Rape Crisis Scotland

For survivors of rape and sexual assault - includes information on safety, health, reporting to police, claiming compensation, feelings and reactions, ways of coping, police and legal procedures, further links to help and information.

Following the UK Supreme court’s Cadder ruling last year, the Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill asked Lord Carloway to undertake a review to consider the implications of the ruling and make recommendations.

The Cadder ruling relates to an accused’s right to legal representation during police questioning, and has had a particular impact on sexual offences.  Due to the difficulties in obtaining corroboration in sexual offences cases (because they often happen in private, with no witnesses) the police prior to Cadder were often reliant on admissions from the accused to help them build a case.  Since the Cadder decision, defence lawyers seem to be routinely advising their clients to make no comment at all during police interviews, which is causing serious difficulties and has the potential to make prosecutions in rape cases even more difficult.

As well as considering questions relating to legal representation for the accused, Lord Carloway has also been considering broader issues relating to evidence, including the requirement for corroboration and whether or not juries should be able to draw an adverse inference if the accused remains silent and refuses to answer any questions. Rape Crisis Scotland has produced a briefing paper outlining our position on these questions raised by the Carloway Review and hope this will be helpful to other agencies planning to respond to the consultation.  The deadline for consultation responses is 3^rd June 2011.

Yes You Can! has been developed for people working with, or likely to be working with, survivors of childhood sexual abuse. People present to frontline services with a range of issues which may relate to childhood sexual abuse and this booklet has a particular focus on the impact that childhood sexual abuse can have on mental health and wellbeing. Not all survivors need, or wish, medical intervention, and many seek counselling and support services. This booklet aims to support people working in a wide range of services to gain a better understanding of the needs of people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse, how best to raise this sensitive issue, and how to respond in an appropriate andsupportive way.

Outline Guide to the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009

Intimate partner and sexual violence affect a large proportion of the population – with the majority of those directly experiencing such violence being women and the majority perpetrating it being men. The harm they cause can last a lifetime and span generations,with serious adverse affects on health, education and employment. The primary prevention of these types of violence will therefore save lives and money – investmentsmade now to stop intimate partner and sexual violence before they occur will protect the physical, mental and economic well-being and  development of individuals, families, communities and whole societies.

This document aims to provide sufficient information for policy-makers and planners to develop data-driven and evidence-based programmes for preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women and is divided into the following chapters:

l Chapter 1 outlines the nature, magnitude and consequences of intimate partner and sexual violence within the broader typology of violence.

l Chapter 2 identifies the risk and protective factors for such violence and the importance of addressing both risk and protective factors in prevention efforts.

l Chapter 3 summarizes the scientific evidence base for primary prevention strategies, and describes programmes of known effectiveness, those supported by emerging evidence and those that could potentially be effective but have yet to be sufficiently evaluated for their impact.

l Chapter 4 presents a six-step framework for taking action, generating evidence and sharing results.

In the closing section, several future research priorities are outlined and a number of key conclusions drawn.

The evidence-based prevention of intimate partner and sexual violence is still in its early days and much remains to be accomplished. At present, only one strategy has evidence supporting its effectiveness – and this only relates to intimate partner violence. The strategy in question is the use of school-based programmes to prevent violence within dating relationships. Evidence is, however, emerging of the effectiveness of a number of other strategies for preventing intimate partner and sexual violence, including microfinance programmes for women combined with gender-equality education; efforts to reduce access to and harmful use of alcohol; and changing social and cultural gender norms. Many more strategies appear to have potential, either on theoretical grounds or because they target known risk factors, but most of these have never been systematically implemented – let alone evaluated.

The public health approach to prevention taken in this document is intended to complement criminal justice-based approaches. The approach relies upon the use of population-based data to describe the problem, its impact and associated risk and protective factors, while drawing upon the scientific evidence for effective, promising and theoretically indicated prevention strategies. Part of the approach is also to ensure that all policies and programmes include in-built monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. At the same time, taking a life-course perspective will help to identify early risk factors and the best times to disrupt the developmental trajectories towards violent behaviour using a primary prevention approach. For successful primary prevention, early intervention is required that focuses on younger age groups.

Although pressing, the need for evidence and further research in all these areas in no way precludes taking action now to prevent both intimate partner violence and sexual violence. Those programmes that have evidence supporting their effectiveness should be implemented and, where necessary, adapted. Those that have shown promise or appear to have potential can also play an immediate role – provided strenuous efforts are made to incorporate at the outset rigorous outcome evaluations. It is only by taking action and generating evidence that intimate partner and sexual violence will be prevented and the field of evidence-based primary prevention of such violence will successfully mature.

The booklet, prepared by ENABLE Scotland, is for parents, carers or support workers of adults with learning disabilites. It covers how to support someone who has been sexually abused and lists sources of help and support.

Examines concerns around the way in which disclosure of personal records is used in sexual offence trials and in particular the impact of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2010 on this issue.

Takes account of the latest version of the Crown Disclosure Manual.

Examines a range of preconceptions held by jurors as to the demeanour and behaviour of rape complainers, and the impact that educating jurors around these issues can have.

An overview of the impact and use of sexual history and character evidence in sexual offence trials, and of the effectiveness of legislation currently in place which was intended to limit this.

A research report based on 110 interviews with men who bought women in prostitution.

List of MSPs who have signied the Save Our Services pledge