Policing Sexual Violence: Key Informants’ Report. Women, Rape and the Police Investigation Process

Abstract

A review of a sample of Police rape files from 2015 (Jordan & Mossman, 2019) was recently undertaken to compare the findings with an earlier 1997 study (Jordan, 2004). The review aimed to assess how the Police investigation process had changed post-Commission of Inquiry. This ‘Key Informant Study’ presented in this report was undertaken to supplement this file review. The decision to conduct this additional study was made to compare changes observed in the files to those directly experienced by the specialist support agency workers, forensic doctors and victim/survivor advocates who support victim/survivors.1 The principal objectives were to: (i) assess how well victim/survivor advocates, medical and support agencies considered victim/surivors were served by current Police investigative procedures; (ii) reflect on any changes perceived in relation to police responses to rape allegations; and (iii) identify any issues/population groups posing contemporary challenges for the Police in relation to the reporting and investigation of sexual violence.