Under the Government’s Violence against Women and Girls strategy, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been working to improve prosecutions and the way victims are dealt with in the criminal justice system.
Mr Starmer hopes the more success his prosecutors have, the more encouragement there will be for victims to come forward.
Figures published today by the CPS show that, last year, some 62.5 per cent of alleged rapes where someone was charged resulted in a conviction of either rape, sexual assault or violence.
It is the first time the proportion has gone above 60 per cent. Last year some 3,864 cases were charged as rape.
Some 73 per cent of charges in all violence against women or girls cases ended in conviction – 67,000 convictions from 91,000 prosecutions – also a record level.
Mr Starmer told the Daily Telegraph: “Do we think what we are doing is making a difference?
“There is some reason to believe the answer to that is yes. But there is lots more to do. “There are clearly problems with people feeling confident to report in the first place.”
In speech to women’s groups and criminal justice workers today, Mr Starmer will add: “We face a situation where fewer than one in four people who suffer abuse at the hands of their partner – and only around one in ten women who experience serious sexual assault – report it to the police.
“That makes it all the more important that when such a crime is reported it is dealt with professionally, effectively and with understanding.
“In the past, all too often the criminal justice system failed in this respect. But, as I have already suggested, that is changing.”
The work to improve convictions has included specialist training for 3,000 prosecutors and 800 rape specialists.
There has also been attempts to dispel some of the myths surrounding rape such as the fact a victim may not report straight away or the issue of alcohol.
Mr Starmer said one myth was that “if you go out and want to drink somehow your position is different than if you are not engaged in any of these activities.”
“If it is a sexual assault it is a sexual assault. What we should avoid is assumption about people’s behaviour that are not made out.
“I do not think any assumption should be made if someone has been drinking that somehow they have impliedly consented.”
The issue has been the subject of high profile court cases over recent years.
In 2007, the Court of Appeal ruled that a drunken woman was still capable of giving consent.
In 2009, a chef accused of raping a lawyer who claimed she was too drunk to give her consent to sexual intercourse was acquitted.
And in April, Wales footballer Ched Evans was jailed for five years for raping a teenager who was "too drunk to consent" to sex as two of his friends watched and tried to film it on a mobile phone.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar