Doing the “Right Thing”? Understanding Why Rape Victim-Survivors Report to the Police
| Published date | 01 April 2020 |
| Author | Oona Brooks-Hay |
| DOI | 10.1177/1557085119859079 |
| Date | 01 April 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
research-article2019
Article
Feminist Criminology
2020, Vol. 15(2) 174 –195
Doing the “Right Thing”?
© The Author(s) 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085119859079
DOI: 10.1177/1557085119859079
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Victim-Survivors Report to
the Police
Oona Brooks-Hay1
Abstract
This article explores why victim-survivors engage with the police by drawing upon the
accounts of 24 women who reported rape or sexual assault in Scotland. Findings defy
public narratives around rape reporting, indicating that victim-survivors may exercise
limited agency in reporting. Moreover, a problematic “aspiration-reality gap” exists
due to stark differences between the aspirations attached to reports and the reality of
the ensuing criminal justice response. It is suggested that the concepts of “secondary
victimization” and the “justice gap” can be augmented through appreciation of the
“aspiration-reality gap,” and contemporary preoccupation with increasing rates of
reporting is called into question.
Keywords
rape, sexual assault, police, reporting, victim-survivors, justice
Despite sustained calls from feminist scholars and activists for victim-survivors to be
heard within the criminal justice process, and growing recognition that listening to
their voices is essential to meeting their needs (Brubaker, 2019; Walklate, 2008), their
narratives are conspicuous by their absence when it comes to understanding why rape
is reported to the police. Examining the reasons attached to victim-survivor decisions
to engage with the criminal justice system is arguably crucial to understanding their
needs and aspirations, and to developing a comprehensive conceptual framework
within which to locate their experiences. Not to mention that the successful prosecu-
tion of rape cases, as a crime that is not usually witnessed by anyone other than the
1University of Glasgow, UK
Corresponding Author:
Oona Brooks-Hay, The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, University of Glasgow, Ivy
Lodge, 63 Gibson Street, Glasgow G12 8LR, UK.
Email: Oona.Brooks@glasgow.ac.uk
Brooks-Hay
175
victim and the accused, is critically dependent on victim-survivor participation in the
criminal justice process (Konradi, 2007).
This article seeks to enhance understanding of victim-survivor experiences, and
contribute to improving the responses made to them, by exploring the reasons why
women report rape and sexual assault to the police. It draws upon earlier research from
other jurisdictions and upon the accounts of 24 women who reported in Scotland,
offering an opportunity to understand the experiences of a relatively small and diffi-
cult-to-access population. In addition to the inherent sensitivities involved in doing
research of this nature (Brubaker, 2019), as will be discussed, the vast majority of
victim-survivors do not report to the police. As such, some previous studies have
focused on reporting intentions based on hypothetical scenarios rather than actual
reporting behaviors. Moreover, attempts to situate the reasons for reporting (intended
or actual) within a broader social and political context and, relatedly, engage with
theoretical and contemporary policy concerns have also been relatively limited. This
article seeks to address this gap, and the lack of research on this issue – especially in
Scotland and the United Kingdom more broadly – by situating victim-survivor
accounts within the context of disparate public narratives about the rationale for
reporting rape and an increasingly politicized criminal justice response (McGlynn,
2011; Mulvihill, Gangoli, Gill, & Hester, 2019).
The article that follows comprises four main parts. First, the background to this
issue is discussed in terms of public narratives around reporting and the problematic
criminal justice response to rape and sexual assault. Second, the extant research litera-
ture on why crimes, and in particular sexual offenses, are reported to the police by
victims-survivors is appraised. Third, following an overview of study methodology,
findings from interviews with participants about why they reported are then presented
under four key themes: individual and therapeutic reasons, perpetrator-orientated rea-
sons, social and moral responsibility, and third-party influences. Finally, findings are
then discussed in detail with regard to their implications for future research, theory,
and practice. It is argued that the concepts of “secondary victimization” and the “jus-
tice gap,” which have been instrumental in illuminating problematic criminal justice
processes and outcomes, can be augmented through appreciation of what is described
here as the “aspiration-reality gap.” In view of the aspiration-reality gap, and the lack
of agency exercised by some survivors in the reporting process, the current policy
preoccupation with increasing rates of reporting as part of an intensified political and
criminal justice response to rape is called into question. Recommendations for future
research are made, predicated on the need for a nuanced understanding of the distinc-
tions between rapes reported in terms of both the nature of assaults and how they come
to the attention of the police.
