I\u2019m inspired to write this post because I have, for some time, been awaiting publication of research by Professor Cheryl Thomas of UCL on rape trial juries and associated matters. I find it has been published \u2013 back in November 2020 \u2013 but not for us plebs as yet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To avoid burdening the thrust of this post with the rape statistics themselves, I relegate a review of them to the Appendix, below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The salient point is that prosecutions, and convictions, for rape have been falling. Some people might regard this as a good thing \u2013 just as some of us would regard the falling rate of domestic abuse as a good thing. But not the feminists, who require more prosecutions – far more – and all those prosecuted must be convicted: to be accused is to be guilty. Not that there is any shortage of men in prison for sexual offences, namely around 13,500 men, accounting now for 18% of the prison population<\/a>. This number has been climbing steadily for many years, having doubled since 2005<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Readers may recall a petition to the Government in 2018: \u201cAll jurors in rape trials to complete compulsory training about rape myths<\/a>\u201d. The petitioners claimed that,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cResearch shows that jurors accept commonly held rape myths resulting in many incorrect not guilty verdicts. Rapists are walking free from court, although evidence is robust<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cResearch by Rape Crisis & Alison Saunders, Director of Public Prosecutions, finds that jurors often accept rape myths & thus acquit rapists who are in fact guilty. 66% of jurors do not understand judges’ legal directions which attempt to dispel rape myths, but fail. Jurors need proper rape myth training prior to & throughout trials<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaving aside that Alison Saunders is hardly one’s first choice if the objective is to bolster credibility…The petitioners’ claims were followed by three links, as if to material reporting the ostensible \u201cresearch\u201d. Not so. All the links merely list the supposed rape myths (e.g., this one<\/a>); none provide any evidence whatsoever that there is widespread public belief in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no such research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can be pretty confident about that for two reasons. Firstly, had there been any, it would certainly have been linked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More fundamentally, though, to support the contention regarding rape trial jurors\u2019 views it would be necessary to interview such jurors. This is problematic because jurors are prohibited from discussing cases. Special dispensation would be required to permit jurors\u2019 to answer questions put to them by specifically authorised researchers. To-date the only researcher granted this permission in England is Professor Cheryl Thomas. Hence my interest in what she would report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her report is here: The 21st century jury: contempt, bias and the impact of jury service<\/em>, Criminal Law Review (11) pp. 987-1011<\/a>. You will be disappointed to find that you cannot access it, and not only due to a paywall. It is restricted to staff within UCL Discovery<\/a> until 2nd<\/sup> November 2021. (This is likely because it has been published in the law journals which need to justify their exorbitant subscriptions before it is made available to the hoi polloi). My knowledge of its contents comes entirely from a brief review by Joshua Rozenberg QC<\/a>. I\u2019ll get to that shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTraining\u201d juries prior to trial, which the petition requests, is a terribly disturbing suggestion. We know who will do the \u201ctraining\u201d, those whom the establishment consider \u201cexperts\u201d in the subject. It would subvert the purpose of an independent jury, namely that the accused be judged by his peers: ordinary untainted citizens. Any \u201ceducation\u201d prior to the trial is prejudicial to this ideal, even if it were of benign motivation. It would not be of benign motivation \u2013 it would be motivated by the objective of gaining more convictions, not a more accurate verdict. As just one example, what if the jury were told, as they certainly would be, that \u201cfalse allegations of rape are extremely rare\u201d? If the jurors believed it, the verdict would be assured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who interpret any not-guilty verdict in a rape trial as the jury\u2019s error have also called for juries to be scrapped entirely in rape trials, for example Bindel, 2016<\/a> and MP Ann Coffey<\/a>. The debate in Parliament on the matter in 2018<\/a> was not a debate but feminist MPs agreeing with each other. Coffey also suggested \u201cspecialist rape courts\u201d and referred to juries being \u201creluctant to convict young men\u201d. With 24 times as many men as women in prison, with the number of men in prison for sex offences increasing yearly despite smaller volumes of cases – what planet is she on? