Home Office Good Practice Seminars
Violent Crime Seminar
Workshop 4
Investigating rape and supporting victims
Catherine Owen and Fiona McGrath, Project Sapphire, Metropolitan Police
Key points from the presentation
Rape and sexual offences are difficult subjects to speak about.
Prior to Project Sapphire, the way in which rape or sexual offences were dealt in the Metropolitan police left room for improvement, for example, the examination suites were situated in police stations and in a poor state of repair with the FME being a GP on a rota system.
35% of the National Rape happens in London with around 3,000 reported cases a year.
It is believed that perhaps as few as 1 in 5 cases are reported.
Project Sapphire has seen the introduction of SOIT teams in each borough to ensure the victim is spoken to by a specially trained officer within 1 hour of reporting.
Project Sapphire has replaced the examination suites with the Havens, based within a hospital setting, with specially trained doctors and nurses. Victims can self refer with confidentiality but receive the necessary care and treatment. The Havens share data and in some cases they assist the police liaise with victims to raise reporting hence secure convictions. 1 Haven has increased reporting by 3 cases a week.
Reporting has increased by 10% a year since Project Sapphire began.
Effective and comprehensive training has contributed to the success of the project as 999 operators, receptionists, SOIT officers, IOs, SIOs recruits and probationers are all trained to a consistent standard.
There are many myths about rape particularly that there are many cases of false or malicious reports.
Project Sapphire still has a lot more work they would like to do including case tracking to see how long court cases take from the first point of contact to conviction and see where victims are lost. This aims to continue the increase in reporting hence convictions.
Key points from the discussion
It is recognised there must be measures in place for organisations, however, convictions in the case of rape or sexual assault should not be the total measure of success as sometimes the victims just need the abuse to stop and cannot face the judicial system required to secure a conviction.
Public attitude towards rape and sexual offences is very judgmental with comments like she was asking for it dressed like that, why was she out on her own at 3.00 in the morning and most allegations of rape are false.
It is very traumatic for a victim to report a sexual offence or rape. They are often vulnerable people and sometimes lie about the circumstances prior to the rape as they feel ashamed and responsible because of these circumstances, for example, if they had consumed a lot of alcohol – they should not feel this way.
Things need to change if the reporting of rape and sexual offences is to increase. The use of video evidence should be admissible in court to assist the victim. We need to educate people, especially the young, on the rules, as if they don't know what they are how can they abide by them?
Download the full PowerPoint presentation (1.16 Mb)
Last update: 28/01/04