News
Police and prosecutors are failing rape victims according to a report which reveals a postcode lottery for justice while prosecutors suffer ‘increasing attrition rates’.
The report, Without Consent, by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, assesses progress on the government’s 2002 Rape Action Plan. Just 5.3% of all reported rapes currently end in conviction.
According to the report, the detection rate for rape varies from seven to 60.4% across police forces. Nearly a third of rape allegations were wrongly assessed not to be crimes by police, and in some cases officers made ‘subjective judgments’ about the complainant’s credibility.
The report criticises the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for having no criteria for specialist rape prosecutors, and recommends that police and prosecutors make better use of evidence showing the defendant’s ‘bad character’.
Sir Ken Macdonald QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, says: “I am determined to improve the way we deal with these cases from start to finish.”
He adds that CPS London will have four specialist rape advocates in place in early February to review and prosecute rape cases, and that CPS Hampshire, CPS Isle of Wight and CPS West Yorkshire will follow suit.
