22 November 2011

Police and Rape Crisis Centre teaming up

| johnboy
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ACT Policing signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre (CRCC) today (Tuesday, November 22) at the Winchester Police Centre in Belconnen.

The working relationship between the two will help provide a coordinated, collaborative approach in the support of victims and investigations of sexual assault and child abuse matters.

Acting Chief Police Officer Bruce Hill said it is about ensuring the best service is provided to victims.

“Victims of sexual assault have gone through a traumatic experience and we hope that in signing this MoU, by working closely with the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, together we can support the victims emotionally, mentally and legally, by investigating the offence and bringing the perpetrators to justice,” Commander Hill said.

The CRCC is responsible for providing crisis support, counselling, information, and advocacy services to victims of sexual assault.

The service provides 24-hour crisis phone support as well as a 24-hour crisis call out, contactable on (02) 6247 2525. For more information on the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, go to their website http://crcc.org.au/ .

[Courtesy ACT Policing]

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whitelaughter12:17 am 24 Nov 11

poetix said :

Rape is usually a crime of men against women. Are you seriously suggesting otherwise?

Human Rights Watch does: US estimates that 100,000–140,000 violent male-male rapes occur in U.S. prisons annually; (http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2001/prison/report7.html#_1_48) compared with FBI statistics that estimate 90,000 violent male-female rapes occur annually. (http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/offenses/violent_crime/forcible_rape.html)
Although “officially” child abuse is 1 in 3 for girls and 1 in 7 for boys, every rape counsellor I’ve spoken to (over a score) believes that that is purely due to under reporting; and the research on child molestors is that most don’t care what the gender of their victim is.

Unfortunately, genuine rape victims are rarely in a mental state to cope with our (stupid) adversarial legal system; the multiple appeals and stresses mean that most victims give up, if they even begin. So although false claims are an incredibly small number compared to actual rapes, the number of false claims actually getting a conviction? I would guess higher than the number of actual rapes that get a conviction. In short, I would assume that any defendant found innocent is in fact guilty, and the majority of defendants found guilty are actually innocent.
And that’ll stay that way until we go over to the Napoleonic Code – the way Europe (appropriate name) has.

screaming banshee said :

You’d guess? Well I know I’m convinced…..
The percentage of dropped/not pursued is more likely due to insufficient evidence or the victim is unwilling to continue once they realise what is involved with pursuing the complaint.
by working closely with the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, together we can support the victims emotionally, mentally and legally,
Its about supporting the victims, do you seriously think there is going to be a gang of feminist CRCC members going about harassing blokes vigilante style.
/quote]

If you actually read the source (its quite long you probably didnt) many of the victims were unreliable and were already know to the police.

More than a quarter of victims (221 or 26.5 per cent) were identified as having
a disability
More than half of victims (508 or 60.5 per cent) were ‘known’ to police prior to reporting the assault.
173 (33.7 per cent) had prior convictions.

More than half of the offences (480 or 59 per cent) occurred in homes: most commonly the offender’s home (168 or 20.6 per cent);
False complaints represented just over 2 per cent of the 850 records considered across the entire sample. There were at least another 70 cases where police members suspected or were sure that the allegations were false, however the outcome of the investigation was classified in different terms, such as ‘no offence detected’ or as a case for NFPA.

Hardly just 2%.

screaming banshee11:13 pm 23 Nov 11

You’d guess? Well I know I’m convinced…..

The percentage of dropped/not pursued is more likely due to insufficient evidence or the victim is unwilling to continue once they realise what is involved with pursuing the complaint.

by working closely with the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, together we can support the victims emotionally, mentally and legally,

Its about supporting the victims, do you seriously think there is going to be a gang of feminist CRCC members going about harassing blokes vigilante style.

Thats a 1 in 20 thousand chance of getting raped!

So what, because the odds are against it, it probably didn’t happen…FFS.

Suggest you contact ozhelp, perhaps you can drag your mate along, Mr Gillespie.

screaming banshee said :

“Little to no consequences’

Surely you’re not suggesting that because a small percentage of women may allege rape against a former partner to win points in a split, that thats a reason not to work towards improving outcomes for actual rape victims.

As I understand it the greatest impediment has previously been the amount of additional stress and trauma a rape victim would go through especially if it goes to court. If CRCC, who deal with these issues all the time, are there to provide support for the victim that can only be a good thing.

To say that unfounded claims aren’t a significant proportion of all the claims is simply ignorant!

You mean the 2.1% of 812 cases determined to be false claims in Victoria between 2000-2003. To say we shouldn’t support rape victims in case they are just trying it on is astoundingly ignorant.

Whats to say that CRCC can’t already help the alleged victims why do they need police? Surely no amount of CRCC involvent is going to produce any more evidence in a he said she said dispute.
why should they be involved in the investigation itself!

