Anyone else shocked by the rape statistics?

[Nothingyet]

I think this is shameful: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9698711/Shame-rape-justice-sex-offence-convictions-tumble.html

Words mean nothing.

Actions are what counts.

Root and branch reform needed in the police.

The CPS denied that they only took very strong cases to court to improve conviction rates to meet an internal target. But well. I know what I think.

The head of the met saying in an interview that they would essentially only bother investigating cases they thought were worth the bother.

The interview I saw with an ex police person saying oh well indecent exposure we don't really bother with that got better things to do. If they had bothered Sarah everard might be alive. And the indecent exposure a few days before the murder had massive red flags all over it. That this man was brazen. These criminals escalate. The incident said, this person has escalated and is a massive worry. The police were given his numberplate.

So many so many cases where serious sex offences and DV related murders could have been stopped. If only the police had a different attitude to the sort of crimes that lead up to the massive ones.

Drives me mad. Makes me so angry.

I also think a panel of judges like they have in some countries would be better than jury.

The judges would need to be trained etc.

I like the idea of Performance 'scorecards' as outlined. But to be meaningful they'd have to be on locale/areas basis. With that type of data being regularly available it would attract more support for reform.

There are many posts above on reporting. My reporting experience was positive. However, if the reporting process is any way problematic, then it is a really huge disincentive. Of course, no reporting means no conviction (and it often means no conviction anyway!).

Just the way it is unfortunately.

When a man is raped, we do not hear " we was wearing too tight trousers", "his T-Shirt was provocative", he should not have been out late at night. "
When men are raped in prison, we hear little, but its not put down to the huuuugh number of violent gay men in prison (sarcasm).
Its all about power, domination and subjegation.
Perhaps if we concentrate less on the sexual side and treated it as a crime of domination and power attitudes and reactions will (gradually) improve.

It’s a violent crime. It disgusts me that I am part of a society where this is the way things are.

Two women are killed each week in the UK, we all seem perfectly happy with this, its a statistic that has been around for decades.

My mum was repeatedly threatened with being killed, inc saying it in a divorce hearing (she was also beaten black an blue by my father)
A friend of mine was repeatedly smashed in the face with a mobile phone by her partner

In both cases, the Police did fuck all.

So why the outrage and surprise with rape convictions?

We are the problem, we put up with it, we do not demand better (i inc myself in this, apathetic)

Spanish women have held nationwide protests over domestic violence/murder of children - rape and DV are very closely related.

@jasjas1973 you're right we need to do more I'm just not sure what. Unfortunately in this country protests are pretty much totally ignored - on all issues

I sign petitions, I support charities linked to such issues when/where I can, I discuss regularly with my Mp and msp, I discuss it with the police officers I know and try to address any misunderstandings or false beliefs they have, i discuss online not only on mn but elsewhere too, if someone posts something odd on sm ill challenge them, I hope I've raised my dd not to believe the myths and to live her life as safely as possible (and yes I know it's not her responsibility or fault but I want her to be safe)

I'm just not sure what more can be done? I'm sure there is more I just don't know what it is

Shocked? Not at all.

Men can get off literally using the "I tripped and fell" excuse.
Men can avoid a murder charge by claiming sex game gone wrong.
Men can justify extensive injuries with "she likes if rough".

Judges think that "you can't have sex on a Monday and a Saturday but be raped on a Wednesday " when it comes to marital rape. Apparently it's all rape or all sex.

Children are described as enticing,calculating and manipulative. She wanted it, she knew what she was doing.

Laws and sentencing are a joke and all that trickles down to the police force. Some don't care and the ones that care become disillusioned and disheartened when they see perpetrators walking free again and again.

Victims have their behaviour, their attitude, their lives ,their underwear,their habits ,their phones put under a microscope and are treated like criminals, both in court and in the media.

Allegations are laughed at ,minimised and dismissed by schools,work places ,police etc.

Women have their lives and behaviours policed,controlled and limited. "Personal responsibility " they call it.

Is it any fucking wonder that things are as they are?

It didn't happen.
If it happened it wasn't that bad.
If it was that bad ,you could've stopped it by...
If you didn't stop it , did it really happen?

And repeat.

When Alison Saunders was Director of Public Prosecutions there was a big push to prosecute rape. I imagine this led to more prosecutions and more rapes being reported. I couldn't see anything in the statistics contradicting this.

The effect would have been that the police were received more reports and laid more charges in cases that were harder to prove.

As the stats are expressed as a percentage of reported cases, that would explain the apparent decline.

