Rape: a Eimlnist P1nalysis of Reni' Public
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RAPE: A EIMLNIST P1NALYSIS OF RENI' PUBLIC SERVICE PROVISI(11S FOR &11ER WITH PARrICULAR REFERE10E TO THE SECUAL ASSNJLT REFERRAL CERE by NARIAN FOLEY Thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Phi1oDhy in the University of Salford Department of Sociology DEYCENBER 1990 TPBLE OF ffE PAGE ACKNX4LEDGEENTS 1 ABSTRACr 11 LIST OF APPENDICES iv IN1RODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE P01 ice Response to Rape 2 Rape Victim examination suites 32 The police context 49 Crime Prevention 55 Crime Surveys 57 Advice to tmen 59 Woman blaming 62 How do the police construct 80 'legitimate' victims? Male attitudes to men reporting 5 rape Women police officers 88 The mare acceptable face of 95 the law? CHAPTER TWO Greater Manchester Police 100 Involvement in The SARC The Chief Constable 100 The Police Authority 103 Police involvement in setting 113 up the SARC The relationship between the 129 Police Authority and the SARC The SARC Liaison ConlTdttee 135 A legal contract between the 138 Police Authority and the SARC CHAPTER THREE Leave it to The Professionals 145 Understandings of professionalism 146 Manchester Rape Crisis Line 159 The women's movement and violence 162 against women Pressure on women's groups to 1b adopt a professional working mode The impact of this process on the 170 women' s movement The British situation ThU From Exclusion to Incorporation 180 A professional response 190 CHAPTER FOUR The Medical i zat ion of Rape 19 The police and the medical 201 profession The medical profession 204 Qualifications and training 2Db How does the SARC operate? 211 Has working at the SARC changed 227 the counsellors attitudes to rape? How is the impact of rape defined 228 and managed? Links between the S RC and the 236 Police Rape as a medical issue 240 CHAPTER FIVE Victim Support Schemes, The Police 259 and Rape Crisis Centres A brief history of Victim Support 259 Schemes The work of Victim Support Schemes 262 State funding 263 VSSs and the Police 265 vSS rk around sexual 266 assault/rape Method of referral 269 Police referrals in rape/sexual 270 assault cases How the police uld like to see 277 RCCs improved VSSS and RCCs 285 The QIP and NRCL 288 The GMP and VSSs 291 VSS's referrals to the SARC 297 vss's referrals to MRCL 299 CONCLUSION 307 BIBLIOGRAPHY 330 APPENDICES 341 244. failed to fit the stereotype of the classic 'rape victim', who were calm and in control, were often accused of lying. In the United cctx C V States forces have acceptedthat you can't tell just b y looking at the woman if the complaint is genuine. However, as we have seen in earlier chapters there are still categories of women who are less likely to be believed and who have less chance of getting their case heard in court. The rape trauma syndrome has not prevented the police from being biased against all women reporting rape, it has merely encouraged them to accept that the stereotype of the 'hysterical' woman reporting rape is just that - a stereotype, and that women who appear calm are just as likely to have been raped as those who are visibly distressed. Rape trauma syndrome has now become incorporated into many police training prograirnes in the United States (O'Reill y , 1974), and has also been used to give credibility to women in certain rape trials (Rowlands, 1985). In this country is has received a more muted welcome although some forces like the Greater Manchester Police include a discussion on it as part of police officers' training. On the basis of their research, Burgess & Holmstrom (1974) developed a counselling progranme based (like Sutherland and Scherl before them, see p. 241) on crisis intervention and the following assumptions: (1) that rape represents a crisis in a woman's lifestyle on the physical, emotional, sexual and social side; (2) that the goal of crisis intervention is to help the woman return to her previous lifestyle as soon as possible; (3) that the women were seen to be 'normal' women who had managed adequately before the rape; (4) as It is the rape which represents the crisis, problems not associated with the rape are not priorities to be addressed. Within this model there are two groups of women for whom crisis intervention would not be ii. ABSTRACT The starting point of this thesis is an examination of recent changes in public service provision of services for women who have experienced rape. I focus on the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) in Manchester, using this case to open up discussion about the 'treatment and 'management' of rape. The SARC is a joint initiative between police and Health Authority and I look at their respective interests in the centre. My central argument