Rape of vulnerable women, especially those with learning difficulties, has effectively been “decriminalized”, according to a research academic employed by the country’s largest police force.
The claim is made by Professor Betsy Stanko, who is currently the Metropolitan Police’s assistant director of planning and has been researching the force’s investigation of rape for 10 years.
In a draft, unpublished report obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Professor Stanko claims that despite a decade of reform the percentage of prosecutions and convictions of rape has remained consistently low. She says this is largely because two thirds of rape allegations drop out during the police investigation stage.
The problem is particularly acute for people with vulnerabilities such as mental health issues and learning difficulties for whom the likelihood of getting their cases solved is extremely remote.