Reporting Sex Offences – RASASC Research
RASASC (Rape nad Sexual Assault Support Centre) South London supports around 5000 women who have been affected by sexual violence. RASASC also provide support and information to families and friends of people affected by sexual violence, and training to professionals working with survivors of sexual violence.
In March 2011 RASASC began to collect monitoring information from clients asking whether they had reported their sexual violence to the police, and the reasons they had for doing so/not doing so. The results of this research are presented here in the first of an occasional series of research and policy bulletins from RASASC.
Summary from the report
Key reasons for reporting sex offences in this research include: protecting others from victimisation; ensuring the offence cannot occur again; and, a desire to move on from the abuse. The influence of professionals (nurses, social workers, counsellors ) was also important to support reporting.
Key reasons for not reporting sex offences related to the stigma of sexual violence – the fear of not being believed and feelings of blame and embarrassment that survivors carried with them. Barriers also related, though to a lesser extent, to process issues, such as not knowing where to go to report an offence, mistrust of the police and not wishing to go to court.
More should be done to both reduce the stigma of being a survivor of sexual violence and also ensure the process for reporting sex offences is accessible and supportive. It is of note however that process issues were deemed less prevalent than stigma, indicating that addressing the stigma of sexual violence is a central policy concern for the future and that improvement in how the Criminal Justice System responds to survivors
Read the report in full by downloading it from http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/London%20Councils/RASASCResearch2011CarolMcNaightonNicholls.pdf
