Rape and Attrition in the Legal Process: A Comparative Analysis of Five Countries

Abstract

Despite legal reforms, there has been little improvement in police, prosecutor, and court handling of rape and sexual assault. In the past 15 years in Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Scotland, and the United States, victimization surveys show that 14 percent of sexual violence victims report the offense to the police. Of these, 30 percent proceed to prosecution, 20 percent are adjudicated in court, 12.5 percent are convicted of any sexual offense, and 6.5 percent are convicted of the original offense charged. In the past 35 years, average conviction rates have declined from 18 percent to 12.5 percent, although they have not fallen in all countries. Significant country differences are evident in how cases are handled and where in the legal process attrition is most likely. There is some good news: a victim's "good" character and credibility and stranger relations are less important than they once were in police or court outcomes. However, evidence of nonconsent (witness evidence, physical injuries to the victim, suspect's use of a weapon) continues to be important. 1 Since September 2007, New Zealand has completed a rape attrition study (Triggs et al. 2009). Other studies that are planned or under way include the Irish Rape Attrition Project (2010), a rape attrition study of 11 U.K. and European countries (Lovett and Kelly 2009), the Understanding Attrition in Rape Cases Project in Sussex (McMillan and Thomas 2008), and a rape attrition study planned for South Africa (Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit 2008). Johnson, Ollus, and Nevala (2008) report estimates from the International Violence Against Women Survey that we cite when relevant. 2 We initially combined England and Wales and Scotland but then decided to treat them separately because their rape law and criminal procedures differ, as do their attrition rates over time. In Scotland, unlike England and Wales, the definition of rape is still gender specific, although this is changing. The Scottish criminal justice system includes an additional stage, that of the procurator fiscal, who takes on some duties of the police and the prosecution (personal communication with Michele Burman, January 24, 2008).

Restorative Justice and Sexual Assault: Outcome Appraisal Through Textual Analysis

“…Attrition is common in assault cases. Numbers are greater at the point of initial reports to the police when compared to cases of sexual assault actually prosecuted and convicted by the courts [17,27,38,50,54,55]. Similarly, a very small percentage of the forensicphotographic materials, prepared beforehand, are actually used as evidence in court [56].…”

High hopes? The gender equality duty and its impact on responses to gender-based violence

“…[14, central government].However, considerably less attention and resources were directed towards trafficking, forced marriage and female genital mutilation (Kelly and Regan, 2001). The conviction rates for rape were unacceptably low, along with high rates of attrition (Lovett and Kelly 2009;Daly and Bouhours 2010). Domestic abuse remained widespread and difficult to prosecute.…”

Stopping rape

“…As a result, Australia offers significant opportunities to consider which laws work most effectively and why (Heath, 2005;Daly and Bouhours, 2010). Most Australian jurisdictions have also undertaken evaluation of this legislation (Heenan and McKelvie, 1997;Stubbs, 2003).…”