injustice in cases of sexual violence.
By: Jamie Chong
Tags: Rape, Rape Culture, Patriarchy, Legal, Law

The hand that has been dealt by a patriarchal society does not benefit either side of the gender spectrum. I will examine different reasons for the lack of justice provided by the judicial system in convicting rape cases. The implications of such a system is detrimental, providing escape routes for perpetrators of such heinous crimes and refuses a sufficient system for all victims of sexual violence.

Toxic Masculinity

First, we have to look at who makes up the majority of the victims. In the United Kingdom, one in five women will be raped (1) and there are 85,000 cases of women being raped annually (2). Why are women so often violated? The answer is clear within the social climate as to what construes manhood; society conditions harmful and dangerous ideas in young men, socialising them to believe in a rigid set of masculine gender roles. Research indicates that they are pressured to conform to life in a ‘man-box’ (3) that promotes self-sufficiency, independence, heterosexuality, a prolific sex life and the exertion of aggression and control. It is clear that this attitude that we raise as a society in men is toxic: it teaches them that the seduction of women is directly linked to popularity and that violent means are acceptable.

Niobe Way, Professor of Developmental Psychology and the founder of the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity at New York University, says this: “What I learned from the boys I work with is that what ‘girly and gay’ means is all the things we associate with being human: to be sensitive, to be attuned to emotions, to care about relationships, to express your sadness when you feel sad, to express your happiness when you feel happy, to get excited. It literally is linked to everything we associate with humans. And then to be a man is to not be that. The consequence of that is our culture.”

So why are we so surprised that so many men are sexually violating women when this is exactly what has been taught to them?

Misogyny

Excluding the socialisation of young people, the public’s view of sexual violence is unsympathetic at best, and deplorable at worst, offering little respect to the female victims of rape. A third of people believe that a woman is, to an extent, responsible for her rape for behaving flirtatiously, and 25% believe that she is to blame if she wears revealing clothes. (4) This stance is dangerous to take for two reasons. Firstly, it argues that a man has no self-control over his sexual desires, which is exactly the aggressive archetype that society has taught them, and it is used here to justify rape. Secondly, it places all the blame on women and strips them of their right to dress how they wish. It argues that women should dress because of the attention they get from men and not because it is what makes them happy or comfortable. It also hands over all responsibility to the victim, which is the rare circumstance in crime where the victim is blamed for someone else doing something to them.

In any case, the blaming of the victim is damaging to the movement of female liberties and it promotes the “boys will be boys” mentality that perpetuates this careless and harmful action that is so common in young men.

Securing a Conviction — harder than ever?

Now that we have established that rape is such a common offence, we have to look at the inefficacy of the judicial system in prosecuting rape. 14% of rape cases proceed to trial and the conviction rate is disappointingly low, at 6% for England and Wales. 9% are classed as false reports (majority of which come from the 16–25 age group), a third are dropped due to issues with credibility and evidence and another third is lost where the victim withdraws their case due to fears of the justice system. The rest are lost to issues with alcohol and the fact that the assailant is someone familiar. (5) All this while cases are rising. In the year ending March 2020, 99% of rapes reported to police in England and Wales resulted in no trial. Why is this?

It is an arduous process to investigate sexual crimes. It requires continuous effort, resources, and commitment. Rape is almost always committed without witnesses. It becomes a case of her words against his, and consent as a piece of evidence is different to a stab wound in a murder trial, therefore, it is extremely difficult to show beyond reasonable doubt, that the defendant is guilty. The psychological impact would mean that the complainant’s ability to give a coherent account of the event is affected.

Securing and analysing evidence has also become much harder. In a digital age, much of the evidence for sexual violence cases are extracted from mobile phones, which, understandably, some victims are unwilling to hand over, due to it being intrusive to their privacy. However, even if it was downloaded, it would need to be pored over, often singlehandedly, to extract relevant details. An underfunded department would struggle to do this.

After this, the prosecutor needs to decide whether the case can be taken to trial. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) uses a merit-based system, where they need to assess the defence points and factors that undermine the prosecution case. It is difficult to make an objective decision that ignores the possible reactions of the jury and also doesn’t account for whether the case will be difficult to argue or not.

Then, the prosecutor needs to overcome the obstacles of misconceptions surrounding rape: alcohol strips away a woman’s right to consent, previous sexual activity indicates consent, that a woman cannot withdraw consent, as well as the issues mentioned in section 2 of this article. These myths are ingrained in the jury and needs to be tackled in order to secure a conviction.

It is clear that difficulties in convicting rape cases lie not only in social issues, but in political issues. Austere government policies meant that 25% of CPS staff have been cut since 2010, making a secure and effective prosecution less likely. (6)

Belief

Scepticism is heaped on victims of both genders for reasons that the patriarchy has established. For men, their masculinity is questioned, and certainly, some do not even believe that men can be raped. It is clear that male reports make up a minority and it is largely down to the toxic man-box that he has been assigned into.

For women, they are questioned for reasons argued throughout, but also doubted because their experiences are put behind that of the male perpetrator. His past record is clean, he is so well-behaved, he would never do something like that! He’s so distraught right now! What about his career? The woman is worthless compared to the past of the attacker, his present and his future.

Conclusion

The legal system and its approach to sexual violence is crippled by society. It needs a cultural shift in the understanding of the nuances of rape and a tackling of the lies, myths and misconceptions surrounding it. The government also needs to realise that justice can only be achieved through proper funding. For maximum efficacy, investment is needed so that the workforce is thriving, and that is not conducive with the austere conditions that prevail.