in the thesis is that the recent British interest in services for those who have been raped/sexually assaulted, and the consequent growth of these services, reflect a particular medical ideology of rape which in general is not helpful to women, while recognizing that individual women may benefit. I develop this thinking to argue that service provision of this kind seeks to pathologize women by treating their reactions to rape as an 'illness' which needs medical intervention to be 'cured'. Drawing upon analogous work in medical sociology I show that women who fail to fit this model are further pathologized within the medical system. I locate my argument in an examination of the national and local contexts which I seek to demonstrate provided the catalyst for changes in police handling of rape investigations. I argue that arising out of these circumstances the police have sought to establish their 'professionalism', using this as an ideological support for their practices. I look at the concept of professionalism and how it is used by police and medical personnel in their dealings with other associations which work in the field of sexual assault and victim support. This analysis covers the areas of professional attempts to incorporate the work of feminist groups but 111. without the political analysis informed by feminism; the pressure on feminist groups to 'professionalize'; the relation between voluntary associations working in the field of crime and assault, in particular the relationship between Victim Support Schemes and Rape Crisis Centres; the policies used by Government for funding work in the field of sexual assault and other crimes. The thesis concludes with an assessment of the workings of the SARC and the irrlicat ion that I see for women's issues. iv. LIST OF APPEN)ICE Ippendix 1 Lord Lanes Guidelines appendix 2 Home Office Circular 25/1983 Pppendix 3 Home Office Circular 69/1986 appendix 4 Police Questionnaire Pppendix 5 p .cdvanced Sexual Of fences course T imetab 1 e 1. nmjucric This thesis is about rape; it examines a number of issues which are all broadly concerned with events consequent on the reporting of a rape to the police. It Is also about how medicine defines rape and how this particular definition shapes the provision of counselling services for men who have experienced rape. Medical definitions are Independent of police activity, but where the t come together I argue that the result Is a powerful frame for the nnagement of rape. I have come to identify these Issues through examining the setting up and operation of the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) In Manchester. I stress that the Intention in the thesis is not to produce a case study of the SRC, but rather to use the S1RC as a backdrop against which to discuss the issues that I have identified. I have found the SARC instructive in thinking about rape for a number of reasons; it is the first centre of its kind in England; it encompasses police and medical Interests in rape Investigations and In the welfare of men who have experienced rape. The centre is the result of collaboration between the Greater Manchester Police Authority (Q1PA) and the Central Manchester Health Authority (Q'IHA) and was opened In December 1986. Its existence reflects a particular nodel of thinking about rape investigations and the appropriate care and treatment services for men reporting rape. I use the material on the SARC as a lever to open up debate and discussion of broad, general topics which, although present in the S1RC, are not confined to it. 2. In this introductory chapter I examine the circumstances which, I argue, led to the setting up of the centre. Some of the causal factors stem from general national events and issues but I will also argue that local conditions and local personalities In 14archester must be taken into account in understanding the centre's origins: there Is the impetus given by national events and the exploitation of these to meet local circumstances. I turn first to the national issues which I argue Informed the setting up of the SARC. The centre was set up In the wake of a great deal of national public concern, of various kinds, about the way in which xmen were treated by the police and the judiciary In regard to crimes of violence against them; In particular, with regard to the issue of rape. Public concern about the judiciary's attitude to rape was sparked off by the actions of Judge Bertrand Richards who in 1982 fined a convicted rapist £2,000 because, the judge argued, the man the offender raped was guilty of a "great deal of contributory negligence" (The Guardian, 6. 1. 1982). His remarks were widely reported in the media and a great deal of expressed public concern followed the publication of this incident.