We must fix our broken legal system to help protect women from sexual abuse

Barrister Cherie Blair explains why now more than ever we must do all we can to protect survivors of rape and assault. The writer is backing The Independent’s Brick by Brick campaign

The legal system must be overhauled to increase women’s confidence in reporting these heinous crimes and be supported when they have the courage to do so (Chris Jackson/WPA/Getty)

When I started as a barrister over 45 years ago, the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1976 had just come into force, but there was little understanding of the dynamics of domestic abuse, sexual abuse and rape.

Domestic abuse was regarded as “just a domestic” and not the social issue we know it to be today. It would be more than a decade before marital rape was made illegal in the early 1990s.

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While progress has been made to improve legislation around VAWG (violence against women and girls) there is still a long way to go – and it is clear pervasive rape myths still exist which prevent survivors from accessing justice. Rape still has the lowest charging level of any crime and when around only 1 per cent of reported rapes lead to a conviction in England and Wales, it is clear the legal system is woefully failing survivors.

A YouGov poll which was commissioned by the End Violence Against Women Coalition into attitudes to rape and sexual violence had some worrying results. It showed one-third of people in Britain think it isn’t usually rape if a woman is pressured into having sex but there is no physical violence; a third of men think if a woman has flirted on a date it generally wouldn’t count as rape (even if she hasn’t explicitly consented to sex); and a quarter think that sex without consent in long-term relationships is usually not rape.

These social attitudes are concerning because they show a huge proportion of adults in Britain – who make up juries that are responsible for deciding the verdict in rape trials – are doing so despite being very unclear about what constitutes rape and consent.

Emily Hunt OBE, the Ministry of Justice’s independent adviser to its rape review, stepped down last year and said myths about rape are perpetuated at high levels of the police and civil service and that there is a “lack of will to continue to change.” Hunt is not the first to call out these issues. For years fellow survivors and women’s specialist support organisations have spoken out about a culture of disbelief and victim blaming, where often survivors themselves feel they are on trial and face harrowing experiences in the courts.

The decision to come forward about these experiences is already incredibly difficult for survivors, and trust in the system is already woefully low. Women and girls need to know that they can trust the police when reporting abuse, and faith needs to be restored in the justice system to support survivors when they do come forward.

On top of worryingly low conviction rates and low confidence in the system, the backlog of rape and sexual offences in the crown courts in England and Wales has also risen to a record high. Rape cases are now taking an average of more than two years to complete in court, with these long waiting times leaving survivors in limbo and having a devastating impact on their wellbeing. These delays put survivors at risk, compound trauma, and increase the chances of women dropping out of the criminal justice process.

The legal system must be overhauled to increase women’s confidence in reporting these heinous crimes and be supported when they have the courage to do so – not be re-traumatised whilst trying to access the justice they deserve.

With conviction rates at such catastrophically low levels, many have warned we are effectively facing the decriminalisation of rape. We cannot allow sexual assault and rape conviction rates to continue to fall. We must do something now to improve women’s confidence and treat rape and sexual offences as the serious crimes that they are.

There is an upcoming legislative opportunity with the Victims and Prisoners Bill to ensure survivors are better supported and that the criminal justice system is more trauma-informed. Specialist services such as Independent Domestic Violence Advocates and Independent Sexual Violence Advocates have proven to be key in ensuring survivors feel supported within the justice system, but currently, they are deeply overworked and underfunded. We must ensure every survivor has access to this specialist support, and that survivors are supported at every step of the process. 

The government must take this opportunity, and listen to women’s services who are calling for the bill to include full, ringfenced funding for specialist community-based services. A victims’ bill can only place survivors at the heart of the justice system if it is backed by the proper funding that experts are calling for. Rape survivors deserve a legal system that stands with them, not against them.

Cherie Blair CBE, KC is a barrister and writer

Please donate now to the Brick by Brick campaign, launched by ‘The Independent’ and the charity Refuge, to help raise £300,000 to build a safe space for women where they can escape domestic abuse, rebuild their lives and make a new future

Anyone who requires help or support can contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline which is open 24/7 365 days per year on 0808 2000 247 or via its website