This article contains references to rape and sexual violence.
When Amy* was fifteen, she reported being raped. But the people who were supposed to help her blamed her instead.
“The police actually told me that most girls falsely accuse ex-boyfriends of rape as revenge for breaking up with them,” she explains, but the gaslighting didn’t stop there. “They told me that it was likely that I consented and then changed my mind after. This was not the case.”
It didn’t matter that the perpetrator in Amy’s case was not her boyfriend, a fact of which the police were aware, or that false allegations make up around 3% of all cases. Officers remained wedded to their own ideas about both consent and how women – and therefore Amy – must have behaved.
Stories like Amy’s are common, partly explained by new research confirming that police officers subscribe to problematic myths around consent, with potentially devastating consequences. The research comes amid consistently poor case outcomes. Only around 1.6% of reported rapes result in a police charge, and less than 1% result in a conviction.
It’s not just consent that is lacking in many of our day-to-day lives; it’s the recognition of our selfhood and agency.
While the reasons for this attrition rate are complex, Anna Gekoski, a researcher behind the study, says the acceptance of rape myths is a contributing factor. “[It] can impact upon how officers investigate cases and how they treat victims. This can then have an impact on the outcome of the case, making it less likely to proceed through the system and result in a conviction,” she explains.
Largely understood as stereotyped and false beliefs about what rape is and how victims should behave, the impact of rape myths on police investigations was also recently confirmed by Operation Soteria, a programme launched by the Home Office in 2021 to increase the number of cases going to court.
Worryingly, some of the officers interviewed during Gekoski’s research were unaware of rape myths. Of those who were, most said these beliefs do not impact investigations. This is a fact often wielded in defence of the claim that rape myths are a society-wide problem (which is true), but it becomes a police problem when, as Gekoski found, police say they have no impact but later display and perpetuate the same beliefs.
It’s victims like Amy who feel the effect of this. As Lisa Benjamin, spokesperson for Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support, says: “The findings of the [research] are very disappointing but unfortunately not surprising. The confirmation that victims-survivors have been bravely sharing their trauma with officers who may well subscribe to these myths is quite horrible.”
Sean Combs, or ‘Diddy’, has been found not guilty of the most serious charges in his trial.
Many of the most pervasive myths “swirl around the basis of consent”, says Siobhan Blake, National Rape Lead at the CPS. The recently published research backs this up, providing evidence of officers thinking consent can be implied if a victim has previously had consensual sexual contact with the suspect.
This is particularly damaging for victims who are raped by someone they know, as happens in approximately 90% of all cases. Despite this reality, the evidence suggests that police ideas about ‘real rape’ correspond more closely to the much less common paradigm of an attack by a stranger at night. Possibly a relic of the fact that until 1991, it was legally impossible to be convicted of raping your wife.
Rape myths feed into mistaken beliefs that victims will fight back, but for CPS prosecutor Blake, the idea that people experiencing sexual assault will scream or protest is another “really dangerous and harmful assumption” and it’s well established that trauma can also cause people to freeze.
Still, victims find themselves in a double bind. Those who don’t fight back are subject to police biases that mean they are less likely to be believed as credible, yet those who do often have other myths heaped upon them. While Amy does recall fighting back; this didn’t stop officers from telling her that she wasn’t raped because, in their eyes, she “likely” consented.
Do we care more about trauma or the performance of trauma?
On the flip side of presumptions about victim responses are another set of myths orbiting the idea that victims are “asking for it.” In other words, they must have consented because of how they behaved before the rape – from sexting the suspect or drinking alcohol to wearing revealing clothing.
“What did you think was going to happen when you went with him?”
This is what Mia*, 29, was asked by an officer after giving her account of rape. “There were male detectives assigned to my case who I felt absolutely believed that girls are ‘asking for it’,” she explains.
The impact of this kind of victim-blaming is extensive, says Gekoski. As well as deterring reporting, it could lead to victims dropping out later in the criminal justice process, making cases less likely to go to trial. Last year, 42% victims withdrew, more than double the amount who withdrew six years earlier.
For those that do go through the system, the effect of rape myths continues to ricochet. William Webster, a psychology lecturer at Sunderland University, agrees that “if you have an officer who endorses rape myths, the potential for that to impact on how they conduct that investigation could potentially be massive.” This is confirmed by Operation Soteria’s year one report, which concludes that the effect of cultural attitudes on investigative decision-making “points to a system that is failing and needs a radical overhaul.”
From slut-shaming in the playground to media reporting around rape, something needs to change.
As well as investigative impacts, Dr Kelly Johnson, an academic linked with Soteria, says the prevalence of police rape myths could impact victim wellbeing and result in legal violations. “It might cause additional trauma if you’re engaging with the police and you feel like you’re being judged or blamed for sexual violence, but even if you’re not re-traumatised, it’s fundamentally wrong and possibly in violation of your rights and the correct application of the law.”
Sex workers, intoxicated victims, and those with mental health issues were among those found to be particularly vulnerable to the effects of police-endorsed rape myths.
As for why this is happening, Johnson says there is increasing evidence that officers are anticipating jury adherence to rape myths. As a result, these myths could inform police decisions about which cases should be charged.
Although a focus on ‘bad apples’ risks obscuring the cultural nature of the issue, individual misconceptions are a problem too, and “rape myths are firmly embedded in police culture,” says Gekoski, whose preliminary research suggests that men and older officers might be more susceptible.
The issue is exacerbated by the unique focus on victim behaviour in rape investigations – a focus which is inexorably linked to rape myths which dictate that victims lie, or are responsible for their own victimisation. Recently, concern has been raised about the extensive trawling of digital phone data, and a Home Office report found that police are “unnecessarily requesting” personal records to scrutinise victim credibility.
For this reason, shifting to a suspect focus is key. “It is vital that we work towards a criminal justice system in which victims are believed,” Gekoski says. To get here, she advocates screening officers before they join sexual offences teams and regular training.
Ultimately, the police are the gatekeepers of justice and as Johnson points out, “if the whole system is hinged on rape myths, low conviction rates will continue, and the harm the system is causing victims will continue.”
Although progress is being made – in Avon and Somerset, a pilot area for Operation Soteria, the charge rate has risen from 3% to 10% – justice should not be a postcode lottery.
When approached by GLAMOUR for a comment, the Independent Office for Police Conduct said: “Where individuals feel a report they have made to the police is not being handled appropriately, we would encourage them to make a complaint Make a complaint | Independent Office for Police Conduct.”
* Names have been changed to protect anonymity
For more information about reporting and recovering from rape and sexual abuse, you can contact Rape Crisis.
If you have been sexually assaulted, you can find your nearest Sexual Assault Referral Centre here. You can also find support at your local GP, voluntary organisations such as Rape Crisis, Women's Aid, and Victim Support, and you can report it to the police (if you choose) here.
