A new report finds that many police officers in England and Wales think that most rape accusations reflect “regretful sex” and stand in the way of proper investigations.
The independent report, prepared by the British Home Office as part of something called Operation Soteria Bluestone, found a “culture of disbelieving [rape] victims” among some officers, who feel rape investigations should not be a priority for police. As a result, according to the report, “disproportionate investigation effort [is] being put into testing the credibility of a victim’s account.”
While the rape disbelievers make up a minority of officers, these officers may also “influence how new officers are socialised into rape and serious sexual offences work.”
“At worst,” the report concluded,
officers demonstrated explicit victim blaming and lack of belief in the victim, which impacted on the subsequent investigation.
For example, victim credibility was often focused on and used to either close or not investigate cases within some forces.
In addition, many investigators are inexperienced and lack “specialist knowledge” of sex offenses.
And people wonder why women are reluctant to report rapes to the police–and why so few rapists are convicted.
The report declared that
challenging internal cultures which undermine fair and equitable rape investigations is necessary as a matter of urgency.
Despite these dispiriting conclusions, some progress is being made. As the Independent notes,
A separate progress report published by the Government said it is “on track” to meet its target to more than double the number of adult rape cases reaching court by the end of this parliament.
So the situation is improving, but still terrible.
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Hey, hey, daloy polizei
Means the same thing now as yesterday…
If that top picture is what an AI spat out when you typed in “British police officer”, then that’s already a massive L
I’m sure the same would be for police anywhere. Police never give anyone the benefit of the doubt, unless it is fellow police officers.
ACAB.
Oink oink
I have an alternative narrative about police. This one is about the threat of domestic violence. When I called the police on my then-boyfriend because, in a rage, he threatened to put my belongings on the porch, the female dispatcher volunteered, “He doesn’t have to hit you for it to be domestic violence.” And when the two male police officers showed up, they asked me if he had ever threatened me in any other way (yep). They wrote down the question and the answer. And when I left in a police car, the officer, who was driving me to the subway station, said, “I know you love him and see his good side. But I see his bad side.”
This is the power of training the police about the real-life problems that real-life people face every day.
So, a study has come out demonstrating that the police protect existing privileges (e.g., patriarchy) rather than protecting the people?
See this? This is my shocked face.
Meanwhile …
IF YOU ARE LGBTQIA+, GET THE HELL OFF TWITTER!
https://freethoughtblogs.com/reprobate/2022/12/09/get-off-twitter-now/
Seems ol’ Elon has let a bunch of troglodytes, at least one of them rabidly transphobic, go trawling through Twitter’s internal moderation tools, including potentially letting them access DMs and contact information. The potential for outing large numbers of trans etc. people to people who may then become a danger to them is enormous.
Abbott’s ambition looks small compared to this, which potentially could result in the trogs getting a nationwide list of trans people, not to mention gay people and others they’d love to target. Sporadic harm from outings will be bad enough. Now imagine what happens if the same information becomes an open book for a hypothetical second Trump term or equivalently fascistic administration.
Caveat: I don’t know how easily (if at all) one can not just quit Twitter but get all of that information deleted, including even if deleting it all yourself before you quit will actually erase it rather than just make it all non-public. I also don’t know how much history they might track. On the other hand quitting can hardly make things worse. Delete sensitive DMs, overwrite phone number and other contact details with phony made-up ones, and then quit, and pray that’s enough to stymie your future transphobic overlords.
Or do as I suggested in an earlier comment, which is GET THE HELL OUT OF THE USA! Rather more difficult and expensive, but if you can, you should. I don’t know how well a blue state government or progressive city government will be able to protect you from a sufficiently bad federal one, short of outright secession. So: get off Twitter. Get out of a red state if that’s practicable and you’re currently in one. Get out of the US entirely if that’s practicable and you’re currently in it. If the last century or so of history is any guide, millions will stay put until it’s too late … please don’t be one of them.
Oh, that link also reveals that the nefarious and horrible “Libs of TikTok” account is explicitly exempted from being subjected to moderator actions such as bans and the like, whatever abusive shit it pulls (except, apparently, that they are shadowbanned from being visible on the “trending” thingy).
And that working for Twitter is like commuting to a mini surveillance state every day. (And here you were thinking that was just Jeff Bezos. Nope. It’s probably all of the tech billionaires, and maybe all of the billionaires period.)
@Nequam:
The cadence of those verses somehow reminds me of this couplet from Watership Down:
Hoi, hoi, u embleer hrair!
M’saion ule’ hraka vair!
(“Hoi, hoi, the stinking Thousand (predators)!
We meet them even when we’re taking a shit!)
And I’m among the Lucky 10,000 who only just learned of this song; for the benefit of anyone else in a similar position:
@Kat: I’m glad you were so fortunate. But these days it seems like such officers are small diamonds– or maybe just Herkimers– in a massive cesspool.
“Meet the Predators”. Everyone should read it. Everyone with the slightest connection to training police and other law/service personnel should read it. Then they should write new policies and procedures for handling rape and assault reports.
