Police watchdog finds widespread failings remain in sex crime recording
Rape Crisis says findings are cause for “grave concern”
Investigating Rape
An examination of how the police and prosecutors approach rape allegations.
Latest from this investigation
Greater Manchester Police faces multiple probes into its response to sex crimes
Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy at centre of criminal inquiry
Case study: Alleged rape attempt recorded as a civil matter
Only after a woman complains is allegation recorded as a ‘crime of sexual assault’.
Key findings
Despite soaring reports of rape, for the past decade detections, prosecutions and convictions in rape cases have not kept pace – and attrition, the rate at which cases are dropped during a police investigation, has gone from bad to worse.
Only around 15% of rapes recorded by police as crimes last year resulted in rape charges being brought against a suspect. And fewer were convicted.
Two thirds of rape complaints drop out of the criminal justice system before they are sent to prosecutors.
The situation is so bad that a former senior adviser at the Met Police says rape for many victims has been ‘decriminalised’.
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Met police research reveals vulnerable women who are raped unlikely to get justice.
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New evidence says police wrongly dropped rape allegations.