Last Saturday’s front page Guardian was grim. “Revealed: just 1.5% of rape cases lead to summons.”
This refers to the number of reported rapes that result in a summons. The stat is worse than it was when, ten years ago, I was first involved in a piece of research which tried to better understand the huge attrition rate in rape cases.
At that time the stats were bad, only 6% of reported rapes went on to a successful prosecution. Today, those stats are even worse.
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I’m lucky enough to be in Lausanne at the World Conference of Science Journalists this week, on a panel about interviewing people who have experienced bullying, harassment, and sexual assault. It’s a responsible issue to be talking about and there’s lots of information to share.
This blog pulls together some resources for journalists who are interviewing people who have experienced something traumatic, and in particular sexual assault. Links are embedded throughout. I hope it’s useful.
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I had a good laugh at the Guardian G2 headline the other day suggesting that the patriarchy might be dead. The cover had a load of pictures of the hashtag #metoo.
It’s really important that more people are speaking up about experiences of sexual abuse or harrassment, talking about the extent of the problem and trying to call it out for what it is – totally unacceptable. But I think difficulties we face around sex and gender, as a society, run too deep for a hashtag to overturn them. Continue reading
Psychology magpie 