Victim blaming by police officers is harming rape investigations, report finds

Rape investigations are being hampered by police not believing women who report crimes and officers perpetrating “victim blaming”, an independent report has found.

A new report for the National Police Chiefs Council and the Home Office examining how police forces tackle rape in England and Wales, found some police officers believed that most reports of rape are merely “regretful sex”.

The study, which examined 80,000 rape reports in five police forces, noted that while those officers were in the minority, they “intentionally or inadvertently” block progression and “influence how new officers are socialised into rape and serious sexual offences work”.

The report found “great variability within police forces in terms of officer attitudes beliefs, customs and social behaviour” to rape and sexual violence.

“At worst, officers demonstrated explicit victim blaming and lack of belief in the victim, which impacted on the subsequent investigation,” researchers said.

“For example, victim credibility was often focused on and used to either close or not investigate cases within some forces.”

Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, told The Independent: “We need to reform the culture of policing rape. Victim-blaming views within the criminal justice system must be tackled because we know they affect victims’ access to justice.

“It is shocking to learn that some officers hold the kind of views that frame rape as ‘regretful sex’. These attitudes will deter women from reporting and lead to victims accounts being dismissed and disbelieved, and to perpetrators getting away with their crimes.”

The report, a collaboration between police and prominent academics, also exposed failures to carry out checks to see if suspects had already been reported to police, despite one in four named suspects having a track record of previous sexual offences.

Researchers warned that forces “must improve the identification and disruption of repeat suspects” through a review of force data and better knowledge sharing.

The report presented the findings from the first year of Operation Soteria Bluestone, which the government launched in a bid to overhaul how the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) handle rape cases in the wake of a dramatic plummet in prosecutions.

Ms Simon said victims’ advocates were “deeply frustrated” the government has “taken so long” to release the important investigation.

She added: “This report serves to further highlight what women’s organisations have long known: that cultural issues of misogyny, sexism and racism in policing impact whether or not victims have access to justice, as well as how they are treated during the process - being disbelieved, blamed and stereotyped.”

Ms Simon warned these issues are exacerbated by a dearth of “specialism and experience” in investigating sexual offences which sees “officers shockingly undermining the seriousness of this violence”.

She added: “These latest findings are alarming and follow on the heels of other reports raising issues with police perpetrated abuse, questionable recruitment processes, vetting failures and the mishandling of sexual misconduct investigations.”

Ms Simon argued that while “some green shoots of progress in the prosecution and conviction of rape” have surfaced, we remain in “the very early stages” of starting to overhaul “how our broken justice system” handles rape and those who experience it.

Her comments come as the government stated “significant progress” was being made in how the criminal justice system responds to cases of rape but there is also an increasing backlog in cases and lengthier waits.

A review of the progress made since the summer 2021 rape review stated the promise to more than double the number of cases getting to court by the end of this parliament is “within reach”.

The most recent data for 2022 shows the number of cases referred by the police to the CPS rose by 95 per cent. While the number of cases charged had increased by two-thirds and the number of cases getting to the Crown Court had risen by 91 per cent, in comparison to averages from 2019.

Dominic Raab, secretary of state for justice, said: “I want to make sure victims are properly supported throughout the criminal justice process.

“That is why we introduced a 24/7 rape and sexual abuse helpline, pre-recording of evidence in court to spare them the trauma of testifying during a live trial, and a new approach to police investigations that focuses on the behaviour of the suspect rather than the victim.”

His comments come after the Casey Review, released in October, revealed hundreds of Metropolitan Police officers should have been fired for serious misconduct and breaching the law.

The report exposed the UK’s biggest police force’s inability to get rid of officers accused of sexual assault, domestic abuse and discrimination, as well as unearthing misogyny and racial disparity within the disciplinary process which sees “systemic bias” against Black and Asian officers.