Question of Evidence? Investigating and Prosecuting Rape in the 1990s

• NCJ Number: 180356
• Author(s): Jessica Harris; Sharon Grace
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 83 pages
• Sale Source: Great Britain Home Office
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom
• Note: Home Office Research Study 196

Annotation

This booklet examines the low rate of conviction for rape in England and Wales and the characteristics of those cases that reached conviction and those that did not.

Abstract

One-quarter of recorded rape cases in England and Wales reached conviction in 1985, while only one-tenth did so in 1996. The nature of recorded rape cases has changed over the years. A far higher proportion now involves assailants known to the complainant (often including date rapes). These cases raise evidential difficulties and this has implications for the way they are dealt with by the criminal justice system. The booklet describes the processing of rape cases by the police; Crown Prosecution Service advice and decision making; the progress of rape cases through the courts; and practitioners' views of the court process. The report contains 13 recommendations, including further research into the ways cases are dealt with and complainants treated in the early stages of the process and improved standards of prosecution. Notes, figures, tables, bibliography, appendixes, references