Convictions for rape in Scotland more than double in space of a year

[IwantToRetire]

Convictions for rape and attempted rape in Scotland more than doubled in the space of a year – with figures also showing longer jail sentences being imposed on those found guilty.

There were 160 convictions of rape and attempted rape in the courts in 2021-22, the latest statistics show, which was up 105 from 78 the previous year.

The figures also show the number of such cases taken to court increased by 123% over the same period, going from 151 to 336.

The rise was recorded as courts across Scotland saw an increase in business as Covid restrictions eased in 2021-22.

The figures, published by the Scottish Government, show longer custodial sentences are being imposed in rape and attempted rape cases.

Article continues at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/convictions-rape-scotland-more-double-164851004.html

(I think article is from the Herald and re-published by yahoo)

Is the implication in the article that Covid lockdown meant these figures are a backlog of cases?

I found the statistics in the article confusing, I thought it implied a really high conviction rate but the figures from Rape Crisis show a different picture.

There were 2291 rapes and sexual assaults reported in 20/21, only 152 were prosecuted which led to 78 convictions (a conviction rate of 3.4%). The convictions may have risen but it is still a small percent of reported rapes being convicted.

I do think it might be courts catching up on a backlog following Covid restrictions and not that things have improved for rape victims in Scotland.

https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/resources-stats-key-info/

Thanks for that link to Rape Crisis figures.

An alarming indication of either women not feeling able to report to police, or police not registering the report as a crime, ie not even investigating.

Really depressing difference.

And quite honestly something that a "reporter" should have looked into.

So not good news, just massaged news.

Yes I think that's the case. Catching up on the backlog means more trials and more convictions - but not an improvement in conviction rate.

Conviction rate for rape is the lowest for any crime type in Scotland

The conviction rate for rape and attempted rape was, for the 10th year in a row, the lowest for any crime type in Scotland in 2021-22. Just 48% of rape cases that made it to court in 2021-22 resulted in a conviction. The overall conviction rate in Scotland for the same year was 88%. The conviction rate for rape has also decreased from 51% in 2020-21.

These figures are unacceptable but are unsurprising. We hear so often from survivors that their experience of going through the criminal justice system was as traumatic as their experience of sexual violence. Behind all these statistics are survivors who have made the often very difficult decision to report their experience to the police. Our thoughts are with them, and with all survivors who have felt let down by the criminal justice system.

It couldn’t be clearer that urgent reform is needed to how sexual offences are handled by Scotland’s justice system. There is significant evidence that myths about sexual violence influence juries in their decision making.

We hope that proposals contained within the Scottish Government’s Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill including the introduction of specialist sexual offences courts and scrapping the Not Proven verdict, will go some way to improving survivors’ experience of the justice system. We very much hope that members from across the chamber will support these potentially transformative changes when the Bill returns to the Scottish Parliament.

https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/news/news/conviction-rate-for-rape-is-the-lowest-for-any-crime-type-in-scotland/

I think there is a huge problem with focusing on the conviction rate as it is used in this context. The conviction rate here simply means the proportion of cases that the crown wins in court. It doesn’t have any relevance to the rate at which rapists are caught and convicted. A conviction rate can be improved by prosecutors refusing to take the trickier cases to court. Pressure to increase this number rather than the number of convictions is, I think, really ill placed.

In theory prosecutors are supposed to take a suspect to court when they think there is realistic chance of securing a conviction. In theory that means conviction rates should be around 50%. When prosecutors think they will more likely than not can a conviction, they should go for it. That other crimes in Scotland have far higher conviction rates is actually a sign that prosecutors are seriously failing the victims of those crimes. There will be a lot more people that could have been convicted who are not being prosecuted if the conviction rates are >90%.

All these conviction rates tell you is how cautious the prosecution is about starting a case given the evidence they and skill set they have. They don’t tell you anything at all about how likely you are to receive justice, or how good the investigation and prosecution are. For that you need to look at how convictions there are compared to how many crimes (reported crimes would be a start, but both reported and unreported would be more accurate).

And we need to be comparing serious sexual assault to other serious crimes, like GBH with intent and murder (or their Scottish equivalents in this case), not petty thefts or other crimes that have much less long term impact.