police attitudes

What do you know about the Thames Valley Police video?

Roger Graef filmed police officers questioning a woman who was complaining of rape, for a TV programme 'Police' for the BBC in 1982. This brought the public's attention to the techniques of intimidation employed by the police. This highlighted the culture of disbelief that to some extent still pervades the criminal justice system. Police practice has improved but training is still required in understanding how best to treat women complaining of rape.

Have the police improved in their handling of rape cases?

In the last ten years we have seen improvements in relations between Rape Crisis groups and local constabularies. A recent study conducted by Rape Crisis highlights improvements in parts of the services provided by the police to women reporting the crime of rape or sexual abuse. If we were to paste these examples together, it would represent the kind of service women want to see offered as a whole in EVERY constabulary.  What we see is good practice in some areas, but not all.

What we also found was that there is no one constabulary that delivers all of the good service required by women reporting rape. The fact that good practice happens in some constabularies, is a credit to the dedication of the officers and policy makers in those particular constabularies and the work of Rape Crisis in those areas. It also highlights what is possible - probably with very little extra resources in terms of funding and personnel.

Where the local constabulary works with the local rape crisis the service to women survivors is notable improved.

When a woman calls a Rape Crisis help-line numbers and asks what will happen if she reports the incident to her local police - we tell her the truth, whatever that may be in the local context.