Background
Existing research and policy initiatives addressing rape reporting have coalesced
around the questions of why women are reluctant to report, what the barriers to report-
ing may be, and how they might be overcome in order that victim-survivors access
176
Feminist Criminology 15(2)
“justice” (see Brown, 2011; Fisher, Daigle, Cullen, & Turner, 2003; Kelly, Lovett, &
Regan, 2005; Kilpatrick, Resnick, Ruggiero, Conoscenti, & McCauley, 2007; Weiss,
2010). These are understandable concerns given that rates of reporting for rape and
sexual assault are notoriously low across a range of jurisdictions. In Scotland, it is
estimated that only one in five rapes are reported to the police (Scottish Government,
2016) and a similar picture has emerged elsewhere in the United Kingdom (Hohl &
Stanko, 2015), other European countries (Kelly, 2002), and the United States (Fisher
et al., 2003; Weiss, 2011). However, the enduring research and policy preoccupation
with the problem of underreporting to the police appears to have obscured the question
of why victim-survivors do report. Arguably, the answer to this question is frequently
assumed and grounded in social acceptance of the idea that victims of serious sexual
offenses, and indeed other crimes, will rightfully seek and access “justice” via the
criminal justice system. In short, reporting is deemed to be both a right belonging to
victim-survivors and the “right thing” for them to do.
Dominant public narratives relating to rape reporting, however, typically represent a
dichotomy founded upon whether a complaint (and implicitly, the complainer) is one that
considered to be “genuine.” For those considered “credible” (Barn & Kumari, 2015;
Ellison & Munro, 2009), there is an implicit assumption that “justice”—via a robust crim-
inal justice response—should be sought. This narrative of the rightful pursuit of “justice,”
however, coexists alongside an ongoing discourse about women who “cry rape,” making
false accusations of rape against innocent men in an act of malice, a bid to conceal their
active participation in sexual (mis)conduct, or the exercise of revenge against a former
lover (Kelly, 2010; Lisak, Gardinier, Nicksa, & Cote, 2010). This discourse is grounded
in historical construction of women’s word as “beyond belief” (Jordan, 2004, p. 33).
Kelly (2010) argues that historical disbelief of women’s accounts has become “sedi-
mented into the cultures” of criminal justice systems despite a wealth of empirical evi-
dence which disputes the notion that women commonly “cry rape” (see Lisak et al., 2010,
for a review of studies measuring the scale of false allegations of rape).
It also remains the case that reports of rape rarely translate into convictions (Daly
& Bouhours, 2010; Hohl & Stanko, 2015) and the gulf between the two has been
described as the “justice gap” (Temkin & Krahé, 2008, p. 1). The long-standing failure
of criminal justice systems to address the needs of those who have experienced sexual
violence, despite considerable international effort to improve responses, is well docu-
mented (Hohl & Stanko, 2015; Kelly et al., 2005; McGlynn, Downes, & Westmarland,
2016; Smith & Skinner, 2012). Moreover, the additional stress experienced by rape
victim-survivors due to “secondary victimization,” whereby the investigative and
prosecutorial process exacerbates the trauma of rape through, for example, the victim-
survivor reliving the experience, having to face the abuser, encounter disbelief, and
endure a traumatic cross-examination process, is well recognized (Adler, 1987;
Bottoms & Roberts, 2010; B. Brown, Burman, & Jamieson, 1993; Kelly et al., 2005).
Within this highly problematic context, the reason why anyone would want to report
rape or sexual assault is perhaps a curious question. Indeed, Taylor and Norma (2012)
contend that the sometimes hostile reactions of criminal justice agencies to reports of
sexual assault may make women’s decision to report seem irrational.
Brooks-Hay
177
Nonetheless, there has been an exponential increase in rape reporting rates in
Scotland and elsewhere since the 1980s, which is thought...
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