attrition

Why don't women report?

Research shows that women are less likely to report rape than they are to report domestic violence. One of the main reasons for this is fear of being disbelieved by the police. So immediately, there is a large figure of sexual violence that never gets reported. Rape is an attack on the integrity of the woman's body and on her own autonomy. She may feel powerless to report, particularly if threat of further violence was made. Due to the intimate nature of the crime, she may feel reluctant to submit herself to the invasiveness of a forensic examination and/or questioning from the police.

The Home Office conducted research into rape cases in 1999 (A Question of Evidence) and this found that only a third of reported cases were considered by the CPS. So there is a big loss of cases at the police stage. Twenty percent of cases where there was a detected perpetrator were referred by the police to the CPS for guidance on whether to charge and in two thirds of these cases the CPS advised no further action. So the involvement of the CPS, even at the police stage, is crucial.

How many false allegations of rape are there?

There is a commonly held belief that the figure for false allegations is high. In fact there is no evidence to suggest that it is any higher than false reporting of any other crime - around 2%. In fact research conducted by the NYPD and other research conducted in Sweden (Persson, 1981) and recently in New Zealand (Jordan) also found a false accusation rate of 2%. Importantly none of those cases reached court. In fact for some crimes (for example house theft and car theft), false reporting is much higher because of insurance claims.

How many reported cases make it to court?

Home Office research (1999 A Question of Evidence) suggests that the CPS drop around a fifth of the cases referred to them and that around 20% of all reported rapes make it to court.