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"It was a feeling of being exactly where I needed to be" - C's Story
A few years ago at a check-up in her doctor’s surgery, C was handed a leaflet about support services for survivors of sexual violence. At the time, C had never heard of Rape Crisis and was surprised to hear the nurse talk about how common these services were.
“I always felt like I was walking about with this massive sign on my head that just said, ‘I've been raped’ and then it struck me how many other people must be feeling that too.”
C had never told anyone about what she had been through as a teenager but she wondered then that it was time to get in touch. Like so many survivors reaching out for support, this wasn’t an easy thing to do.
‘It’s that first really big intimidating step, the fear of the words coming out of my mouth was like admitting to myself what had happened when I hadn’t ever told anyone before, and it was really scary”.
Eventually, C picked up the phone. She was able to attend a drop-in session at her local Rape Crisis the same day, where she knew immediately that she had made the right decision.
“I came in and just instantly felt the comfort, like the feeling of walking into that building and just the atmosphere, the décor, it makes it feel like a nice warm cup of tea or like a gran’s hug.”
End Not Proven
Two weeks ago we launched our Holyrood asks: 6 actions we want candidates and parties to commit to that would improve the landscape for survivors of sexual violence in Scotland.
All of these asks are critical – but today we want to talk about just one: End Not Proven.
Uniquely, Scotland has three verdicts – Guilty, Not Guilty and Not Proven. Not Guilty and Not Proven have the same impact – they are both acquittals, and there are no legal consequences for the accused if they get a Not Proven verdict.
But why does it need to go?
Firstly, the Not Proven verdict is used disproportionately in rape and attempted rape cases. In 2018/19 40% of acquittals in rape and attempted rape cases were Not Proven, compared with 19% of all crimes and offences.
Without Justice - Willow's Story
Content note: This blog includes details of rape and sexual violence.
Early in 2018, Willow (not her real name) found the courage to leave her abusive partner of 12 years. It wasn’t the first time she’d left – and it wasn’t easy – but this time she knew it was for good.
After she left, at first they were on relatively good terms. They would text to coordinate pick up and drop off times, meet up to do handovers, and generally try to keep everything as normal as possible for the sake of the children.
As time passed, and it dawned on him that this time she wasn’t going back, his mood shifted, and everything changed.
“I knew him inside out,” Willow tells me. “I knew what he was capable of.”
Speaking Truth To Power - The Survivor Reference Group
A blog to mark the publication of the Survivor Reference Group Initial Report.
Last week we sat in a room in Glasgow and as sunshine poured in through the windows survivors delved into the details of where the justice system in Scotland had let them down. These conversations aren’t unusual for us at Rape Crisis Scotland – justice is one of our key priority areas – but what made this conversation out of the ordinary was that looking on and listening in were Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf and the Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC.
It was a meeting of power, though of very different kinds. Where the Justice Secretary and Lord Advocate have both a great deal of responsibility for justice in Scotland and power in terms of how this is – and is not – delivered, survivors were there to speak truth to it. In doing so with strength, courage and vulnerability, each of them showed the power of stories and of speaking out to effect change.
It can never be right that the process of seeking justice following sexual violence in Scotland is described by some as worse than the assault itself. We know that it is never going to be easy, but we also know it doesn’t have to be this hard.
Why we must reject anonymity for suspects in sexual offence cases
The demand for sexual offence suspects to be granted anonymity appears in the press and within public discourse with depressing regularity.
To support such a move is to prioritise the interests of a small group of men over those of one of the most vulnerable groups of all – rape complainers.
With statistics in Scotland for 2017/18 showing that
there were 2,255 rapes and attempted rapes reported to the police, but only 107
convictions, the last thing that is needed is something that
will make this worse – and proposing anonymity for those accused of rape is a
retrograde step which promises to do exactly that.
Reporting rape, and going through the criminal justice process, can be an
extremely difficult experience. Taking the decision to speak out about what has
happened, and to seek justice, is far from automatic. According
to the latest Scottish Crime & Justice Survey less than ¼ of people who had experienced it report their most recent rape as an adult. Fear of
being blamed, judged, disbelieved and of the
court process itself are among many barriers survivors face when they’re
considering reporting.
There is no reason why those accused of rape should
be singled out for anonymity – proposing that they should seems to suggest that
rape victims are more likely to be making false allegations than victims of
other crimes, which research tells us is not the
case. The
push to grant anonymity is also an attack on the credibility of rape
complainers – a contemporary spin on the damaging suggestion that women ‘cry
rape’ and are not to be trusted.
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