WHY IS IT SO HARD TO SECURE A CONVICTION Pg. 2
BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT
Looking at the difficulties in proving whether a rape was committed or not and the legal system's handling of rape cases
Lack of Consistency
Highest and Lowest Conviction rates:
Highest
Northants: 13.79%
Cumbria: 12.79%
South Wales: 12.18%
South Yorkshire: 10.74%
Lowest
Gloucestershire: 0.86%
Suffolk: 1.6%
Cambridgeshire: 1.75%
Humberside: 2.85%
Although there is an average conviction rate of 5.6% across the country, the figures are also broken down into counties; and there are huge differences between how well the different police forces / prosecution services do.
Rape Crisis chair, Louise Rogers believes the police need to be better informed of how to deal with rape cases. She said:
“I can’t tell you what your local police will do, because each local police constabulary will do it differently. I suspect a lot of police on the front line aren’t used to it. They might see a rape victim once a year.”
If the police feel that the case is strong enough to make an arrest, then it is passed on to the Crown Prosecution Service…
Looking for Obstacles
Women Against Rape spokesperson, Ruth Hall believes that even when the police do put the case forward to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the case may still be dropped. She said:
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“There were a few inspectorate reports that found that they [the CPS] look for obstacles rather than solutions, and that has been our experience as well. Women don’t charge rape lightly. To bring a case is very difficult. We [women] do it because we worry about our own safety or the safety of other people and the CPS has a duty to investigate. But they seem much more eager to decide that there’s no realistic prospect of conviction and drop cases even where we can see that there is evidence.”
This is a charge the CPS doesn’t deny. Head of News at the CPS, Jane Holman said:
“What we have to do is to look for the line that the defence will take. So to that extent we do look for what you might regard as the difficulties of the case or what the defence might argue are the flaws of the case. If we decide that we don’t think that there’s a realistic chance of conviction it doesn’t mean we don’t believe the alleged victim. It’s that we don’t feel that there’s enough evidence that a court would be more likely than not to convict. There might be all sorts of reasons for that.”
Provided that the case passes this first test, it must also pass a second test. This asks whether bringing the case to court is in the public interest or not. In most rape cases, this will be the case, provided it has passed the first test.