NS August 12th, 2008

This is truly despicable. No wonder the rape conviction rate is still so abysmally low in this country.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was raped five years ago on a night out in the West End of London.

The woman, whose attacker has never been caught, complained to the Metropolitan Police about the way her case was investigated.

As a result of her complaint, she received an official apology and two officers were disciplined.

But when she applied for compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), which covers England, Scotland and Wales, she was told the standard compensation would be cut in her case to £8,250 [the standard amount is £11,000].

The authority told her the reason for the reduction was that “the evidence shows that your excessive consumption of alcohol was a contributing factor in the incident”.

Thank goodness someone saw sense and overturned these reductions. But can you imagine a murder victim’s family being told that they would be receiving reduced compensation because their beloved had been drinking before he was killed? Nope, didn’t think so. This sickening culture of blaming the victim in rape cases has got to stop. Going out drinking is not a crime. Wearing a skirt and low-cut top is not a crime. Walking home late at night is not a crime. No woman who does any or all of these things is ‘asking for it’ nor does she have any responsibility for or control over her rapist’s actions. Rape is the crime and a rapist is a criminal. Stop blaming the victims and trying to figure out their ‘role’ in the attack. Just like with murder, it doesn’t matter what the victim said or did beforehand, the attacker chose to react with violence and commit a crime and should be punished as such.

I cannot imagine the degradation and anger I would feel if I was raped after going out for a few glasses of wine with my friends and then told I somehow deserved what I got. It makes me sick to my stomach that so many men in so many positions of power defend these scumbags and hold so little regard for women that they could even fathom questioning her actions as a way to deflect responsibility from the rapist. It makes a woman feel that men are in one giant pat-each-other-on-the-penis club and that when it comes to matters of sex and power, women will always have to be on the defensive, from the stranger lurking in the alley to the friendly guy at the bar to the judge in the courtroom. And men wonder why women lump them all together…is it really that hard to see why?

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