One Rape Case in Ten Gets to Court
By Hamish Macdonell, Scottish Political Editor
Originally published in The Scotsman, February 11, 2002
The fragile state of Scotland's criminal justice system came under renewed attack last night after it emerged that only one out of every 20 rapes reported to the police results in a successful conviction.
Women's groups, opposition politicians and anti-violence campaigners expressed their anger and dismay at the Scottish executive's own figures which showed that the Crown Office only pursued 10 per cent of rapes reported to the police and secured convictions in just half of these.
The Crown Office insisted that rape and sexual assault remained extremely difficult crimes to prosecute because there were rarely any witnesses.
But the statistics will nevertheless prove embarrassing, not only to ministers who have insisted that they are winning the battle against crime, but also to the Crown Office which has experienced serious problems recently, particularly coping with the new demands placed upon it by the European Convention on Human Rights.
The executive championed a 6.2 per cent reduction in the number of rapes committed in Scotland when the annual crime figures for 2000 were published last October.
But the detailed breakdown of the figures, showing a comparison between the number of rapes reported to the police, the number pursued by the Crown Office and the conviction rate, was disclosed in a parliamentary answer from the Justice Minister Jim Wallace.
Mr Wallace stated that 562 crimes of rape were recorded by the police in 2000.
The Crown Office took action against suspects in just 50 cases and secured a conviction in 27.
The statistics also revealed that there had been almost no improvement on the previous year when 591 rapes were reported rapes to the police, also resulting in just 27 convictions.
A Crown Office spokesman stressed that rape and sexual assault were extremely hard crimes to pursue because they often came down to one person's version of events against another.
The spokesman said there was rarely any corroborating evidence or witness statements to back it up.
He insisted that while the Crown Office was responsible for the number of cases which were proceeded against, it was not responsible for the conviction rate which was entirely a matter for the court and the juries involved.
But this did not satisfy women's groups and opposition politicians. A spokeswoman for Rape Crisis described the figures as "deeply disheartening" and said: " What concerns us is reporting a rape is difficult enough without the knowledge that you have such a small chance of pursuing the matter to court."
A spokesman for Zero Tolerance said: "It's important to encourage women to come forward and report domestic abuse or rape to the police but when they know the system is effectively against them it doesn't inspire confidence."
Roseanna Cunningham, for the SNP, warned: "These figures are extremely worrying and they will only make women less likely to come forward."
Lord James Douglas Hamilton, for the Conservatives, claimed it was the duty of Mr Wallace and the justice department to ensure a better success rate for rape prosecutions.
