Rape conviction rates fall by 27%
CAMPAIGNERS have argued rape is becoming “effectively decriminalised” as “appalling” new figures show prosecutions for the crime in England and Wales have slumped, despite record volumes of cases reported to police.
The annual Violence Against Women and Girls report from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) shows there were just 1,925 convictions for rape or an alternative lesser offence during the financial year 2018-19, down from 2,635 in the previous 12 months – a drop of 26.9%.
This is despite the number of rape claims dealt with annually by police in England and Wales rising from 35,847 to 57,882 during the last four years.
It means around 3.3% of all reported rapes end in a conviction.
The Rape Crisis (England and Wales) organisation said a “complete overhaul” of the criminal justice system was “more essential and urgent than ever”.
A spokeswoman said: “For the second year in a row, CPS data reveals a continuing and deeply troubling decline in criminal justice outcomes for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, rape and all forms of sexual violence. Because the Independent Sexual Violence Advocates across our specialist Rape Crisis network have continued to witness this decline first-hand, today’s figures do not come as a surprise to us.
“The figures do however reinforce our conviction that a complete overhaul of the criminal justice system in relation to sexual violence and abuse, which we have called for – for many years – is more essential and urgent than ever.”
The report comes as a coalition of women’s organisations, represented by the Centre for Women’s Justice, gets ready to launch a judicial review case against the CPS over claims cases are being “dropped” without good reason. Campaigners have previously argued so-called “weak” cases are ditched in order to improve notoriously low rape conviction rates.
But the CPS said the drop in rape charges was due to “a number of factors”, including a reduction in the number of referrals from the police to the CPS, and an increase in the volume of time-consuming digital data.
Figures show that the charge rate for rape – essentially the decision to press ahead with a prosecution – has dropped from 64.3% in 2014-15 to 48.2% this year.
It represents the first time in five years the percentage of legal decisions made by the CPS in rape cases has dropped below 60%, according to the data, meaning the percentage of decisions not to prosecute also increased to its highest rate in that time.
Despite an increase in the volume of alleged rapes reported to police, the CPS has seen a reduction in the number it decides to charge every year since 2015-16.
This is a decrease from 3,910 in 2015-16, to 3,671 the following year, then 2,822 last year, and 1,758 most recently.
Former Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood tweeted: “These figures look like rape is decriminalised. Not on.”