[trigger warning]
As I mentioned earlier, the letter from the Equalities Office regarding the government's rape prevention strategy had several areas I was going to follow up.
I've now sent messages to the various departments I'd earlier identified as potentially relevant, and I'll post again as and when I get replies.
The full text of the letters is below, for reference (long!)
I've gone for writing the letters with the assumption that there is a cross-departmental rape prevention strategy which covers a wide range of areas, informed by the substantial volume of published research on rapists, and treated as a high priority by ministers.1
If you think I've missed an area of rape prevention that a department should be responsible for - or an entire department - then please let me know and I'll ask them. If you've asked any government departments about rape prevention yourself, could you let me know which ones, and how useful their answer was?
Home Office / Equalities Office
This is a follow-up to their earlier reply.
Thank you for your recent response to my questions. There are a few questions arising from that for which I would like more information.
- You said that "The Home Office is planning a new campaign which will raise awareness of elements of the Sexual Offences Act". Are more details about this planned campaign currently available?
- You said that the Home Office is the lead department regarding rape prevention. Could you tell me which other departments are currently involved in the government's rape prevention strategy?
- With regard to research into the prevalence and taxonomy of perpetrators of rape, you said that the Home Office currently has no plans to commission research in this area. Could you tell me what pieces of existing research in this area the Home Office is using to inform its rape prevention strategies?
Education
I am following up a conversation with a representative of the Home Office on the topic of the prevention of rape. While the Home Office has lead responsibility for this, there seem to be several areas within your department that would be covered by a governmental rape prevention strategy, and I would like to know more about the specific actions being taken by the Department of Education on this issue.
As you will be aware, numerous surveys have found that teenagers are at high risk of sexual assault and rape perpetrated by other teenagers. Could you please tell me what actions the department has taken to ensure that:
- All children receive appropriate teaching in consent and related issues (not necessarily solely as relates to sexual activity), to reduce the likelihood that they will commit rape or other sexual offences either as a teenager or as an adult, and to reduce the prevalence of common myths about rape among children and young adults.
- Teenage perpetrators of sexual offences are dealt with as befits the seriousness of the offence, and the urgent need to prevent reoffending.
In addition, could you tell me what research the department uses to inform its policy regarding the prevention of rape and effective education on consent issues, and if applicable what additional research the department has commissioned or intends to commission.
Culture, Media and Sport
I am following up a conversation with a representative of the Home Office on the topic of the prevention of rape. While the Home Office has lead responsibility for this, there seem to be several areas within your department that would be covered by a governmental rape prevention strategy, and I would like to know more about the specific actions being taken by the Department on this issue.
As Lord McNally stated (Hansard HL Deb, 24 May 2011, c1682)
"I agree with the noble Baroness that it is time to publicise the seriousness of rape, and I think that that could be started in the schools and by looking at some of the worrying things in advertising, in pop music and in some of the newspapers [...] Some of those should look at where they put the position of women in society and whether they encourage young men to give women the respect that they should have."
As the department responsible for many of the areas mentioned in Lord McNally's speech, could you please tell me what steps the department is taking in the following areas:
- Encouraging private media and creative industries to refrain from producing or distributing creative works which condone, normalise or minimise rape and sexual assault, promote myths about rape, or otherwise work against the government's strategy of rape prevention.
- Ensuring that publicly-funded media, advertising, and creative works do not condone, normalise or minimise rape and sexual assault, promote myths about rape, or otherwise work against the government's strategy of rape prevention.
- Encouraging accurate and myth-free reporting of both specific rape and sexual assault trials and the general prevalence of rape and sexual assault, and discouraging the sensationalising of this reporting.
Defence
I am following up a conversation with a representative of the Home Office on the topic of the prevention of rape. While the Home Office has lead responsibility for this, there seem to be several areas within your department that would be covered by a governmental rape prevention strategy, and I would like to know more about the specific actions being taken by the Ministry of Defence on this issue.
Could you please tell me what steps the Ministry is taking in the following areas:
- Given the widespread use of rape as a weapon of war, what is being done to protect civilian populations in areas in which UK forces are involved?
- Studies such as McWhorter 2009 [1] show that a significant proportion of military personnel have themselves committed rape. What steps does the MoD take to detect these people to reject them during recruitment and to protect fellow soldiers and civilians from them if they remain undetected at the recruitment stage?
Additionally, could you tell me if the MoD has any plans to commission research similar to McWhorter's, and what existing research in this area it already uses.
[1] Reports of Rape Reperpetration by Newly Enlisted Male Navy Personnel by Stephanie K. McWhorter, et al., published in Violence and Victims, Vol, 24, No. 2, 2009. The study found that around 13% of male new recruits to the US Navy had attempted or committed rape, many on multiple occasions.
Justice
I am following up a conversation with a representative of the Home Office on the topic of the prevention of rape. While the Home Office has lead responsibility for this, there seem to be several areas within your department that would be covered by a governmental rape prevention strategy, and I would like to know more about the specific actions being taken by the Ministry of Justice on this issue.
While, obviously, the Ministry has a major role to play in the conviction, imprisonment and possible rehabilitation of rapists and other sex offenders, to reduce the number of future offences that they commit, I am also interested in what steps the Ministry is taking in the following areas:
- Ensuring that prisoner education and rehabilitation includes programs intended to reduce sexual offending, including those prisoners who were not arrested for a sexual offence.
- 2) Preventing rape and sexual assault within the prison environment.
- 3) Working to rehabilitate those sexual offenders whose detected offences do not merit a custodial sentence so that they do not commit more serious sexual offences later in life.
I would also be interested to know what research on the behaviour and taxonomy of rapists and other serious sexual offenders the Ministry uses to inform its policies in these areas.
Footnotes
1 Also, a pony.
