Anonymous WPC blogger has some shocking insights on police attitudes towards rape victims
Posted on July 29, 2009
Filed Under England, Legal Police, Media, Rape and Sexual Assault | Comments Off
… PC Bloggs isn’t her real name but all the incidents are genuine. In her early thirties and a copper for more than five years, she serves as a response officer in a large mixed urban and rural force known only to her readers as “Blandshire”. All the proceeds from her book are being donated to women’s aid and police charities – and she has chosen to remain anonymous to allow her to reveal the no-holds-barred truth. …
She deals with an average of one rape case a month. But she admits that many police officers believe most rape allegations are made up.
She even says that if she was raped by anyone other than a complete stranger, she feels that the chances of proving it in court are so low that she probably wouldn’t bother to report it.
She says: “There can be a definite ‘eye rolling’ culture when certain types of rapes are reported. Male officers in particular often have doubts about women who report rapes.
“Tears shouldn’t make a difference but they do. Courts like tears so if you ever get raped make sure you cry a lot if you want to be taken seriously.” Most surprisingly of all, PC Bloggs believes current procedures for rape victims are so problematic that some cases should simply be dropped.
She says: “In rape cases, independent evidence is necessary but this is often impossible to get.
“This means 90 per cent of the time reported rapes can’t be proved.
“In most rape cases, the attacker isn’t a stranger in a balaclava but someone the victim knows. In court, lack of evidence means it often comes down to one person’s word against another.
“It might sound shocking but I feel rather than go through the ordeal of going to court, it might be better for some rape victims if their cases were just quietly dropped at the start. The victims might not get justice but they might have a chance of getting over it and moving on with their lives.”
From a longer story at http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/2560150/WPCs-blog-Being-a-policewoman-is-harder-than-ever.html
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