Most of all, people whose personal knee jerk response to a rape complaint is to dismiss it can gain a gleam in their promotion-chasing eyes. Simply put, given that a very small number of men – say 4-5% – are responsible for the great majority* of rape incidents, chasing up on one case which turns out to be genuine can result in wiping 6, a dozen or even more cases off the books.
*I once worked it out but I’ve lost the document. Could be anywhere between 70 to 90% from my feeble memory. The link established between rapists and other offences against women and children should also be a pretty heavy impetus to police procedures/training priorities.
@Oncewasmagnificent:
“Meet the Predators”. Everyone should read it.
Is this what you’re talking about?
https://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/meet-the-predators/
It’s a good thing that JK Rowling cares so much about sexual violence targeting women!
I’m sure she’s spending a fortune on this problem that affects basically every woman who **thinks** about reporting her rape if she’s building a whole non-profit just to protect women from the 0 assaults per year undertaken by trans women against cis women in anti-violence shelters.
It still amazes me that there are people who think women believe that a way of dealing with a regretted sexual encounter is to go to the time and hassle of filing a false police report.
Make it make sense?!
There’s a common variation on that myth that focuses on college campuses. According to the myth, a huge percentage of rape accusations there are from drunken hookups where the woman regrets the encounter. By claiming that it was two intoxicated people who just couldn’t help themselves, the obvious goal is to absolve the man of wrongdoing. And to accuse the woman of actually wanting the guy and being too inhibited without alcohol to act on her desire.
But the myth’s implication isn’t what its proponents believe it is. If a man can’t help himself when drunk, that’s an argument for barring men from drinking altogether. A more specific variation on the falsehood that rape is a crime of lust and not of power and entitlement. Rape culture puts the onus on women to make choices in their clothing and behavior to avoid “provoking” men, but it doesn’t take its definition of men to its logical conclusionm. If men are inevitably driven by the sight of female flesh to mindlessly assault, like we’re expected to believe, then that’s an argument for keeping them on 24/7 lockdown for the good of society. It’s all about preventing women from holding men accountable for their behavior, whether or not a man actually rapes.
Full Metal Ox.
Yup. I’m glad I thought of it. I’ve now reread it. I’d forgotten how well it was put together.
Carstonio.
That reminds me of Golda Meir, not usually my personal favourite. She was part of a meeting/discussion about attacks on women on Jerusalem streets. Several of the men suggested that women would be best protected by a curfew. She apparently snorted angrily … Why should all the women be kept off the streets. Men are the problem. If curfew is the solution then they’re the ones who should be kept at home.
@Oncewasmagnificent:
Several of the men suggested that women would be best protected by a curfew. She apparently snorted angrily … Why should all the women be kept off the streets. Men are the problem. If curfew is the solution then they’re the ones who should be kept at home.
Male purdah (along with solar power, a two-hour workday, and veganism) was the arrangement in Ladyland, the feminist utopia from the science fiction novella “Sultana’s Dream” by Muslim Bengali writer, educator, and activist Begum Rokeya:
https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/sultana/dream/dream.html
Given the truly appalling rate of rape accusations to the police that make it to court in the UK, just1.3% in 2021- yes that is one point three percent – doubling the number is hardly progress. And that is just of the accusations made to the police, it is well known that the process is very very hard, that the police are very unlikely to believe accusations, that if the rapist chooses to represent himself he can rerape the accuser in court and that juries are reluctant to convict. I could go on, but I’m already grinding my teeth and my dentist has warned me I’ll do permanent damage if I don’t stop.
There are a number of reasons I didn’t report. One of them was because people said shit like this to me so why would the police or a judge be different. The police chiefs son said this to me. Where do you think he got it from?
So basically, the police are just believing the myths that have always permeated society. They need more training in these issues.
@Kat: Okay, “Almost ACAB” then.
@ClockworkOctopus: It looks like an old-time milkman to me.
(is your name a reference to “The Watchmaker of Filigree Street”? Great book, great octopus. Katsu 4 eva!)
@GSS ex-noob:
It looks like an old-time milkman to me,
What I’m seeing is Officer Ralph Kramden with Smug Half-Lidded Rapist Face—the sort you see on so many alt-right memes.
@ GSS ex-noob
Amen. Not a miracle, though, considering so many of them are domestic abusers themselves…
I would have that the brilliant video about consent, actually created by the Thames Valley Police, “A cup of tea” would have been compulsory viewing for all UK Police.
The Manosphere has been online in one form or another for at least 20 years now and the “rape as regret” theme has been one of its main talking points. In that amount of time how many boys and young men would have come across that idea, internalized it (knowingly or subconsciously) and then gone on to purse careers in policing or other positions of power. A LOT. You also have to figure in men who were already cops when coming across the Manosphere and internalizing the ideas therein. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an idea held by the majority of male police officers now and it may get worse.
“Simply put, given that a very small number of men – say 4-5% – are responsible for the great majority* of rape incidents…”
What?