we have to take drastic measures. Rape myths are entrenched in society. Not solely these working within the justice system, from police to prosecutors and judges, but additionally all potential jurors carry these myths with them into courtrooms. Whereas these actively working the system may be educated to look past their prejudices, such coaching can hardly be prolonged to jurors. Thus, it could be useful to ladies for rape and sexual assault trials to not contain jurors.
Presently, the justice system within the UK is designed to assist perpetrators of rape and sexual assault at each step of the way in which.
For instance, police routinely attempt to entry the counselling and remedy notes of rape victims, which may then be learn by them in addition to prosecutors, defence legal professionals – and even the perpetrator. These notes can sometimes be useful for the prosecution – if, for instance, the sufferer had spoken intimately concerning the rape, her personal trauma because of it and had not slipped up on any of the main points – however that is uncommon. They’re extra doubtless for use to discredit her in a roundabout way, equivalent to making a mistake about dates or instances, or the place the perpetrator is a present or former associate, telling the therapist that she nonetheless “loves” him.
Campaigners, together with the Centre for Ladies’s Justice, are working with Rape Disaster England and Wales on a marketing campaign to “Preserve Counselling Confidential”, calling for a change within the regulation to make it rather more troublesome for authorized advocates to insist on accessing the data of victims who’ve sought assist from counsellors and therapists.
Entry to such data must be granted solely by order of a decide in distinctive circumstances – and solely after the perpetrator has been charged with the offence.
Some years in the past, I interviewed a rape sufferer who instructed me about her counselling data being made accessible on the trial of her ex-husband. Sandra* had disclosed to the therapist that she had by no means felt comfy having intercourse together with her husband, partly as a result of she had been abused as a toddler.
As a part of their investigation into the perpetrator, police accessed her counselling notes, which they had been then compelled to share together with his defence staff. When Sandra found that the rapist had learn her remedy notes, she felt so weak and uncovered that she dropped the costs.
In 2024, I don’t wish to hear the same old excuse that “rape is nearly inconceivable to convict” as a result of it’s “her phrase towards his”. If police and prosecutors perform thorough and accountable investigations, leaving no stone unturned, and maintain the complainant so she provides her greatest proof, many extra rapists could be locked up. By eliminating the myths and untruths surrounding rape and making a correct dedication to the victims of this heinous crime, the system may be improved with out compromising the rights of the defendant.
*Not her actual title
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
