Examining How Police Respond To Rape Allegations Criminology Essay

Examining How patrol Respond To bilk Allegations Criminology screenThis briefing paper contains detailed information relating to police solution to mess up, it assesses whether things claim repaird in coiffure to retain enchant or to c be entrancement victims. Rape victims produce different beliefs about the police repartee to delight cases ground on what they believe to be discrimination. The main tenability behind forbearing screw up consequents and non telling to police divine portion is the uncontrollable distrust of police as believed by the people based on the consumption that police policemans argon not able to picture support and protection. An separate snappy reason is the unsympathetic and harsh investigations which ar currently carried out by police officers, which carry out a heavy injury to appal victims, as they pose questioned in a port that gives them the feeling of being the rapist not the victim. However these are not the only reasons why rape victims tend to conceal rape incidents to police.What is rapeRape in English law, was defined as a penis entering a vagina, an anus or a mouth. Derived from familiarityable Offences action 2003 (c.42, S1) (see appendix5).Rape includes various types, under different circumstances much(prenominal) as Date rape, Marital rape, Gang rape, Acquaintance rape, Spousal rape, Ancestral rape, statutory rape, Institution rape, Communal rape, Male rape, Stranger rape and Revenge rape. sceneThere are numerous beliefs and wrong attitudes related to rape, which have been attended with us for centuries. By looking at myths, such as women bespeak for it, is an example from a past perception which had various veto cause on the victims. Present myths and attitudes developed from the English Common Law placement which had its roots from the Bible.In early put down history, rape was a way which a wife could be obtained. Bride Capture, as it was termed, occurred when a man assail a wom an and then was able to teach her to be his wife. Rape was al ways defined in relation to marriage, and marriage was considered as an sub of property, provided, this is not the case nowadays, where a wife is not considered to be an inclination to obtain any(prenominal)more. In 1975, Susan Brownmillers Against Our Will, illustrated extensive sentience to the matter of rape by examining the historical and cultural perspective in which women rape existed. The ten geezerhood following worldly concernation of this book witnessed large increases in public awareness of internal violence as well as in the parliament, as new laws were introduced in order to prevent rapes, and the introduction of the marital rape.In 1980 the child sexual abuse was recognised, thereof, improvements to police reception was life-sustaining, in order to prevent child sexual abuse, using the medias help in creating awareness. compend (both positive and disconfirming aspects)There are various approache s to methods used by police in reaction and reply to rape. Negative approach to rape is really common inside the contemporary society, as media plays an extremely vital role in order to convey up the idea of negative aspects on the law of nature Service. A negative police reaction can buoy compound the trauma suffered by a rape victim, making it slight likely that she go away decide to proceed with legal action and a strong possibility that her experience exit deter others from even making the initial police contact in quasi(prenominal) circumstances. If for no other reason, it is in the overall interests of law enforcement for the police to act in ways that are consistent with promoting the victims emotional well-being. (Jordan, 2001b, p75).According to Home Office 2008-2009 (see the graphical record in Appendix1) only 25% of recorded offences of sexual violence have been brought to Justice, this illustrates that 75% of recorded rape cases are disregarded by Police Servic e, which confirms the negative aspects illustrated by the media. However in 2007-2008 only 22% of recorded crimes of sexual violence have been brought to justice, this exemplifies that there has been some improvements (3% Change) in the service inside a year.Attrition is the suppuration process by which rape cases are bring backn from legal process, therefore, they do not result in a vicious conviction. Some would argue that the basic point of corrasion is the failure to report the crime to the police service this can be due to the insufficiency of trust in the police service or fear of the offender. The graph (see Appendix2) revealed by BBC in 2010, based on Sterns retread on rape convictions and attritions shows that 74% of the suspects were not brought to justice because of different reasons, such as not enough demonstration, no further action is use upd, withdraw of victim complaint due to fear of the offender, lack of trust in the service or cultural backgrounds.Judges had in any case criticized police response in the rape case of a teenager who had been kidnapped, raped and pressure to practice prostitution, as they had failed to provide assistance to the teenager when required, due to the lack of efficiency of the police when related to rape crime. (McCormack, H., 2005.). John Worboys case is another(prenominal) case where police was criticized by both members of the public and the media for unenthusiastic response to rape which had many impacts on the victim. In 2009, John Worboys was sentenced to go to prison for an indefinite period, for raping and attacking fe priapics in his black cab. In IPPC Report 2008 commissioners verbalise that lives were ruined in view of the fact that police officers failed to take the incident seriously and grimly, all the same all the police officers who were involved with this case were disciplined. therefrom to some extent, improvements were made in the form of disciplinary actions, to officers who dont t ake similar incidents if happened in the future seriously. (BBC., Casciani, D., 2010)In 1980s one in both three complaints of rape ended in a conviction. Today, it is one in twenty this illustrates that instead of improving the response to rape through with(predicate) convicting rapists, rapists are getting away with the offence they have committed (BBC., Geoghegan, T.,2007). Therefore the victims of rape are requesting protection and justice for the trauma they suffered.In result to these negative aspects of the police response to rape, parliament introduced Sexual Offences Investigation Trained Officers (SOIT, also known as Specially Trained Officers) who are fully develop and qualified officers who interview the rape victims in order to reduce the trauma and stress as well as collecting the required evidence without creating big impacts on the victims, as these officers have been trained in mental effects of the crime. (McVeigh, K., 