Men believe rape myth about flirty women: Poll

LONDON: “Alarming” attitudes to consent and sexual violence may be contributing to low conviction rates in rape trials, research suggests.

A Yougov poll found that a third of British people think it is not usually rape if women are pressured into sex without physical violence, while onethird of people over 65 said they believed non-consensual sex with a long-term partner was not rape.

One-quarter of respondents said rape was not committed if a victim “changes their mind halfway through but the sex continues,” and one-third of men polled thought that IF A woman HAD flirted on A date but not explicitly consented to sex it generally would not count as rape, compared with 21 per cent of women.

The End Violence Against Women Coalition said it commissioned the survey of around 4,000 people to “examine why rape, a very common and extremely Harmful CRIME, Is still so Dificult to tackle at a time when reports to police are increasing exponentially.” Rachel Krys, co-director of the coalition, said: “THESE igures ARE Alarming BECAUSE they show that a huge proportion of UK adults – who make up juries in rape trials – are still very unclear about what rape is.

“It is known that 90 per cent of women who are raped know the person who raped them, but for many British adults, the most commonly understood scenario is a single violent incident of rape committed by a stranger on a dark street.

“This could explain why juries are so reluctant to convict particularly younger men where consent is in question.” Krys said the criminal justice system was “failing badly” to provide justice for victims In spite of igures suggesting women ARE BECOMING more Confident in reporting abuse.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) most recent igures show A 23 per cent year-on-year drop in the number of rape suspects prosecuted in 2017-18, despite the number of rapes recorded by police increasing by 31 per cent across England and Wales in the same period.

Krys said: “There has been a huge increase in the number of women reporting rape and sexual violence to the police and seeking support from specialist rape support organisations.

“#Metoo has shone a light on the scale of sexual violence, and more women are seeking justice. Yet as a society we are failing to respond to this call for help, and this year the number of cases being taken forward by police and the courts fell.” The CPS has denied accusations that it has been taking “weak rape cases out of the system” to improve conviction rates, amid a row over demands for claimants’ mobile phone data and personal information.