AIBU to think rape is now legal in the UK?

Yes it is an absolute dilemma MMMarmite. The accused is of course entitled to defence, and may claim sex was consensual. So of course phone records are invaluable in establishing previous contact if any, and the nature.

There is no real way to prove rape without physical injury.

What terrifieds me is that the police to through your phone and your life history. It seems like you have to be essentially a perfect victim to get to trial. As someone with longstanding mental health issues, I doubt I'd pass that bar.

Rape is not legal of course. Just very, very difficult to prove.

It comes down to one person's word against another's.

Unless there are wounds caused by violence what evidence are you left with, and the law must presume innocent unless proven otherwise.

It's an absolute bitch. I have no answers.

In London absolutely - dunno if it's better in other parts of the country.

Here's the thing, some of us can get all "But it is illegal and this is just silly". Well yes, of course, it's illegal but it's hardly silly to feel as though it might as well be legal for all the chance most victims have of getting to court let alone a conviction.

What's even more horrifying is that the conviction rates keep going down. I remember in the 1980s that among my friends none of us would ever have considered going to the police for rape or sexual assault because the odds were stacked against us and the police didn't take it seriously. These days the police apparently do take it more seriously and the conviction rates are far, far lower than they were then. They just decrease over the decades. That said I can't see how they can go much lower unless we have a year where precisely no one gets convicted of rape.

The poor poster. I must apologise.

Rather than admitting trained bloody professionals should have known better. FFS.

That's nothing close to what I have suggested, but since you appear to be determined to wilfully misrepresent the poster, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.

You are implying that people are completely incapable of critical thinking

People trained in the area aren't expected to understand how to write a poster about crime reporting but traumatised victims have to have all their critical thinking skills, even though trauma affects critical thinking.

Got it.

1000 women are raped and report it. (1000 = 100% of reported rapes. So secondary school's worth of victims - or two secondaries and a sixth form college, plus about five nurseries worth of victims if you extrapolate from the common statistic that 1 in 3 women (as in female) have been raped.)

Of those, 16 men are charged. (1.6% of 1000)

Of those 16, less than 10 - LESS THAN TEN OUT OF A THOUSAND RAPISTS - are convicted.

(data qualification: men, transmen and transwomen get raped by men, too - the article does not specify whether the data relates purely to female victims, but I suspect that their pain, trauma and suffering is also included in the statistics).

That's not showing anybody that it's illegal really, is it?

'Murder' is not specified on the list along with a multitude of other specific offences, but it does state "Crime (wide range of options)" which will presumably include those unspecified.

If you suddenly realised that you might be privy to some knowledge that may or may not be relevant to a murder, would you phone 999?

The custom and practice is that rape is legal. Yes it is illegal but only technically. It’s truly awful and depressing but even with firm evidence there seems no appetite to convict.

It doesn't say 'historic rape', because it is completely unnecessary to spell that out. You are implying that people are completely incapable of critical thinking, and also that dialing 999 in the immediacy after being raped or assaulted will be met with 'this is a non-urgent matter' by Kent Police, both of which are risible.

It's quite clearly nothing more than a reminder by Police that the option exists to report things by non-urgent means as and when that is appropriate. The attempts to mangle it into something it patently is not are bizarre.

YANBU. Stalking and harassment are also now legal. I called to police to get some advice and do a check. A few months later when this perpetrator went through the courts for a different, unrelated and separate incident(s?) to this, a few weeks later I received a knock on the door from the police constable for a welfare check - a malicious and false report. Pervs very seldom if ever get caught.

Similarly, hen a woman reports DA, male perpetrators make counter claims and the police often believe that the woman has MH issues, etc when in fact they are reacting to trauma and abuse.

Thus government, and previous governments, do and care shit all.

The fact is that convictions for rape are vanishingly rare.

That is to say nothing of the process a woman has to go through with the police and with rape crisis centres. This is why so many women choose not to report, because the process is barbaric and deeply traumatising.

The intimate examinations. The endless questioning about the most awful things you can think of. Having your clothes taken away and bagged up while you sit there in paper. Having your phone taken off you with no prospect of getting it back. And this is before any kind of investigation never mind an arrest.

And it goes on for months and months and sometimes years before it gets to court, where you have to go through it all again, with slim prospect of success while your life has been destroyed.

Any woman who has seen this up close would know why so many complainants drop the case because they just can't take any more and need it all to stop. The process and the time it takes is unbearable.

Rapists should get life imprisonment, because destroying a woman's life is exactly what they do.

As police get their numbers cut further under this Tory government, many crimes are getting less likely to be investigated properly. Police are not interested in theft of property now either, they just give you a reference for insurance and make zero effort to investigate.

Rape always had a low conviction rate as most rapes are by someone known to the victim, often their partner, making it difficult to prove consent wasn't given. Plus at the moment there's a 2 year delay in cases coming to court. That's due to cuts in funding to the legal system.

Yes, there is no deterrent.
I listened to an interview with the author mona Eltahawy where she said “how many rapist do we have to kill before men stop raping” and that stuck with me as the only deterrent men would fear.
that and other MEN standing up to them but that’s not gonna happen is it?!

Have to say I disagree with you there. Serious life changing crime is not a "non urgent enquiry". Plus it doesn't specify the time frame. Very insensitive towards victims of rape.

Why isn't murder on the list I wonder?

It would have been better to write "reporting of crime where no one is currently at risk" or similar.

I think it has been for a long time. Look at the way universities have long behaved - taking the law into their own hands and trying to brush problems under the carpet, rather than following the proper legal process and reporting allegations to the police. Easy access to pornography seems to have made the problem worse, but low rates of prosecution have always been a problem.

And if it said 'historic rape' @XDownwiththissortofthingX you might have a small point. But it doesn't, does it?

In the same way that drugs are gradually decriminalised over time with a lack of policing, so is rape. And considering how many men admit they would rape if they could get away with it, it's chilling.

What women do with information is another matter. Young women are being trained to consent to more and more and expect less and less pleasure. When does the tipping point come where it's simply not worth shagging men?

Rape appears to be technically illegal whilst being effectively unpoliced.

It can be a non-urgent enquiry if its weeks or months after the fact. The point of the poster was to emphasise that as well as it being a crime that should be reported ASAP, if you have decided weeks or months later you can also report is via non-urgent means rather than phoning 999

It's not in any way 'disgusting' or any of the other ridiculous, ignorant hyperbole that it provoked.

I didn’t miss the point. I just think it’s pointless making random comments. If the discussion had been ‘aibu to think we need better structure in law enforcement for xyz’ then I’d have agreed wholeheartedly. Random comments like ‘rape is legal! If conviction rates are low that means it’s legal’ just makes you look like you can’t have a proper discussion and makes it much easier for others to dismiss your point as hysterical/idiotic/stupid.

That poster is shocking and utterly depressing