Law Failing Rape Victims In The U. K.

Rape victims in the U. K. are seeing their sexual histories brought up in court, despite a new change in the law that is designed to boost conviction rates . Women are being judged on their past behavior. If she is sexually active, or had a previous sexual relationship with her rapist, she is not believed. It's assumed that she consented. This attitude has been especially hard to deal with on "date rape" cases.

"Just 5.3 per cent of rape allegations ended in a guilty verdict, according to the latest Home Office figures. And more than a third of cases sent to the Crown Court collapsed before the defendant reached the dock, often because victims were unable to face the ordeal of testifying.

The law was changed in 2000 to prevent women's sexual pasts being used to argue that they must have consented to have sex, after research showed that such details were often used to discredit victims. But Vera Baird QC, a Labour MP and leading criminal barrister, said a 'depressingly large' number of judges still considered sexual history relevant."

Are the only women who are to be believed in a rape case virgins or women who are not sexually active? It isn't right to judge sexually active women, and assume that they welcome every sexual encounter.