A Novel Plan for Boosting Rape Convictions

A new plan has been proposed in Scotland that would help to protect rape victims in court and boost conviction rates:

Although direct questions on a woman’s character and sexual history are no longer allowed, defence barristers often find ways round the restriction and are only too adept at exploiting jurors’ prejudices about the way a rape victim should look, act and dress.

But under a new scheme being considered in Scotland, a woman who survives rape could be given a new ally: a publicly funded lawyer to represent her in court. He or she would act solely in the victim’s interests – unlike the prosecutor, who is there to represent the public interest. The lawyer would be able to familiarise themselves with the case before the trial and, if necessary, shut down invasive lines of interrogation.

Campaigners say the scheme, which is already operating in Denmark and Sweden, could tackle Scotland’s abysmal rape conviction rate, which recently fell to an all-time low of 3.9%, compared with 5.6% in England.

“No one can say that more than 96% of women who report rape are lying, so it’s a real problem in terms of access to justice,” says Sandy Brindley, network coordinator of Rape Crisis Scotland, which has commissioned a feasibility study on the proposal.

I think that it’s nothing short of brilliant.

When it comes to rape, the legal system is set up vastly in favor of the accused rapist. And even more unfortunately, while the defense attorney has to focus on nothing but clearing his or her client’s name, the prosecutor has to focus on both the victim’s interests and the interests of the state. It is, simply, not the prosecutor’s job to look out for the victim; it’s the prosecutor’s job to look out for the case. How do they differ? Well, it’s in the interest of the state to save money, and therefore only prosecute the cases with the highest chance of gaining a conviction– and sometimes, what is viewed as a “hard” case to win is pretty fucked up. It’s in the prosecutor’s interest to have a high conviction rate– therefore encouraging them to drop rape cases, which have quite an atrocious conviction rate.

Victim’s find their strongest advocates in volunteer counselors who work for rape crisis services. And though these volunteers are highly compassionate, valuable, intelligent and better-versed in the law than most of us, they are not lawyers.

And I think that it’s about damn time that we actually do give rape victims lawyers. Rape victims are attacked just as, if not more, venomously than the accused. Where is her defense attorney? Prosecutors also have a reputation, unfortunately, of being condescending and cold towards victims. It’s part of the job, I suppose. But the victim needs someone to say when they’ve gone to far. They need someone to help push to take a case to trial. They need someone who can encourage them to keep going when things seem to hard, to talk the prosecutor out of plea bargains or to push for harsher ones, or to even help the victim drop the case, if that’s what she wants. Victims need someone who actually takes them seriously.

I’d love to see Scotland commit to this plan. And I’d love to see it work and be adopted all over the world.