One of the more surprising pledges in the Coalition programme for government was: “We will extend anonymity in rape cases to defendants.” This move would turn the clock back to 1976, when the Sexual Offences Act introduced anonymity for those accused of rape. The provision was later repealed.

 This proposal has produced a storm of adverse publicity. Granting anonymity to defendants accused of rape could lead to serial attackers slipping through the net, campaigners, victims and lawyers have warned. Women who had not previously had the confidence to report a rape were often inspired to do so after seeing media reports naming and picturing the same man. Ruth Hall, a spokeswoman for Women against Rape, said that the proposal could put women off coming forward to report rapes, hitting the already low conviction rate. Concern has been expressed that the proposal, intended to protect men from the damaging impact of false allegations, gave the impression that women frequently lie about rape. Baroness Stern, in her review of rape (see blog posted on 25 March), said that the subject of false allegations came up so often in discussions about rape, and the information about the prevalence of false allegations is so scanty, that research should be undertaken to establish their frequency before any view was reached on anonymity for defendants. As reported in the ‘Guardian’, Labour peer Helena Kennedy QC said the naming of accused rapists helped police investigations. “People who commit crimes like rape and serious crimes of violence, particularly sexually motivated ones, are often repeat offenders,” she said. “What the police will tell you is that very often the exposure of the identity of the accused brings forward other people.”

Speaking in the adjournment debate in the House of Commons on 7 June, Caroline Flint said: “Those proposals, if implemented, would deter victims from coming forward and make it far more difficult for the police to charge offenders and convict rapists. We know that many rapists are serial offenders; their trail of victims often runs into double digits. Many women – for a variety of reasons – do not come forward straight away. They are afraid; they want to pretend it never happened. They are embarrassed; they feel as though they did something wrong. They are ashamed; they believe that what happened was their fault. They feel alone.” She will have been aware that she was pressing on a door which, if not open, was certainly not locked. Earlier in the day, also in the Commons, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg signalled a new willingness to drop the government’s plans. He said: “Everybody is united in wanting the conviction rates for rape to increase. Everybody wants more support to be provided to victims of rape so that they come forward in the first place, while also wanting to minimise the stigma attached to those who might be falsely accused. However, I want to make it clear that, although the Government have proposed the idea, we want to listen to everybody who has a stake or expertise in or insight into the matter. If our idea does not withstand sincere scrutiny, we will of course be prepared to change it.”

“Rape is a serious and deeply damaging crime. It is unique in the way it strikes at the bodily integrity and self-respect of the victim, in the demands it makes on those public authorities required to respond to it and in the controversy it generates…(it) is unique as it is an inherently lawful activity made illegal because of lack of consent. Women, men, children, and people of all ages and all social groups can become rape victims”.

 The words of Baroness Stern, invited by the Government Equalities Office and the Home Office to carry out an independent review into the treatment of rape complaints by public authorities, in presenting her final report. In one respect the report is ground breaking. Rape and sexual assault have usually been seen as women’s issues – the victims are female, the perpetrators male – but this is no longer the case. Male rape was recognised by English and Welsh law in 1994 and, according to the Stern Review, the victim is male in around 8% of all recorded rape cases. The report states that only a small proportion of rape is reported to the authorities. Probably about 11 per cent of those who have been raped tell the police about it. In England and Wales in 2008/9, 12,129 rapes of women and 964 rapes of men were recorded by the police. The most recent data, the British Crime Survey from 2008/9, show that the lifetime prevalence for rape and attempted rape in those over 16 was nearly one in 24 women (4.2 per cent) and one in 200 men (0.5 per cent). The number of rapes recorded by the police has risen considerably in recent years. Figures from the Metropolitan Police area for 2009/10 show that recorded rapes increased by 29 per cent in a year and, for England and Wales as a whole, the number of recorded rapes rose from 2,855 in 1988 to 7,636 in 1998 and 13,093 in 2008.

