Some police officers believed most rape reports are instances of ‘regretful sex’

[IwantToRetire]

An independent report has found evidence of police putting disproportionate effort into investigating the credibility of rape complainants and “explicit victim blaming”.

Findings from Operation Soteria, a programme aimed at transforming the way the police and CPS respond to rape cases, found that some officers “displayed a culture of disbelieving victims”.

Other serving officers do not think addressing rape and other sexual offences should be a priority for policing, while some believed most rape reports are instances of “regretful sex”.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/metropolitan-police-cps-government-dominic-raab-suella-braverman-b2245925.html

I think most of us probably know this or suspected it, but lets hoping an official report will mean they will actually start to take action to educate the police.

Response by End Violence Against Women Coalition www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/police-consider-rape-regretful-sex-operation-soteria-finds/

This is why we don't report it. I had my drink spiked and was unconscious. Did I regret not being actually awake during it?

What kind of idiot thinks that enduring all the stuff that goes along with investigating a rape case and going to court to prosecute a rape case is something that women who regret a sexual encounter want to go through??

I wish I was surprised by this shit still, but now I've come to find such reports to be horrifying but not surprising.

How depressing

I cannot get my head around how people can justify the idea that a woman would 'cry rape' because she regrets sex.

Oh yes... misogyny.

But also it's a totally cretinous 'argument' against a rape accusation - I suppose that maybe, just maybe, when pre-marital sex was considered shocking, if a woman had sex and a man boasted about it, thus making her look like a slattern and maybe ruining her chances of marriage, there could be some incentive for her to pretend he forced himself on her, although even then it wouldn't make sense as there'd be almost as much censure on her for being raped and talking about it.

But now, if you regretted sex with someone, you'd either not tell anyone or you might have a commiserating drink with a friend and roll your eyes about how you can't believe you slept with Richard. You wouldn't fucking accuse Richard of rape! There's no general societal cost to women to have pre-marital sex anymore, so there's no reason whatsoever for a woman to pretend she was raped because she had an encounter that was embarrassing or bad.

God I wish I didn't have to write this as I regard myself to be a feminist but around 10 years ago I was undertaking some temporary work and yes, unfortunately some women do wake up from what's clearly been a regrettable one night sexual encounter and have made accusations of rape. I was shocked and disappointed. It wasn't many, obviously, but it wasn't an isolated incident either. I'm sorry to be vague around this.

That's not to say police should automatically assume this. Absolutely not. But to say that it never happens is naive. I'm hoping it doesn't happen so much 10 years on.

How the heck could you possibly know the circumstances of every single one of those incidents you refer to and know conclusively that no woman was raped? In your status as a temporary worker? Doing what exactly? Did the women confess to you that they just regretted the sex, and hoped to, what, punish the men involved by getting them convicted of rape? Or somehow regain their status, because as e all know, women who report rapes are treated exceptionally well by society.

There was obviously an investigation and outcome which I was privy to and clear evidence to disprove their allegation. I know there will be massive pushback to my post, understandably. I obviously can't go into details. Trust me, no one was more disappointed that there was instances of this. All women should be believed clearly until the outcome of an investigation and no officer should assume anything. I'm just addressing the 'no women would ever do this'. They have.

For crying out loud. No one is saying that no woman would ever do this. Clearly some women do make rape allegations that are untrue. It is a very very very small percentage of all rape allegations, and not in any way indicative of some kind of issue where women who report a rape should be automatically assumed to be lying. Which is what this report is saying! That police in general believe that women who report a rape should themselves be investigated as they are likely to be lying. You're repeating the same bloody logic fail, that because you know that some women (1, 5, 10 or a hundred??) were definitely lying about being raped, that this is somehow relevant to attitudes about women in general.

Police need to strike the right balance between supporting complainants and robustly testing the evidence. No one wins from sending weak and untested cases to trial.

