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Rape: why have prosecutions fallen so dramatically in a decade?

<span>Photograph: Glyn Strong/Alamy</span>
Photograph: Glyn Strong/Alamy

The long-awaited review into rape investigations was launched more than two years ago when it became clear that victims were not getting justice, with the volume of prosecutions dropping sharply.

The Guardian helped expose the situation with a series of investigations – piling pressure on the government to act.

Today a victim is less likely to see their attacker prosecuted than they were a decade ago. Rape prosecutions in England and Wales have plummeted to the lowest levels on record.

The figures are alarming.

Prosecutions in 2016/17 stood at 5,190 and fell 60% in four years to 2,102 in 2019/20, even as the number of reports to police increased.

The sharp decline has prompted concerns about the de facto decriminalisation of rape.

In 2018, when the issue was getting little coverage, the Guardian revealed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) held training roadshows where prosecutors were advised to “take the weak cases out of the system” in order to boost the conviction rate.

After the training, the volume of prosecutions and convictions plunged, although the conviction rate – the proportion of prosecutions resulting in a conviction – hit a record high of 68.5%.

In November 2019, it was revealed that tens of thousands of rape cases may have been dropped because of secret targets implemented by the CPS.

So-called “levels of ambition” were introduced in 2016, with the aim that 60% of rape cases should end in a conviction.

But the benchmark was abandoned amid concerns that it was “not appropriate” and could act as a “perverse incentive” for prosecutors to drop weaker or more challenging cases.

More victims also dropped out of investigations – in the past five years the attrition rate has increased from 25% to 43% in 2020.

The length of time for those seeking justice has also risen, as victims wait five months on average before a suspect is charged and in some cases have had to wait up to four years before their cases reach court.

The Guardian also revealed in 2018 that victims were routinely required to give access to highly personal data and blanket access to the contents of their phone – including messages and social media content that can be retained by police for up to 100 years – in order for a case to proceed.

A further story exposed potential problems among rape juries, as we revealed that young men were less likely to be convicted of rape.

In September 2019, a letter leaked to the Guardian revealed that police officers were complaining to their leaders that prosecutors had become risk-averse and that the bar for getting a charge had been raised. Confronted with this, the CPS blamed the police for a decline in referrals.

In September 2019 the Centre for Women’s Justice and End Violence Against Women (Evaw) brought a legal case against the CPS accusing it of changing its charging policy – but the case was dismissed in March 2021.

The CPS has always denied any change in charging policy, and the review states that the court found that the CPS “did not adopt guidance which was wrong in law nor was there a change in substance to the previous policy”.

It adds, however, that in surveys and focus groups for the review “Some stakeholders (including representatives from the police and a small number of prosecutors) expressed an opinion that changes to guidance indicated a change in approach and that this may have contributed to a reduction in the volume and proportion of cases charged.”

In March 2020, the Guardian revealed that the CPS conducted its own internal review of cases which exposed failings – but did not share it with inspectors who were conducting an official inquiry for the end-to-end review.

In August last year we also revealed the government was planning to impose targets on police and prosecutors to bring about more “high-quality” referrals of rape cases to the Crown Prosecution Service and for the CPS to prosecute and bring more rape cases to trial.

The targets were denied by No 10 in briefings at the time, but the publication of the review today confirms the government’s “ambitions” to return prosecutions to 2016/17 levels and employ scorecards to hold the CPS and police to account.

The dramatic decline in rape prosecutions and growing delays for justice have emerged after a decade of austerity, with extensive cuts made to police and the CPS.

Senior police told the Guardian in February this year that progress and expertise in investigating rape was lost when specialist teams were disbanded after years of cuts to policing. The CPS has undergone budget cuts resulting in a 30% reduction in staff between 2010/11 and 2018/19 and overall prosecutions brought by the service have fallen 46% in the same period.

In the face of criticism since the launch of the review the CPS revamped its training and launched a joint action plan with police to build stronger cases. Police in Avon and Somerset also rolled out an offender-focused pilot, Project Bluestone, and funding to police has been increased.

The government review promises to turn the tide on rape prosecutions by driving up the number of cases making it to court to 2016/17 levels and holding police and the CPS to account with reviews of their progress every six months.