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Readers may recognise the name Cheryl Thomas. She has previous in respect of upsetting the feminist position on rape juries. In her 2010 review of this subject, (Thomas, 2010<\/a>), she concluded that, contrary to popular belief and previous official reports, juries in rape trials convict more often than they acquit. In 2010 Professor Thomas also concluded that,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Jury conviction rates for rape vary according to the gender and age of the complainant, with high conviction rates for some female complainants and low conviction rates for some male complainants. This challenges the view that juries\u2019 failure to convict in rape cases is due to juror bias against female complainants.<\/em>‘<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words it is men, not women, who get short-changed by the justice system when complaining about rape. In Tables 19.4a-c of my book<\/a> I compare conviction rates for male and female complainants (of all ages), data which is fully consistent with Thomas\u2019s conclusion. She also concludes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Juries are not primarily responsible for the low conviction rate on rape allegations<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so to Professor Thomas\u2019s latest research which was commissioned by the senior judiciary specifically to respond to the 2018 petition. What I report is brought to us by Joshua Rozenberg QC<\/a>. He reminds us that all judges in the Crown Court are provided with guidance on the issues specific to rape cases. Judges have been directing juries on rape myths and stereotypes for more than a decade. In respect of the petition\u2019s claims regarding jurors\u2019 widespread belief in the \u201crape myths\u201d, Thomas was scathing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the time of the petition there had been no research in England and Wales with real jurors on the issue of whether they accepted commonly held rape myths or understood judges\u2019 directions on such myths. This meant that the petition\u2019s claim that research showed jurors accepted commonly held rape myths and did not understood judges\u2019 directions on these myths could not have been correct<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s academic speak for \u201clying toerags\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What Thomas actually found was,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHardly any jurors believe what are often referred to as widespread myths and stereotypes about rape and sexual assault. The overwhelming majority of jurors do not believe that rape must leave bruises or marks, that a person will always fight back when being raped, that dressing or acting provocatively or going out alone at night is inviting rape, that men cannot be raped or that rapes will always be reported immediately. The small proportion of jurors who do believe any of these myths or stereotypes amounts to less than one person on a jury [of 12]<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consistent with Thomas\u2019s 2010 research, Rozenberg writes,<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExisting research showed that juries convict in rape cases more often than they acquit, Thomas explained. The jury conviction rate in rape cases is higher than it is for other serious crimes such as attempted murder, grievous bodily harm and threatening to kill<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is interesting to compare coercive control in the domestic abuse context with the MO of feminism society-wide. The constant repetition of the claim that \u201cwe\u201d believe the ostensible rape myths is akin to gaslighting. You don\u2019t believe them yourself, and you\u2019re fairly sure most people you know don\u2019t either \u2013 but you begin to doubt whether maybe the infamous teeming hordes of deplorables are the problem. No, it\u2019s an invention. It springs from the darker recesses of the psyches of our accusers. It does not come from a desire for justice, or even a desire to protect women. It comes from a blood-lust to punish men, for being men. What lies behind this is insatiable prejudice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are myths about rape, though. One is that we live in a rape culture. Another is that women’s allegations are always strictly honest, including those about rape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Appendix: Rape Prosecution and Conviction Statistics<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Actually I will not be giving you rape statistics here, but the statistics which the CPS are pleased to refer to as rape, namely \u201crape flagged cases\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recall that the CPS is the organisation in whose VAWG reports, \u201cViolence\u201d does not mean violence, \u201cWomen\u201d does not mean women, and \u201cGirls\u201d does not mean girls. Instead VAWG, we are told, is a category of crime and includes men and boys as victims (in some cases, e.g., modern slavery, the majority of the victims). There is absolutely no intention to mislead or to bury male victimisation, I\u2019m sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cases are \u201crape flagged\u201d if an allegation of rape has been made. Such cases retain their rape-flagged status even if any ultimate prosecution is not for rape but for a lesser offence. Hence, what the CPS appear to class as \u201cconvictions for rape\u201d are actually convictions in a case that was rape-flagged, but the conviction may not be for rape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a rough guide, MOJ data for true rape cases indicates that about half of the CPS\u2019s \u201crape prosecutions\u201d are not for rape, and about half of the CPS\u2019s \u201crape convictions\u201d are not for rape. Bear that in mind throughout the stats below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n