If you were raped would you report it?

Not more than 50% then, sorry

Libel only kicks in when there is "publication". This list would be kept secret. Perhaps the law needs to be changed to ensure that a name can then be passed to the police, and the man questioned, without the publishers (the holders of the list) being sued for libel as long as there was no malice.

Anyway, there must be some kind of exemption from libel when people report stuff to the police, surely? I would have thought misreporting a crime maliciously would be covered by a different, more robust regime, like "wasting police time" if the allegations were patently false. Surely not everyone who reports a crime is then guilty of libel if they can't prove the allegation to be true otherwise nobody would ever dare report any crime where they knew the name of the person who committed it....

I wondered if more/less males reported a rape it is interesting to see that they have a similar conviction rate though.

They were posted on another thread earlier. The actual conviction rates are pretty high for both male and female rape - both more than 50% IIRC - it's getting to court in the first place that's the difficulty.

Out of interest does anyone know what the rates of conviction are for male rape cases?

this thread makes me cry. I feel shattered to read that so many of you have been the victims of rape- I wish I could hug every single one of you.

And I feel angry and powerless that reporting a rape ends up being just as traumatic as the rape itself. Truly we have no hopes, as women.

You could not do the website you would be charged with libel surely?

I think a list would be a better idea than a 'name and shame' website.
Would it only work on a small scale, or would it work on a large scale too?
I could imagine a woman who was attacked drawing a great deal of strength from knowing it wasn't just her.
I wonder what the legality of such a database would be, given all the civil liberties stink that gets kicked up over other types of database

Thank you it was hard at the time, but I feel it enabled me to move on better and I am sad by the amount of people who are given poor support and help.

I did some research after and I think the system needs changing many mothers whose children have been raped are advised against pursuing for the sanity of their child. I think something obviously needs to change to make it less traumatic for the victim be it a child or a woman.

my ex raped me on 3 occassions when we were together. i was too scared to report it at the time.

i reported it a few years later once we were no longer together and he was arrested but due to lack of evidence and the fact he denied it, it wasn't taken further.

The organisers of the list could also act as a referral service to survivor organisations or counselling. The women could also be given the opportunity to have a physical examination / give other evidence - only if they wanted to - so that it would be on record if they later wanted to take matters further, and to make sure that they were cared for on STD,PG, emotionally etc

maybe someone could start a new thread on this?

I don't know how to say how impressive what you did was (reporting him) without sounding patronising.

The stories of people reporting and being believed and treated well, should be the norm, not the exception.

He was also over age but I was advised against pursuing so they just put it on record I think.

No it was my boyfriend and I was aged 15 it happened a few times in the space of a month and at first I was in shock and then I discovered I was pg I left it to late because I wanted to decide and the marks and bruises were gone so no forensic evidence sadly if it happened again I would try to go to the police quicker so he was not charged but I feel I stood up to him regardless and if he ever does it again I will have no problems going forward and giving evidence.

Well I think that's the sort of thing they should be doing notplato, I can't understand why it doesn't happen already TBH.

Oh, the university list thing obviously only works in a small community, like a university, but it seems to me that young single women living alone (as you do at Uni) are especially vulnerable and this could be a good place to start.

Gosh thanks for working out the stats darlene! They're interesting as the "vibe" reading the thread is that most people said no they wouldn't, but in fact that's not the real answer IYSWIM.

flamegrilled did your attacker get charged / convicted? I think it's great that you felt able to report and that it made you feel a bit better about it IYSWIM. That's how it should always be.

I believe that on some university campuses in America, they keep a list. I am not sure exactly how it works but this seems to be a reasonable system for catching serial acquaintance rapists (strangers seem more likely to be reported anyway at the moment):

Women can anonymously (or semi anonymously - see below) report a man who has assaulted them - no one doubts their word, no proof is asked for but they can leave an account if they wish. If the same name appears on the list more than, say, three times then the police can investigate further and the women can be contacted, in complete confidence, by the organiser of the list (if they have chosen to leave contact details for this purpose alone) to see if they want to bring a case together. The police are not told the women's names unless they have specifically been contacted and consented. If the women have not left details and/or do not want to take it further even as a group then the police could go and talk to the man anyway which may make him think twice about repeating his behaviour. Should we be doing this in the UK?

I go cold imagining my naive, innocent, sweet DDs at university in a few years time, open to being sexually assaulted by any male student/lecturer/janitor who has discovered he can get away with it whenever and with whomever he fancies by simply saying she had had a drink and asked him for rough sex.

I feel for you all. And understand. In the meantime i would not encourage my DDs to report a rape. Nor would I go the vigilante route...your friends/OPs/you are merely likely to end up in prison thus making life worse.

I did and I would again. Mine did not get to court and I endured a lot of pain by reporting but me standing and saying what you did to me was wrong and knowing he was scared that he would be charged made me feel like I had stood up to him and took some power back. But I totally understand why you wouldn't want to.

I didn't and very much doubt I would if it happened again.

Actually DH would probably see to the finishing off for me, thinking about it. There are very many protective and kind blokes out there, we need to hang onto that.

I am sure I would report it, the bastard would get off scot free, and then I would have to take justice into my own hands at some ater date and finish him off, ending up incarcerated myself. That is how UK justice works, no?