27/01/2023
Police Oracle
The MoJ has published the findings of research into the needs of RASSO victims
In 2021, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) made a commitment in the Rape Review Action Plan to conduct “targeted research with rape victims to better understand their experiences and what they want from support services so that future provision meets need”.
To meet this commitment and to fully inform the recommissioning of the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund (RASAF), MOJ analysts and external contractors undertook three strands of research:
Yesterday (26 January), the Ministry of Justice published the methodology, findings and recommendations from this research in the following four reports:
The findings from the research were organised under three main headings.
Barriers to accessing support
The research found that when deciding whether to seek support, adult victim-survivors of rape and sexual violence often face barriers at individual, social and cultural levels.
Individual level factors relate to victim-survivors’ feelings, beliefs and emotions. These including feelings of shame and self-blame and believing an assault was not “serious enough” to warrant accessing report. In many cases, shame was closely linked to a fear of not being believed by support providers. Other factors included wanting to move on from what had happened, feeling too distressed, overwhelmed and/or disconnected to talk about their experience, fears that counselling/support would resurface trauma and being so distressed they did not know what services they needed.
Social and cultural factors relate to factors such as victim-survivors’ family, friends, religion, background and ethnicity. The literature review found that negative reactions from family and/or friends upon first disclosure can act as a barrier to accessing formal support. There were also distinct barriers for victim-survivors from ethnic minorities were also identified in the literature review including fear of bringing family shame or being ostracised, cultural taboos of speaking about sexual violence, not wanting to betray others, wanting to protect community honour, and expectations to be strong.
Should victim-survivors overcome these barriers and decide to seek support, they are often then be faced with a second layer of structural barriers, in relation to how a service is designed and delivered. This may make it difficult or, in some cases, impossible for them to access formal support services. The most basic of these was a lack of services or long waiting lists. Many people were also not aware of support service or how to access them.
What support do victim-survivors want?
The main findings under this heading was that people wanted a choice to different form of support and effective referrals to those support services (as opposed to mere signposting). Other key factors which were valued in support services were:
Many women wanted the option of accessing a same sex support group and/or worker.
Effectiveness of support
Researchers found a very limited evidence base on the effectiveness of support offered to adult victim-survivors of sexual violence. There was little evidence on the impact of formal support on coping and building resilience.
Neither was there high-quality evidence on the effectiveness of any interventions in reducing the barriers victim-survivors face in accessing support or the effectiveness of different modes of delivering support.
However, in relation to the effectiveness of support for victim-survivors engaging with the criminal justice process, there is some available existing evidence to suggest that victim-survivors supported by an Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and other support (such as charities) are more likely to report to the police.
Recommendations
The five main recommendations stemming from the research were the need to: