Rape victims must get better support, report finds

Rape victims must get better support and advice, new report from Baroness Stern finds

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Monday, 15, Mar 2010 09:37

By Sarah Garrod.

A major review into how rape victims are supported in England and Wales has said specialist advice needs to be given, saying it is an "obligation" of the state to do so.

In the review into how rape complaints are handled by public authorities, Baroness Vivien Stern said there needed to be a new approach and greater priority to care given to victims of sexual violence.

In her five-month long research she spoke to rape victims and police to determine how cases are dealt with in England and Wales.

Baroness Stern has called for the introduction of hundreds of independent workers in her review, to allow each rape victim their own advisor to explain police procedures and support them in court.

The crossbench peer said that too often it has been conviction rates that have taken the headlines, which was undermining the plight of victims and deterring them from coming forward after an attack. She added that while in some areas there was good support, victims were treated inconsistently throughout the country; and therefore poorer victim support police forces needed to take note of the ways their colleagues deal with such incidents.

"The obligations the state has to those who have suffered a violent crime, and a crime that strikes at the whole concept of human dignity and bodily integrity, are much wider than working for the conviction of a perpetrator.

"The victim must be treated as a whole person. With rape, it is always going to be difficult to be sure that you'll be able to prove it to the jury beyond reasonable doubt.

"I talked to a lot of victims and they accepted that. What they felt was really important was not in the end if they could get a conviction, what they said was, we still feel we want to be believed," Baroness Stern said.