A new study says shocking failures by police forces to investigate allegations are letting down rape victims. Dr Nicole Westmarland of Durham University asks what more can be done?

ANOTHER month, another rape review.

Baroness Stern’s report is the fourth set of rape recommendations to be published since November.

If the sheer amount of recommendations were the measure by which success was judged, then things would certainly be looking far better than they are.

Baroness Stern’s review into the way rape complaints are handled by public authorities has 23 recommendations. One of the aims was to ensure the catalogue of errors seen in the case of John Worboys, the so-called black cab rapist who drugged and assaulted dozens of women in London, could never happen again.

Worboys, of Rotherhithe, South-East London, was convicted of one rape and 11 sex assaults a year ago and jailed indefinitely.

But a review into the case by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) found police missed two opportunities to stop his reign of terror – in 2003, when a key witness was not interviewed, and 2007, when his arrest was bungled, his taxi was not searched and he was set free to strike again.

The IPCC found that detectives refused to believe victims and one woman said she was laughed at and made to feel like a criminal when she reported an attack. Five police officers were disciplined, but no one was sacked over the botched investigation.

Baroness Stern’s review found things had improved as a result of the lessons of the Worboys case, but that good responses were patchy.

This is nothing new, the fact that there is a postcode lottery when it comes to rape has been around for some time. However, it is true that rape victims today who report to the police will receive a better response than they ever have done before.

This is particularly the case in the North- East where every area has a specialist examination and investigation suite, called a Sexual Assault Referral Centre.

However, all too often rape is just dismissed as one person’s word against another’s because a thorough investigation has not taken place.

Evidence collection and management must be improved. I particularly welcome the improvements that Baroness Stern recommends in terms of making sure that cases like that of Worboys are never allowed to happen again.

I also welcome her recommendations on changing attitudes to rape. Attitudes must change in society as a whole and the Westminster Government should support a Rape Crisis campaign in England and Wales.

THEREFORE, I also welcome the recommendation that education and attitude changing campaigns are designed and rolled out across England and Wales.

It is essential these are Government funded rather than having the piecemeal approach that is currently in place. We have known for a long time that prevention and attitude changing is key to reducing rape – it is time proper financial support is put into turning these recommendations into practice.

Baroness Stern has attempted to shift the focus, saying support for rape victims is just as important as getting a rape conviction. I could not agree more. The review recommendation is that every rape victim should be offered the support of a specialist advisor to help them keep faith in the criminal justice system and that there should be a Sexual Assault Referral Centre in every area.

The problem here though is that support is still talked about in terms of a small group of people who decide to report to the police.

What about the Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service for Darlington and Durham? It has no sustainable funding and has come close to closing. There is, unfortunately, little in the Stern Review that is going to help this to continue to provide a service for the victim survivors who go to them for support.

This is because the service mainly works with those who do not want to make a police report, such as adult survivors of child sexual abuse. Nationally, only about one in ten women who use rape crisis services have reported rape to the police. It is this that remains the substantial, missing part of the jigsaw.

Of course, there is still a role for the criminal justice system here and it is essential that the message is put out that rape is a crime for which perpetrators will be severely punished.

Police responses are better than ever and once a case reaches court there is quite a good chance of getting a conviction – more than 50 per cent. Now, working in an area like this you have to be an optimist otherwise you couldn’t carry on. But, I have to be realistic and say that, unfortunately, a six per cent conviction rate is accurate in terms of the number of cases reported to the police that result in a conviction for rape (if calculated as any conviction this rises to about 12 per cent).

So the problems are in the early stages and this is where the focus must be. Improving investigations so more cases reach court, increasing the support for victims who do not feel able to report to the police and putting proper funding behind prevention campaigns so we can start to seriously reduce the number of people raped and sexually abused.

■ Dr Nicole Westmarland, lecturer in criminal justice at Durham University and former chairwoman of Rape Crisis (England and Wales), is part of a team of academics who conducted the literature review and opinions on rape survey to support the Stern review.