Rape victims need answers over plummeting prosecutions as authorities trade blame

Analysis: As the Crown Prosecution Service and police blame each other, campaigners say rape has been ‘decriminalised’, Lizzie Dearden writes

Protesters dumped documents representing rape victims’ phone data outside the CPS’s offices in November (Sister's Uncut)

The number of reported rapes being prosecuted in England and Wales has fallen so low that campaigners claim the crime has been “decriminalised”.

Last year, only 1.5 per cent of almost 55,300 rapes recorded by police were charged – a lower proportion than any other type of crime.

The figure has plummeted in the past four years, but the reasons remain shrouded in mystery as different arms of the criminal justice system trade blame.