There is, sadly, a fair chance that I may get more flack for this than I did for my BigotGate post. But it needs saying.
This trigger for this post was the ConLib government’s announcement yesterday as part of the full coalition agreement that they are looking to restore rape defendants’ right to anonymity, and a subsequent conversation I had with my partner about violence against women. It turns out men, even wonderful men, are not terribly aware of the facts surrounding this issue.
Let’s get one thing straight right from the start: violence against women is absolutely endemic in our society. I’m talking about rape (at least 80,000 women suffer rape in the UK every year), domestic violence (1 in 4 women will suffer this in the course of their lives), sexual abuse (32% of children are abused – mostly girls). 45% of women in the UK have at some point in their lives been victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse or stalking. (White Ribbon Campaign) A quarter of girls aged 13 to 17 have experienced physical violence from a boyfriend and a third have been pressured into sexual acts. (NSPCC survey quoted by BBC)
Those are the high-level national statistics. Let’s take it down a notch – let’s take it down to a personal level. Do you personally know any women who’ve been victims of violence? Well yes, you do. About seven years ago I wrote about being a victim of sexual abuse. So that’s one woman you know. When I wrote about my experiences, a shocking number of women among my personal friends and acquaintances came forward in private to share similar stories. Among the women I know, I know of 3 rapes, 3 women other than me who were abused as children, 3 victims of domestic violence. And those are just the ones I know about, just the major incidents. As far as I know none of these women have made an attempt to take legal action against their abusers. We all just walked away.
Add this to the picture: the endless list of small insidious incidents that violate women’s minds or bodies – the things that, given all the big stuff that’s going on, just aren’t worth making a fuss about. They include verbal harassment and a range of physical incidents from groping to flashing. I can already hear half of you shouting that that’s not violence. But it is. It violates women’s bodily or mental integrity, it objectifies them, it negatively impacts the way women feel about themselves.
Let’s take that down to the personal level again. I have been on the receiving end of sexual harassment in the workplace once (not in my current job, I hasten to add), and of small incidents of physical violence four times. While I have talked in public about being an abuse victim, I have never before told anyone about those smaller incidents because compared to my and other women’s more harrowing experiences, they pale into insignificance. But here’s how those incidents made me feel: angry, ashamed, blaming myself, and yes – violated. I said earlier that we – women – don’t make a fuss about this type of low-level violence. Only three other women have ever talked to me about similar experiences. I really don’t believe we are unique. But we just let this kind of thing go. For an insight into the psychological impact of this ubiquitousness of violence on women you could do worse than reading Schroedinger’s Rapist over on Kate Harding’s blog.
Are you convinced yet that violence against women is endemic in our society? Here are some more stats (Amnesty UK): Over 1 in 4 people believe a woman is responsible for being raped if she is wearing revealing clothing; over 1 in 5 believe she is responsible for being raped if she has had many sexual partners. (Nick Clegg has had 30 sexual partners. Is he asking for it?) Again, the impact of constantly being told – subtly or not so subtly – by society around you that being a victim of violence is your own fault is that sooner or later you start believing it. The first reaction most women will have after a violent incident is to ask themselves what it was they did to deserve it, or what they could have done to stop or prevent it.
So not only is violence against women endemic (You know many women who have been victims of it.); not only is it socially acceptable (How many of you thought my experiences of being harassed just weren’t a big deal? I did.); but now the first action our new government has announced which will have a direct impact in this area will make it worse.
It’s taken me 24 hours to pull this post together because I wanted to go away and do some fact checking. I wanted to know how people charged with other crimes are treated in terms of identification. I honestly didn’t know, so I asked Twitter for some help and @gwenhwyfaer found the official document on reporting restrictions in the criminal courts for me. Here’s what it says:

In recognition of the open justice principle, the general rule is that justice should be administered in public. To this end:

• Proceedings must be held in public.
• Evidence must be communicated publicly.
• Fair, accurate and contemporaneous media reporting of proceedings should not be prevented by any action of the court unless strictly necessary.

Therefore, unless there are exceptional circumstances laid down by statute law and/or common law the court must not:

• Order or allow the exclusion of the press or public from court for any part of the proceedings.
• Permit the withholding of information from the open court proceedings.
• Impose permanent or temporary bans on reporting of the proceedings or any part of them including anything that prevents the proper identification, by name and address, of those appearing or mentioned in the course of proceedings.

There are exceptions: Children’s identities are generally protected; the identities of victims of sexual offences are protected (though the defendant can request for the identity of the victim to be made public if there is reason to believe that witnesses for the defence will come forward as a result); hearings can happen in camera (in secret) “where the hearing of the case in public would frustrate or render impracticable the administration of justice.” The document, however, explicitly states that “The fact (…) that hearing evidence in open court will cause embarrassment to witnesses does not meet the test for necessity.”
Given how clearly the principles of open justice are stated, one does have to wonder why the ConLib government is looking to extend anonymity rights to defendants in rape cases – a proposal that was in neither party’s election manifesto. What is it they’re trying to achieve? There have been some high-profile cases where men have been falsely accused of rape. And of course this has had a negative impact on those defendants. However, the current system offers sufficient safeguards for this already: a woman who is is found to have made a false claim will generally be prosecuted (and publicly identified). What this move is likely to achieve instead is to decrease both the reporting and the conviction rate for rapes even further (and let’s face it, those rates are already abysmally low). It sends the message that women and their safety aren’t valued. And it will prevent other victims of the same rapist from coming forward.
If you don’t want your life to be negatively impacted by being falsely accused of rape, the answer is not to give anonymity to defendants. The answer is to work towards making rape – and any other violence against women – history. We have a long way to go. Women need to feel safe to speak out about their experiences; we need to make it clear to everyone that violence against women (or anyone for that matter) is not acceptable; we need to raise awareness of all types of violence against women – from rapes and murders right down to groping and flashing; we need a fundamental cultural shift, not cosmetic legal changes.
And right now, I as a woman do not feel safe in the hands of the current government. So when this legislation comes before Parliament, I will be writing to my MP (useless though he is), and I will be asking all of you to do the same, to make sure that it does not pass.
Here are some additional references/materials on the subject:
The White Ribbon Campaign aims to get men involved in the fight against violence against women. Go and sign up.
Women’s Aid is a national charity working to end domestic violence against women and children.
Unfortunately, instances of domestic violence against men are also rising.
Hidden Hurt has a page specifically for male victims of domestic violence.