Police only make the ‘rape culture’ crisis even worse

Yet again we have seen a kneejerk reaction, this time into what has been described as the ‘rape culture’ in some schools.

Senior police officers do nothing to bring an objective approach to allegations of such abuse but tend to fuel the frenzy by stating that all ‘victim’ accounts are to be believed.

Unfortunately, I believe that the fault within the police lies with senior officers who have not risen through the ranks, and therefore have little or no experience of real-life situations.

N. Wright, Liverpool

If we – as raw recruits at police college back in the 1960s – had ever referred to complainants as ‘victims’ before charges were laid, or guilt was ever proven, I am sure that any of the sergeant instructors would quickly, and very firmly, have put us in our place.

It is not the job of the police to ‘believe‘ complainants. That is for a judge and jury to decide. John Pennington, Nelson, Lancashire ‘Complainants’ are definitely not ‘victims’, as retired judge Sir Richard Henriques says. Some complaints are false. Do the police not think any more that there are liars in our midst? Sir Richard is also quoted with regard to the police habit of saying that ‘victims’ will ‘be believed’, they should be saying ‘complainants’ will be ‘listened to’.

Chris Hyland, Northampton

Peter Hitchens is making too much of this notion of ‘believing’ victims. In practice, real child exploitation victims have often been appallingly treated by police. Undoubtedly there are more victims not getting justice than famous men being wrongly accused. I have no doubt that serious sexual offending is going unpunished in the school population.

M. Parkinson, Birmingham

The aspect of the ‘rape debate’ that I find most disturbing is the demand for a higher rate of conviction. Those who are making such calls are blind or deaf to the evidential requirements for conviction.

The requirement for the prosecution to prove its case to the threshold required in criminal cases is, or should be, sacrosanct and must not be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

Michael Bennett, London

What Hitchens has missed is that our justice system has begun to pivot around the idea, introduced a few years ago, that a person is guilty of something if the ‘victim’ perceives that a crime has been committed. The facts don’t matter – it is the victim’s ‘truth’ or ‘lived experience’ that counts.

S. White, Hertfordshire

The points Hitchens quotes from Sir Richard Henriques are well made, but there is the opposite side of the coin: when ‘complainants’ really are telling the truth, but struggle to be believed or even heard. People who make fraudulent accusations make things much worse for genuine ‘complainants’.

P. Davis, Manchester