I do understand the difficulty of proving most rape cases - in the vast majority of cases it will be one person's word against another, and probably no physical evidence of force. But another thing people, I suspect including many police, don't understand is that aquittal isn't proof the woman is lying, it's that there's simply not enough evidence. And I'm pretty sure that is the case far more often than because the woman made it up. I think the lack of understanding about this and the low prosecution rate is one reason why people think it's common for women to lie about it.

The actual report is here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/operation-soteria-year-one-report

It's very long and I haven't read it all yet. On believing those who report rape and decisions in proceeding, the Guardian quoted some parts of it:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/dec/15/scathing-report-condemns-uk-police-for-victim-blaming-in-cases

"The report said officers lacked specialist understanding and while some didn’t rely on inaccurate perceptions of victim credibility “the overwhelming direction of travel [was] still reliant on inaccurate understandings of victims and offenders”.

It stated: “At worst, officers demonstrated explicit victim blaming and lack of belief in the victim, which impacted on the subsequent investigation. For example, victim credibility was often focused on and used to either close or not investigate cases within some forces.”"

The instances of women claiming false rape accusations are less than people burning their own car to claim the insurance.
It's a tiny tiny proportion of the population.

The attitude of the police and society at large However, is very much enough to stop women who are raped from talking about it.

of course this happens/has happened, but I can't think for a minute that it's anything other than a speck in the overall picture.

A separate progress report published by the Government said it is “on track” to meet its target to more than double the number of adult rape cases reaching court by the end of this parliament.

It cited increases in police referrals, charges, convictions and cases reaching court, while the average number of days between a police referral and a suspect being charged has fallen

I don't think any of us on here will be particularly surprised about the unsurprising fact that the police tend to think it's the victims fault and that they Just regret having sex with someone.

With regards the bit above in bold my friends 16 year old daughter was raped in February. She's not been treated very well by the police, she's been made to feel, frequently, by them that it's all her fault and that the police don't believe her. They do believe her, but they aren't showing this vulnerable victim that. We are now over 9 months on from the rape and still she is waiting to see if the CPS is going to charge the little arsewipe that raped her.

It's not good enough.

Nothing changes. It was like this in the 70s except they didn't even pretend to be otherwise. So all the rape suites and specially trained officers are just so much bullshit.

Echobelly· Today 20:03
I do understand the difficulty of proving most rape cases - in the vast majority of cases it will be one person's word against another, and probably no physical evidence of force

Even if there is evidence of force they now say it was consensual ‘rough sex’.

The CPS is another part of the problem. Because of the need to improve the number of cases they win, they only take on the cases that look more than likely to win.

So even when the police do a good job it can still be rejected by the CPS.

I am afraid you are right about this and it has consequences. When women report sex they wish they had not had as rape it makes the position of women who have actually been raped much worse for it feeds the accusation that women have 'just changed their minds' thus leading to a culture where women are not believed and sexual assault is not seen as being an investigative priority.

Maybe or maybe not. The majority of statistics on rape and sexual abuse are based on estimates and projections - oftentimes fairly dubious ones. Not on proper data.

Police officers should never make assumptions about a case. That works both ways, remember the "these allegations are credible and true" statement made by a senior officer when the man who made them turned out to be a habitual fantasist.

You don’t think police understand that acquittal means not guilty? REALLY? As a lawyer, I can easily say this wins stupidest post of the week.

The police see hardened, repeat criminals being found Not Guilty day-in day-out. Everyone with half a brain cell knows that the legal standard of “beyond reasonable doubt” is (rightfully) an incredibly high one and often very difficult to meet.

You're right it was dumb to suggest police don't understand acquittal meaning innocent, although given what we've heard about misogyny in the police I suspect there are some that still think women are just lying in rape cases. But certainly the general public seem to believe acquitted means innocent, as the media like to play it that way - at least when it comes to rape.

I think this probably varies from force to force and im so sorry your friends daughter isnt being treated well

my niece was raped in a ‘he said, she said’ scenario, it took over a year for it to be no further actioned

but she was, according to my SIL, treated compassionately and the letter explaining why the CPS weren’t taking the case further spoke of her bravery in reporting and telling her not to think that she wasnt being believed