This week, the Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said it’s time for UK’s legal system to put the onus on the attacker, rather than the victim, in rape cases, and outlined a new set of legal guidelines to make that happen. If the new guidelines are utilized, rape suspects will be required to offer hard proof that consent was given “with full capacity and freedom to do so.”
“For too long society has blamed rape victims for confusing the issue of consent, by drinking or dressing provocatively, for example, but it is not they who are confused, it is society itself and we must challenge that,” Saunders said in the Telegraph article.
The Guardian noted that some pitfalls of the new guidelines may include the use of social media platforms to set up false narratives. Harriet Wistritch, who wrote the opinion piece, has given legal advice to rape victims who’ve been “deeply unhappy” with the way their cases were handled by police officers. Wistritch argues that while new, more innovative guidelines are welcome, officers need to be adhering to guidelines already in place.
“The (Crown Prosecution Service’s) new rape toolkit might make welcome headlines,” she wrote, “but I won’t be celebrating until police officers and prosecutors are made to put existing policies and guidelines in practice or face appropriate sanction for failing to do so.”
Media Resources: The Telegraph, 1/28/15; The Guardian, 1/29/15
