Lothian & Borders Police Rape Awareness campaign

Lothian and Borders Police, in partnership with Edinburgh Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (EWRASAC) and Rape Crisis Scotland are launching a rape awareness campaign designed around the previously successful ‘This is not an invitation to rape me’ campaign.

The postcard campaign is part of Lothian and Borders Police response to the National Anti Violence campaign.  The national campaign, which focuses on all forms of domestic abuse, was launched on 1st December 2009 and will continue until 31st January 2010.  The Lothian and Borders campaign also supports Women’s Aid - 16 days of action to end violence against women.

The campaign will involve police officers, police staff and Special Constables distributing specially designed postcards depicting women enjoying themselves in a social setting with the direct message that ‘drinking is not a crime. rape is’ 

Detective Superintendent Lesley Boal said: “A very high proportion of all reported rapes are committed by men who are ‘known’ to the woman in some way, either as a relative, family friend, neighbour or someone they have met socially previously or shortly prior to the assault.  

“While the previous ‘This is not an invitation to rape me’ campaign was designed to encourage discussion and challenged a number of unacceptable attitudes, one being that women are wholly or partly responsible for being raped if they have been drinking, our campaign is designed to give a clear, unambiguous message that drinking is not a crime - rape is.

“Let us be clear - sex without consent is rape, responsibility for rape will always lie with the rapist and Lothian and Borders Police will robustly investigate every report of rape. 

“For those who either ply any individual with alcohol for the purposes of sexually exploiting them or sexually exploit them when they are already incapable of giving consent our message is also very clear – you may very well find yourself being investigated for serious sexual crime, prosecuted, convicted, imprisoned and placed on the sex offender register. While drinking is not a crime – it is not a defence either.” 

Sandy Brindley, National Co-ordinator for Rape Crisis Scotland, said :
“Rape Crisis Scotland fully supports this new campaign. Many women blame themselves for rape if they have been drinking. Too often public safety messages focus on what women can do to keep themselves safe. While there is a role for this, it is refreshing to see such a clear message from the police, which is aimed at the men who commit this crime.  The message is clear - if you are not sure if someone is capable of consenting to sex, assume they are not”

Download a pdf of the postcard here

Glasgow Community & Safety Services are also launching a washroom campaign today (10th December) using the drinking and taxi images from Rape Crisis Scotland's This Is Not An Invitation To Rape Me campaign - these posters will be in washrooms in bars and clubs across Glasgow for a month.

End Sexual History and Character Evidence: Postcard campaign

Rape Crisis Scotland is gravely concerned about the widespread questioning of rape complainers in court on their sexual history and character, and has launched a postcard campaign protesting this issue. This follows recent research which revealed that the law is failing to protect women in this area, in spite of recent legislative changes designed to do just that.

Research published by the Scottish Government on 12/9/07 reveals a worrying increase in the level of questioning on sexual history and character which complainers of rape and sexual offences have to face in court.

The Sexual Offences (Procedure and Evidence) (Scotland ) Act 2002 attempted to tighten restrictions relating to the use of this type of evidence.  A key aim of this Act was to “ensure that questioning or evidence introduced is relevant to the issues of fact before the court, rather than calculated to demean or humiliate the complainer”.  The provisions of the Act required written applications to be made to introduce sexual history and character evidence, in advance of the trial.  In coming to a decision on whether or not the evidence should be admitted, the judge or sheriff should only admit the evidence if he or she is satisfied that it is relevant to whether the accused is guilty of the offence, and the probative value of the evidence is significant and is likely to outweigh any risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice.  Judges and sheriffs were required to consider appropriate protection of the complainer’s dignity and privacy.

The research found that applications to introduce this type of evidence in 72% of cases. Only 7% of applications were rejected.  In most cases, the Crown did not object to defence applications.

You can find the full report at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/09/12093427/0 or download it (the research document is entitled "Impact of Aspects of the Law of Evidence in Sexual Offence Trials : an Evaluation Study") here.  Chapter 9 ( “Complainers’ experiences of the court process”) demonstrates vividly what the experience of such intrusive and irrelevant questioning is like for women, with many verbatim first-hand accounts.

Questions women were subjected to included highly personal interrogation about sexual conduct with people other than the accused, sexual practices, sex aids and drug use. 

Here are the three postcards which comprise our campaign:

Our postcard campaign is intended to highlight the outrageous breach of their human rights that this practice causes women who are seeking justice for rape.

If you would like to receive hard copies of these to promote our campaign, please email info@rapecrisisscotland.org.uk

Other Issues we campaign on

Rape crisis and sexual abuse centres believe that changing attitudes is central to our work and we have run a variety of campaigns as a movement and together with others. These have included over the years (see also the ‘herstory’ in ‘about us’)

	campaigns to have rape in marriage treated as a crime – took until 1982 for first (unsuccessful) prosecution in Scotland
	challenging attitudes which blamed women for being raped
	raising awareness about the high incidence of rape and child sexual abuse
	establishing that women and girls are dramatically more at risk from men they know, including partners and fathers/step-fathers, than from strangers
	criticising the way women reporting rape are treated by the criminal justice system and winning legal change
	promoting a feminist analysis of sexual violence
	demonstrating the links between pornography and rape and sexual assault
	supporting women’s right to choose to have an abortion
	organising ‘reclaim the night’ marches
	challenging the medical model which can often treat women as helpless victims who need medication rather than traumatised survivors who need support and information and empowerment highlight some of these issues.
	Campaigning by Rape Crisis Centres Centres have also engaged on specific campaigns or responded in the press and media to questions about particular cases which In May 2000 the Rape Crisis Centre in Glasgow went to court seeking a judicial review. They hoped to overturn the Home Secretary’s decision to make an exception to immigration law to allow convicted rapist Mike Tyson to enter Scotland for a boxing match. The Rape Crisis Centre was among many who were horrified at a decision which was being justified by the perceived economic benefits of the boxing match. They argued that it was important to challenge the “dubious priorities” which put economic benefit over the trauma cased to women and girls through sexual violence. The legal action was unsuccessful but the centre was greatly encouraged at the amount of support for the action from a wide range of individuals and organisations. This page will bring you information on all this work and more. Please keep returning for updates and/or register for our free e-newsletter. Zero Tolerance campaigns designed in Edinburgh have won deserved widespread praise across the UK and internationally. We thank them for the use of their images on this page. http://www.zerotolerance.org.uk/ Thank you too to Jacky Fleming, cartoonist and illustrator who is always generous to campaigns like ours with her time and work and commitment. She gave permission for the use of the ‘Never Give Up’ girl.   http://www.jackyfleming.co.uk/ Thanks to Peggy Seeger for permission to print the lyrics to her song Reclaim the Night. For a recording, go to Peggy Seeger's disc Period Pieces (Tradition 1078), for a transcription of the song, go to Peggy Seeger Songbook (Oak Publications, NY, 1998). To ordering details go to http://www.pegseeger.com Thank you to Marge Piercy for permission to use Rape Poem from her collection Circles on the Water: The Selected Poems of Marge Piercy. Alfred A. Knopf, NY. ISBN: 0-394-70779-6 http://www.margepiercy.com