The ‘justice gap’ in sexual offences: Why is the criminal justice system failing rape victims?

Conviction rates are depressingly low

The world is still reeling from the outcome of pop singer Kesha’s recent court case, so now seemed a good time to reflect on our own legal system and how it deals with rape allegations.

The main focus of the criminal justice system is the successful investigation and detection of crime in order to bring offenders to justice. This is reflected in Narrowing the Justice Gap, which says:

Bringing offenders to justice is the best way of demonstrating to criminals that their crimes will not go unpunished, and to victims that the criminal justice system is acting effectively on their behalf.

But, the report continues:

[T]here is a justice gap. Only a fifth of crimes recorded by the police result in their perpetrator being brought to justice. We can and must do better.

And this sentiment rings especially true in the context of sexual offences, where the justice gap is indefensibly wide — and widening.

Numerous national surveys and statistics record the rate of attrition and conviction of specific crimes, which gives a clearer indication of the justice gap on an offence-by-offence basis.

Sexual offences make for a particularly interesting comparison to other crimes, given that the rate of attrition for rape is much higher and it has the lowest conviction rate of all serious crimes.

In percentage terms, 2013 saw 24.5% of recorded rapes being detected. Criminal proceedings were instigated in 75.5% of those detections, equating to 18.5% of all recorded rapes. Of those instances of court proceedings, 36.7% resulted in rape convictions. This equates to 6.8% of all recorded rapes. This is a good indicator of the effectiveness of the criminal justice system — namely that the system is extremely ineffective.

Shockingly, the rate of conviction only seems to be getting worse. In 1977 the conviction rate was 32%, meaning 1 in 3 victims saw their assailant brought to justice. Now it is just 1 in 15 that receive this outcome.

What is even more shocking, perhaps, is the number of rapes that go unreported. Though last year’s figures show a marked increase in reported sexual offences, this does not detract from the fact that most rapes go unreported. In 2013, between 60,000-95,000 people experienced rape. Of these cases, 16.5-26% were recorded and only around 1% of all estimated incidents led to conviction.

From the turn of the decade, the number of people experiencing rape has stayed steady — and so too has an entrenched unwillingness to report the offence. A frequently cited reason for not doing so is that the victim didn’t think the police could do much to help.

Trends in recorded crime statistics can be influenced by whether victims are willing to report the crime, but trends in conviction rates can also be the reason that victims are unwilling to report incidents to the police in the first place. There is a lot of work to be done before victims’ trust in the system is gained, such as dispensing with rape myths and stereotypes.

It’s not just victims that feel the impact of low reporting rates. The more offenders brought to justice, the less crime. Home Office research indicates that increasing the frequency of an offender being caught and convicted is the single most effective way of shortening their criminal career.

But in the context of rape, the system is not, and cannot be, a crucial indicator of success in reducing crime, because so many cases of rape are never recorded by the police. Sure, this is most likely true for other offence statistics, but it is considerably higher for instances of rape.

The skewed reality between the number of rape reports and convictions compared with the number of incidents that occur paints a very dismal picture — one where the system lets dangerous rapists run free.

It is a terrible shame that, looking at the overall position of the justice gap for rape and its implications, Temkin and Krahé hit the nail on the head when they say:

The message from the criminal justice system could not be clearer. Women must put strict limits on their behaviour, must trust no one and take no risks. And, since even this is not at all a guarantee of safety, they must learn to live with rape.

Efa Gough is a recent graduate from the University of Nottingham and an apprentice at the London Borough of Bromley.

Sources

J. Temkin and B. Krahé, Sexual Assault and the Justice Gap: A Question of Attitude, (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2008)