The "so what can we actually do" thread...

[ImSoNotTelling]

Hello

Following on from the thread about changing the law on rape to grant anonimity to the accused, a few people have started to think about what we can do to get involved, to actually try and change stuff.

So I guess this thread is for suggestions, ideas, and for people to link up to actually try to change things.

So far we have someone possibly standing for pariament!

So come on everyone.

What's the plan....

That's interesting, Dittany. I wonder if it could work here?? The Scandinavian countries have a longer history of gender equality, more cultural respect for women and a quite different attitude to sex. I'm butting out of this for the time being; I'm less informed than the rest of you and can't keep up

Thank you very much for all the insights & food for further thought!

You might be interested in this group, I used to volunteer with them when I lived in London.

www.womenagainstrape.net/

They do a lot of really good work.

Oops see it has already been mentioned!

Thanks for the mention chocolatestar- have you seen our petition for Gail Sherwood? tinyurl.com/32mrxv3
We've been supporting her for 2 years, she's recently been put in prison for making a false allegation of rape, and we're campaigning for her release..

Here's a good articles the Guardian wrote about her at the time
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/09/gail-sherwood-jailed-campaigners

Im new to all this , but very interested. In the last couple of days ive had several upsetting experiences , im quite positive that had i been male i would have received a more favourable response , this included being called aggresive because i calmly objected to what was being said to me. God forbid i say how i feel , and especially to a male police officer.

I was talking to a freind about this and she commented that if you re enacted these incidents, having a man and a woman act them out, the differance in how people related to the two would be quite shocking. If you behaved that way based on race, people would be outraged.

Id love to see hard hitting adverts , lessons in schools , documentarys , the end of ridiculous adverts that suggest i should be thrilled at this new cleaning product , the banning of sexual violence in films that seems to be normalised ect and the glamourised reporting of murders and rapes.

You know, i actually plucked up the courage to report my ex for horrific sexual abuse and was told that it probably wouldnt go anywhere , it wasnt worth it, it would drag on and on and nothing could be proved now.

How very encouraging.

I am currently doing a report for college on why rape laws are failing women, which I have lots of material for, but in my summing up I am at a loss as to what is to be done.

In what way can we change rape laws to make them fairer for women?

Hi All,

The best place to start is the Stern Review of how the CJS deal with rape cases.

I work for a Rape Crisis Centre and we host 3 full time Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) who hand-hold victims through the criminal justice system. They have reduced the withdrawal rate for their clients from the national average of 80% to 2%, that's a big step forward.

Which is why Stern recommends every victim of rape is offered support by an ISVA. However, one ISVA can deal with a maximum of 50 cases, so even though we see 3,000 victims of rape per year, we could only ever support 150 victims through the CJS.

This will be worse in other areas, 3 is the maximum I know of in any area.

So for information I recommend the Stern Review www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/Stern_Review_of_Rape_Reporting_1FINAL.pdf

and the CPS 2008-9 Violence Against Women and Crime Report www.cps.gov.uk/publications/docs/CPS_VAW_report_2009.pdf

So with that information you could lobby your local Police, CPS, Community Safety Partnerships to sustain or increase this service and to ask why they dont have this service available if there is no ISVA.

Hope this is useful and makes sense? I can give you more information, but I guess this is enough for now!

From PMQ's

"Ms Harman asks about anonymity for rape defendants, one of the more surprising ideas in the coalition agreement. She urges a change of heart. Mr Cameron said he examined the issue when he was on the home affairs committee and he believed there was a case for it between arrest and charge. Ms Harman says it would send a powerful message that the rape victim is not to be believed. Mr Cameron said he did not accept that."

Look like this was HH's first Q - so that was brilliant - about the answer.

Ah - I see now that this is a backtrack - however if lots of evidence of other women is needed to support the case to charge then no good ...

Just checking in

If you want a hand with anything to do with teh site just shout proles

Good to hear sound of furious backpedalling from govt about this anonimity issue...

Same issues still apply though. Whether it's anon before conviction or anon before charge.

I hope they are not watering this down in order to get it through IYSWIM

Stern also said som very stupid things e.g. the system is working very hard for rape victims and I dont think it can be driven much further!!!

Vera Baird asked Stern to do the review- and the terms of reference were HOW TO DRIVE THE CONVICTION RATE

I challenged Vera Baird about Sterns recommendations recently at a womens event and she squirmed when I mentioned this

It is also ridiculous that Stern has recommended using the 58% conviction rate instead of the 6% conviction rate... Vera Baird also spoke out against this saying it was concerning

The key issue for the shoddy conviction rate is not what happens in court, its the number of cases that never make it to court because of biased and negligent police investigations

I could tell you the stories of scores of women who have been treated appallingly by the police

Then there are the two who were raped by strangers, reported it, wer disbelieved, discredited and then prosecuted for making false allegations. Both got two years in court.

Then there are 6 friends of mind who told me they were raped but never reported it because they didnt think they would be believed

I meant two years in prison, obviously

That is what lots of people don't realise. The sheer number of rapes that never even see the light of day because of the system. It's scary. People go on about the attitude of juries but most of the time they don't get a chance to hear cases and even when they do they don't get to hear all the evidence. Attitudes of juries just reflect the attitude of the authorities.

Not had a chance to read the whole thread yet. Will try to catch up.

I've also heard anecdotally that lots of people on juries are frustrated because evidence is not gathered or handled properly

If you want more information outside of the conviction rate then the Cross Govt Tackling VAWG Report www.equalities.gov.uk/news/vaw_guidance.aspx and the Alberti Review (Dept of Health) will give you that.www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_113727

Alberti got no media attention when it came out (March 2010) but the stats in it are horrific and borne out within our Rape Crisis Centre and others.

Our main issue is that VAW is not mainstreamed (highlighted in these reports) so it doesnt appear in Local Govt targets, in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, the NHS Operating Framework, Sustainable Community Strategy etc etc. This makes it a marginal issue.

Our other problem currently is that we dont know if these VAW strategies, completed under Labour, will be taken forward by the coalition govt. We're having to wait.

If you would like to take positive action now, you could write to your MP and point out that the Conservative manifesto promised sustained funding for Rape Crisis Centres and additional funding for 15 new centres, can they tell you what delivery plan is and in what timescale.