Rape can occur in a range of circumstances. Those usually referred to as ‘stranger rapes’, the sort of incidents most often reported on by the newspapers, where the victim and the perpetrator do not know each other, are a small proportion of rape cases. Most rapes are carried out by someone the victim knows. Much rape occurs in families. False notions about rape are widespread. There is a view that women are in some way to blame for being raped if they go out wearing revealing clothes and have too much to drink. The subject of false allegations came up so often in discussions about rape, and the information about the prevalence of false allegations is so scanty, that Baroness Stern recommends that research be undertaken to establish their frequency. The percentage of all the cases recorded by the police as a rape that end up with someone being convicted is usually quoted as being around six per cent. The ‘Guardian’ leader of 16 March is trenchant in the view that “the scale of rape and sexual assault in our society is appalling. People are right to be indignant that so few rapists still answer for their crimes”.

In dealing with rape complaints, the report states that a substantial amount of change has been introduced in recent years by the responsible public authorities. “Attitudes, policies and practices have changed, fundamentally and for the better. In England and Wales we now have a system with specialisation in dealing with rape at the police, prosecution and judicial levels. We have measures in the courtroom to minimise the trauma of the trial for the complainant. We have a programme to provide state-of-the-art medical centres in every police force area, where victims of rape can be examined and assisted”. In accepting that current policies are right, the report recommends “that the Government and those authorities should take further some of the excellent developments already under way. We have made some detailed recommendations to the police and prosecution services which are designed to make implementation of the existing policies more effective”.

In her report Baroness Stern pays tribute to the work done by Sara Payne, whose findings were the subject of the blog entitled “Rape – the Victims’ Champion’s Review” posted on 4 December last year. The full text of the Stern Review can be found at:-

http://www.equalities.gov.uk/PDF/Stern_Review_acc_FINAL.pdf

“It is a national disgrace that in 2009 rape almost always goes unpunished” writes Libby Brooks in the ‘Guardian’. “This is about systemic, institutionalised negligence. If you are raped, the likelihood is that the police won’t help you, and the CPS won’t help you. If you unusually achieve a trial, the prosecution won’t help you and the judge won’t help you”.

The statistics of rape are difficult to pin down. The British Crime Survey in 2000 calculated that 754,000 women had been raped at least once, 61,000 in the previous year. The group Campaign to End Rape estimated that in 2001 there were 190,000 serious sex assaults and 47,000 rape or attempted rape victims. As all figures are considered to be underestimated the incidence is staggering. The great majority of victims never report their attack, and of those that do only 25% will make it to court because the obstacles for a complainant remain enormous. In 2003/04 there were 12,354 recorded offences of rape. The persistently low conviction rate is just over 6%.

So embarrassing has been the failure to deal effectively with rape cases that the Home Office this week announced a series of new measures. An additional £1.8m is to be provided to set up more sexual assault referral centres, which “play a vital role in providing care and support for victims, while also giving investigators the best chance to build a successful case. They provide victims with immediate medical help, counselling, forensic examinations and the opportunity to give evidence anonymously, all in one location”. There will be training for police officers on what to do when a rape is first reported. Victims will meet with a specially trained officer within an hour of reporting the crime. There will be additional help for police and prosecutors investigating rape cases, to ensure that crimes are solved and attackers are punished. Targets will be set for rape investigations, and a Rape Performance Group set up, charged with quarterly monitoring and assessment of police and the Crown Prosecution Service’s handling of rape cases.

Introducing the new initiative, Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker called sexual assault cases “uniquely difficult crimes to investigate”. In a clearly coordinated move the CPS last month published a revised ‘Policy for Prosecuting Cases of Rape’ detailing all the steps (and difficulties) of such cases. It concludes with the not exactly resounding commitment “to playing our part in improving the way that rape cases are dealt with in the criminal justice system. We want victims to have confidence in the way in which we review and progress cases”. But campaigners are not impressed. According to Libby Brooks, Britain has some of the best sex crimes legislation in Europe, but a police service that won’t enforce it, a judiciary that refuses to apply it and a government that gives it insufficient priority.