News

RCS published Victims & Witnesses evidence

Rape Crisis Scotland has published written evidence to the Justice Committee on the Victim and Witnesses Bill, which is currently going through Stage 1 in the Scottish Parliament.

As part of this, we are calling for all complainers in sexual offence cases to have guaranteed access to a female forensic examiner, as all available evidence shows that this is the preference of female and male survivors. We welcome the proposal to make access to Special Measures an automatic right in sexual offence cases. We have also made a number of proposals for issues not currently covered within the Bill to be considered. You can download a copy of our written evidence here.

Rape Crisis News: Survivors' Issue

National Stalking Awareness Day 2013

National Stalking Awareness Day 2013 will take place on 18th April.
What can you or your organisation do to raise awareness of stalking and help to make this day a success?

How can we let victims of stalking know that help is available for them, and show perpetrators that their behaviour will not be tolerated?

'It's the difference between having quality of life and not'

Rape Crisis Scotland has published an evaluation of the impact of rape crisis services in Scotland.

In 2012 RCS commissioned an evaluation of support provided by the national helpline and local centres which included an assessment of the extent to which the national helpline and local rape crisis centres provide integrated support to survivors. The evaluation included interviews with local centres and survivors who described the support they received and the difference this made to them. Service users interviewed for the evaluation give a sense of the vital importance of rape crisis services:

‘It’s the difference between having quality of life and not.’

‘It’s been a lifeline – they are always there at the end of the phone. They gave me techniques to use to deal with flashbacks. I will never get rid of that in my mind but I’ve learned to focus on the positive and the things I enjoy.’

‘I can now manage to keep going. I know now that nothing bad is going to come out of it. One weekend I was frantic and really, really low. I texted their mobile and she phoned me and we talked.’

‘If you have years of things happening to you it becomes normal. You become so used to it. But being here helped me understand that it was so wrong. You have to learn to be a person again.’

You can download the full evaluation report here and related literature review here.