Is there justice for women in Scotland today?
Radical reforms lie ahead ... but so do obstacles
SCOTLAND is taking a “radical” approach to transforming its justice system to tackle misogyny and a low conviction rape for sexual offences – but there is a long road filled with obstacles ahead.
From removing the not proven verdict and a looming pilot of judgeonly trials for rape, to incoming legislation trying to tackle misogyny, lots of pieces of policy are slowly slotting together to create change.
Scotland’s justice system has always been distinct within the four nations, and campaigners say the recent approach by Holyrood has been the “boldest in the UK”.
But it comes at a time where justice for women feels difficult to achieve, with the failings of the system highlighted by the killing of Emma Caldwell, whose murderer was sentenced last week after a 20-year wait.
Rape convictions – of those cases that do make it to court – are devastatingly low, and backlogs caused by the pandemic mean women are waiting years for their cases to be heard.
The latest figures from Police Scotland showed a 2% increase in sexual crimes from 2022 to 2023, from 14,640 to 14,894 – an 8% increase from 2019. In those figures, rape and attempted rape increased by 1%, from 2530 to 2545 crimes, up 3% from 2019.
Amid a bleak picture, Scotland is trying to lead the way, but wading through muddied waters.
“There’s a real momentum to do something about misogyny and about the experiences of women in their daily lives and about how this has to be addressed,” top barrister Helena Kennedy told The National.
Her review two years ago calling for new offences to be created in Scotland to tackle misogyny was taken on board by ministers, with legislation slated to appear before Holyrood by the end of 2024.
“If we’re going to deal with the crimes that women face – and I think there’s a commitment to that and it goes across the political parties – I do think things will be done,” she added. “The question is, how far will they go, will they be cautious and all of that.
“The interesting thing is that Scotland has always actually been ahead of the curve on stuff to do with women.”
Kennedy cited fierce female campaigners such as sex workers who raised the alarm about trafficking in their industry, plus disability campaigners and women from across Scotland who have pushed for zero tolerance to domestic abuse.
The KC said this had much more traction in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK because this country has a “highly informed and political population” that has been prepared to speak up for change. “Given this sort of direction, I think Scotland will end up being much more radical in the changes it will be prepared to make than England and Wales,” she said.
Sandy Brindley, chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, agreed that Scotland is going “in the right direction” with reforming its justice system, and credited Lady Dorrian’s review of sexual offences, published in 2021.
Dorrian, Scotland’s second most senior judge, put forward a wide number of recommendations that were incorporated into the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, currently making its way through Holyrood. Dorrian called for a new specialist court to be established to deal with serious sexual offence cases, among other sweeping reforms.
“I think this was the best review and the boldest in the UK,” Brindley told The National. “I mean, every part of the UK has done a similar review. I think the one in Scotland was the most comprehensive and it had the most transformative approach.
“I do welcome that and I welcome the legislation. I think some of the misogyny legislation, we haven’t seen it yet, but from what I understand I think that could be quite radical.”
Despite the low number of rape convictions in Scotland, Kennedy disagrees with the proposed judgeonly rape trials, which have been supported by victims’ organisations and campaigners.
“It will not solve the problem,” she argued. “A lot of women will end up not getting justice that they think they’re going to get from that very narrow group of people who end up being senior judges, whose experience of life is not the experience of life of an awful lot of people who live in other classes within society.”
Brindley, meanwhile, does support the pilot, and argues that a new approach has to be taken somewhere. “We have been tinkering around the edges for decades to try and improve the survivors’ experience of the justice process with very little success,” she said.
Justice Secretary Angela Constance said: “We must go further and faster to eradicate violence against women by tackling the root causes and ensure that where behaviours turn into violence and abuse, those responsible are brought to justice.
“We are doing this through our Equally Safe Strategy which focuses on early intervention, prevention and support services. We also want to transform how our justice system responds to sexual violence to ensure that women and girls can have confidence in a justice system and, crucially, will not retraumatise women who have suffered such abuse.
“Establishing a sexual offences court, and judge-only pilot for rape trials, alongside the raft of other measures contained in the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill currently going through parliament, are intended to improve victims’ experiences.”