2010.) However the Metropolitan Police Serv ice (mononuclear phagocyte system) should expand a canon of conduct for SOIT officers as there is no current code of conduct to control the actions of the SOITs. The police officers are trying to meet the requirements of male rape victims, nevertheless, by not having a database of the SOIT officers reduce the trenchantness of response to the victims. In the case of a male rape victim, it may require the assistance of a male SOIT, to get the facts of the victim. Currently, it is very difficult to irritate this data, to be able to request a specific officer in order to provide assistance, which is leading to miscommunication issues. Another development which has occurred in the MPS, is that Sexual Offence Examiners (SOE) were introduced in order to improve the quality of service provided and be on the response to victims of rape, as SOEs are exclusively educated in sexual offence examination. However there is no database of SOE relating to their availability, ethnicity, gender an d level of aptitude which can also cause miscommunication with the victims, by submiting with them without consideration of indisputable requirements. Thus even though improvements are taken place within the service they are not fully developed to provide trustworthy response to the victims of rape. (Metropolitan Police Authority, 2002)Another positive step is made by the Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) as it provides guidance for the first response officers on the procedure followed when dealing with a rape report case which contains clear and beneficial information to the first response officer on the actions to be taken following an initial deployment and scene attendance. Furthermore, in 2009 National Police Improvement Agency, provided briefing notes for the first responder to a rape case, all the same on the other founder, first response officers are unaware of how to approach victims and take an initial account from them, so this is considered to be a constra ining effect. (NPIA., 2009)The interview of the rape victims is key to the investigation in order to provide efficient response to rape victims. A lucky investigation is required by police officer and failure to deal with evidential weaknesses can only serve to challenge the victims account and thereby decrease the probability of successful prosecution. The rape reports should be investigated by boss officers in order to obtain reasonable evidence as old geezer officers are experienced in dealing and responding to any sort of crime including rape. Additionally Police officers are not victim trained in other words officers are unaware of how to response to all types of crimes which causes by response to any sort of crime reporters (victims). However MPS is transport up measures to semi rape to take place for instance introducing campaigns such as Police Rape Awareness Campaign which states that drinking is not illegal however rape is illegal (see Appendix4) therefore this is a v ital improvement which is currently taking place.Gang rape is a come up problem in United Kingdom, trepidation of the gangs ground the victims to not to conceal rape incidents to the Police service thus this illustrates that Police service is futile to provide protection and justice to rape victims as gang is an criminal thus this shows that Police service do not have substantially reputation for protection and justice as the issue of gangs are simmer down not solved however minor information was considered by the MPS relating to this problem and to some extend measures are taken place to tackle this crime to provide better response to gang rape victims. (Longstaff, L., 2009) at heart the contemporary society police officers are particularly at chance of being misinformed by stereotypes thus this makes them to be suspicious about any complaints they receive from the rape victims especially on victims who are unemotional or look calm. Thus the suspicion reduces the quality of th e response provided to the rape victims as the investigation allow be conducted in a way to ladder the explanation of the victim in an insensible and abusive way however this has extremely bad impact as it obstructs the best evidence to be taken from the victim for successful prosecution. The police officers also have the feeling and discretion to record primary information report under the course of study they think suitable. (Davies, M., 1997, p190-200)In United Kingdom police officers receive very little amount of training in law and practice to do with rape or sexual abuse. For instance Special Constables (voluntary police officers) get basic training of 18 days which doesnt include any knowledge or information relating to sexual offences even though they have the equal power as a regular police officer, so this shows that if a special constable needs to deal with an sexual offence they do not have any knowledge of how to respond to rape however within the police service be ginner police officers have someone experienced to assist them throughout their probation period for two years therefore police can always request assistance to respond expeditiously to rape cases. ConclusionsThe response of police to rape incidents are improving however these improvement are not at high-quality level to assist rape victims to overcome the trauma and stress the have suffered thus more development and improvements are required to create better environment for all members of the public and especially for rape victims thus the police service must improve their reputation to gain trust of the members of the public by providing better response to all sort of crime and offer protection. Another positive enhancement which can have constructive impact on the rape victims is through introducing a data base program to police officers with the details of SOIT officers and SOEs to bestow the needs of these victims. The MPS already have briefing notes and guidance of how to t ake action while investigating rape incidents on the other hand it is not detailed sufficiently to support officers while dealing with rape incidents effectively therefore improvement on these guidance and briefing notes will increase the quality of the response by police officers. Nowadays Police officers get basic training on rape response however this basic training does not include victim training which promoter police officers do not know how to treat or response to rape victims but if this training is added into the basic training then it will be easier on the police officers and the rape victims will receive effective response. Finally the most significant improvement which can occur within the Police Service to tackle unenthusiastic response to rape victims will be through taking the rape cases more seriously and prevent suspicious and unsympathetic investigations by the police officers.