With the 2.1% your reading it wrong.
The 2.1% are the ones that were definately found to be making false claims, enough that the police can take action against them. As hard as it is to prove a rape claim.. its even more so hard to prove that someone is **knowingly** making a false accusation. They aren’t just going to accuse everyone unless there is proof they doing it on purpose!

https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=243182
Despite reforms intended to increase the number of rape investigations that proceed to prosecution, the study found that suspects were charged in only 15 percent of the 850 reported rapes. Rape complaints were subsequently withdrawn in 15.1 percent of the cases, and 46.4 percent of the complaints resulted in “no further police action.” For the cases in which complaints were withdrawn, no statistically reliable profile of case characteristics could be determined; however, when complaints were withdrawn, suspects were more likely to be current or former partners of the complainant. Cases that resulted in “no further police action” were more likely to involve younger victims, victims who were acquainted with or had a cursory relationship with the suspect, and victims who had consumed alcohol or other drugs near the time of the offense. Of the 850 cases, 21.3 percent were “still ongoing” or their status could not be determined from the case records. Only a small percentage of cases (2.1 percent) were designated by police as false. Twenty-six percent of the cases involved victims with a psychiatric disability or mental health issue. Charges were more likely to be brought when the rape victim was male (even though the overwhelming majority of complainants were female); had been physically injured; had been medically examined; was not under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time of the offense; was subjected to other offenses in the course of the rape; and when the suspect was known to police for previous sexual offenses. 44 references

I’d guess that the false claims were somewhere between 15% and 50%.
+ victoria has 5.5 million people… 270 rapes a year (including male victims)
Thats a 1 in 20 thousand chance of getting raped!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgxwPU0W-Wg

screaming banshee9:56 pm 23 Nov 11

“Little to no consequences’

Surely you’re not suggesting that because a small percentage of women may allege rape against a former partner to win points in a split, that thats a reason not to work towards improving outcomes for actual rape victims.

As I understand it the greatest impediment has previously been the amount of additional stress and trauma a rape victim would go through especially if it goes to court. If CRCC, who deal with these issues all the time, are there to provide support for the victim that can only be a good thing.

To say that unfounded claims aren’t a significant proportion of all the claims is simply ignorant!

You mean the 2.1% of 812 cases determined to be false claims in Victoria between 2000-2003. To say we shouldn’t support rape victims in case they are just trying it on is astoundingly ignorant.

poetix said :

Rape is usually a crime of men against women. Are you seriously suggesting otherwise? Or that most rape claims are part of some massive feminist led conspiracy? If so I think that your sense of reality is somewhat distorted.

I’m not nor did i claim that most actual rapes weren’t men against women. Thats not the issue here, which is the conviction rate and that should a purely feminist organisation be entangled up in the investigations of the police. What level of involvement that is.

With the conviction rate if there is a lack of evidence to suggest rape it doesn’t always mean that a rapist gots away with it, theres also the notion that the rape just didn’t take place.

The fact that the number of reported rapes is increasing doesn’t mean that the number of rapes is going up (men havent changed overnight). Its a result of the fact that women can report a rape and have little to no concenquences.

To say that unfounded claims aren’t a significant proportion of all the claims is simply ignorant!

My prediction is that CRCC in this position will allow them to dictate what they think is rape, i’d rather the police inforce the law led by facts than some feminist group leding what they think is good for women!

The expression ‘male of the species’ is necessarily saying we are all part of the same species.

Rape is usually a crime of men against women. Are you seriously suggesting otherwise? Or that most rape claims are part of some massive feminist led conspiracy? If so I think that your sense of reality is somewhat distorted.

Hopefully this development will result in a higher conviction rate, and help victims cope with trauma.

Incidentally, frequent use of exclamation marks does not lend force to sentences.

screaming banshee said :

It would appear (understandably) they are trying to increase the conversion rate in order to bring more charges against alleged rapists.

I’m not sure where you are coming from gooterz, but its not hard to see why CRCC would attract feminists. And if they weren’t to start with I’m sure some of the stuff they hear about would lower their tolerance for the male of the species.

Firstly males alone aren’t a species! I find it quite offensive that you define us like that!
Secondly the police should be seen as unbiased and netural. Its a clear threat to men if they are teaming up with feminists and will futher push down the underreporting of male victims! Especially so if the nature of that relationship isn’t public!

I personally have been affected by CRCC being deceitful in pursing action in something they knew or clearly should have know to be a false claim and misrepresting that to others!

Having CRCC buddy up with the police is only going to open the door to more false claims of violence inorder to gain advantage in family law cases!

Wouldn’t a Collaborative approach betwen the AFP and CRCC also undermind the privacy of the alleged perpetrators, who have the same rights to privacy and to be treated equally as everyone else until they are proven guilty!

In terms of
http://samssa.org.au/information/what-is-rape
isnt that just more feminst
http://crcc.org.au/

Which only says that men can only be raped by men and totally ignores any violence by females!

As per your statement “It would appear (understandably) they are trying to increase the conversion rate in order to bring more charges against alleged rapists.”
One would hope that they increase the charges against ACTUAL Rapists and decrease the false claims!

After all, males falsely accused of rape are victims too.

screaming banshee9:50 pm 22 Nov 11

It would appear (understandably) they are trying to increase the conversion rate in order to bring more charges against alleged rapists.

I’m not sure where you are coming from gooterz, but its not hard to see why CRCC would attract feminists. And if they weren’t to start with I’m sure some of the stuff they hear about would lower their tolerance for the male of the species.

On the other side of the fence men looking for support should contact SAMSSA.

Not having had the best experience with CRCC to date. Lets hope this new found parnership isnt just used as a bias on the police work. Being that CRCC is a purely feminist organisation!

Bit odd that it mentions what they want but no details on how it will work!

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