The police have clearly tried, but they're clearly either not getting sufficient resources to investigate or not allocating them.

There were a number of cases that went to trial where the police failed to disclose to the defence evidence* showing that not only was the prospect of conviction nil, but there probably wasn't rape. It's horrible to think of all the time wasted in those cases due to very poor case selection by the police/CPS.

*At criminal law, that's a horrendous fuck-up.

@Graphista

Violence against women, needs to be the issue we vote on, nationally - FFS on a low turnout in Amesham, the govt is likely to change its new planning policy!

Yet we vote in a Govt that continued to cut police numbers by 10k & have continued to vote them in despite false crime stats & massive cuts to the justice budget that now means it takes years to get to court.
Men aren't going to change, policies won't magically change, so its down to the voting public to drive this.

Men aren't going to change, policies won't magically change, so its down to the voting public to drive this.

Absolutely

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/stop-telling-women-how-not-24347318#comments-section

I quite like this.

True.

However. Society in general isn't really interested. Individuals mainly like to think they are. But when push comes to shove they aren't.

We've had just off the top of my head

Warboys
CSA scandals in a host of towns in the North, with estimated of thousands of girls, and apparently still going on
The met sapphire rape unit having to be shut down because of massive failings
The succession of women in the news s couple of years back who had been murdered, and the police had had multiple reports of threats etc
The thing where they wanted women to sign s bit of paper saying if they didn't hand over their phones to be studied, there was unlikely to be any investigation. Not asking for forms to be signed for other cases. Keeping the phones for years and then it turning out they hadn't got round to looking at it yet.
Things from phones eg texts before being flirty, exchanging selfies, texts after which seemed friendly (women often make contact with their rapist afterwards if not s stranger), Instagram pics looking sexy, texts with other people talking about sex, fiction they had read etc. Being used by the defence.
The ongoing reporting of women and girls going through massive trauma in trials.

And on and on and on.

Where was the outrage?

The papers said oh dear. The police said lessons learned. People turned to the next page.

It's just so everyday, women being beaten attacked killed.

When there's a case in the news it's very much. Why was she there, why was she out after dark, what was she wearing, had she been drinking, why did she go home with him etc etc

And if he's famous she is demonised.

I know s couple of local rapes that have been talked about. It was all. She's nuts she made it up. It was consensual and she regrets it. Etc.

The social line is it's bad. Most individuals would say it's terrible. In reality though in most cases it's. Is she lying. What did she do wrong etc.

So the voters won't press for change.

It's down to the women (and I'm sure some men) to keep on about it, trying to get it on the agenda etc etc.

Just thought as well.

There was a man s couple of years back who went to prison. Most prolific serial rapist ever caught.

He targeted men. Where are the men on this? The sports club abuse. Where are the LGBT+ charities? Men are very very unwilling to report. Gay men have similar issues to women with being believed etc. Just remembered a serial killer, again recently. Killed 3 or 4 men I think. Police could have caught him sooner but didn't investigate properly.

So yes. Where are the men on this? The fathers? The men who care about it? Where are the LGBT+ charities? Many are well funded and have a lot of influence at the moment. Why aren't they working with women? Or afaik doing much at all???

Email to my MP
Email address found by searching here members.parliament.uk/members/Commons

Dear ,

Priti Patel and Robert Buckland have apologised to rape victims as they admitted they were 'deeply ashamed' after a review found that just 1,439 rapists out of 128,000 rapes committed in the past year in the UK were convicted.
These statistics are shocking and indefensible. And what makes them more shocking is the knowledge that most women DO NOT report being raped because they know they will not get the support they deserve from the police or courts.
Why has nothing been done to improve the conviction rate, why are defence lawyers allowed to treat women aggressively and divulge their past lives whilst the possible rapist is allowed to keep their history from the jury.
I have little faith in the UK government these days, we will most likely get pompous rhetoric, promises of reviews but little will change.
It is a shameful situation.
I hope you will push for reform of this awful state of affairs.

Yours sincerely,

PS I think you have to put your address and postcode in any correspondence to prove you are in their constituency.

As far as i am aware, this is the only thread on this rape report?

It has pretty much come to a halt at 7 pages.... on a predominately Womens forum.

A thread on bicycles has 17,

Women don't care, why should anyone else?

I'd definitely think twice about reporting or encouraging my DD to report a rape, the article very much backs up my thinking the trial would cause further emotional damage.

It is shocking but not at all surprising. If anyone is concerned about girls in particular being at risk, I recommend this organisation.

www.yes-matters.co.uk