‘Appalling’ conviction rate for over 100 sexual offences reported at Leeds and Reading festivals
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/aug/17/appalling-conviction-rate-for-over-100-sexual-offences-at-leeds-and-reading-festivals?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Posted by Superb_Boss289
9 Comments
First comments going to possibly be asking about pre-COVID data for comparisons sake.
These have to be some of the hardest to investigate and prosecute.
A 3% rape prosecution rate x 60% conviction rate x 16 allegations = < 0.5 prosecution and 1/4 conviction
It’s shit, but should (based on real world numbers) we expect any more?
Im not sure what the police can do? Rape and sexual assault cases are hard to prosecute as its he said she said. And thats not enough to get a conviction
Even evidence of semen doesnt prove it wasnt consensual
> Campaigners say police must do more
I would invite suggestions. What specifically do campaigners think the police should do here?
maybe its good that so many turned out to be innocent?
Without the rest of the breakdown of the figures, this doesn’t tell us much. The most common outcome for sexual offences is “victim declined to prosecute” (usually at least two thirds of cases) and many people don’t want an investigation or prosecution even at the point of reporting. Still more end because police can’t maintain contact with the victim. While we can say something about the broader things the justice system could do to change that and build public confidence, in the moment of reporting it’s still more or less impossible (and inappropriate) for the police to prosecute a “decline to prosecute” case. Those which they have a chance with take time. Too much time, for justice, I absolutely agree – but again that systemic problem is much wider and harder to tackle. >3 months for a CPS charging decision is by no means unusual. So something not being charged after a year isn’t synonymous with *never* getting charged.
The practice in the press of just quoting crime counting numbers and prosecution numbers, without any other context, is not very insightful and, to me, only serves to further reduce confidence.
As with all these things, most of them turn into a “she said he said” situation
What are the police and courts meant to do about conviction rates there
The crazy thing is that when there’s evidence the conviction rate for sex crimes is actually pretty high, around 70% I think. Not far off most other crimes.
This is almost rage bait designed to make you think predators are getting off easy, when in reality it’s just that we can’t convict without evidegce
>Just four out of more than 100 reported sexual offences at Reading and Leeds music festivals since 2018 have so far resulted in prosecutions, according to figures shared with the Observer.
Obviously no one has learned anything about sexual offenses and charges over the past two decades.
>“There has been a normalisation of this violence against women and girls, which just says, ‘oh, well, you’d expect that’, or ‘those are the numbers, that’s pretty much the national average’,” Sharrocks told the Observer. “And actually, can we please just be a bit horrified about this, that this happens the week after young people’s exams, and they’re all being put in very dangerous positions with very little access to justice if something goes wrong.”
Well, I mean, violence *is normal*. We don’t live in a utopia, and it’s going to happen to some degree. And 0.17 sexual assaults per 1,000 attendees at Reading seems pretty low.
>Thames Valley police provided figures for Reading festival covering 2021 to 2023. Those three years saw 52 reports of sexual assaults