Events

Guest Speaker: Professor Vanessa Munro, Warwick Law School

Title: 'Improving CPS Responses to Rape Complaints and Complainants: Lessons Learned in Operation Soteria'

Abstract: Impact Case Study – Despite increased reporting of rape and serious sexual offences to police, charge and conviction rates in England and Wales during the late 2010s and early 2020s were in sharp decline. Indeed, in 2022, a Home Affairs Select Committee report reflected that “public confidence in the ability of the criminal justice system to respond to reports of rape, to support victims and survivors, and - ultimately - to bring perpetrators to justice is at what could be its lowest point,” whilst police and CPS inspectorates concluded there needed to be an “urgent, profound and fundamental shift in how [rape] cases are investigated and prosecuted.” In its ‘End to End Rape Review’, published in 2021, the Ministry of Justice set a key ambition to increase the volume of adult rape cases being referred by police, and charged by the CPS. This was to be achieved through a programme of initiatives across selected police forces and CPS rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) units, which – under the banner of Operation Soteria – would drive improvement in the handling of rape complaints and complainants, thereby informing a new national operating model.

 With a team of academics already in place to design, develop and review Operation Soteria activities on the policing side, the CPS commissioned Vanessa (along with Alice King and Lotte Young Andrade) to undertake an independent assessment of its pilot initiatives, and to work with CPS policy and operational colleagues on distilling best practice lessons to be rolled out more widely. From July 2022 to November 2023, the Warwick team had a degree of access to prosecutors and their case decision-making which has not previously been made available to UK academics. In this paper, Vanessa will present some key findings from the research, whilst also reflecting more broadly on the legacy of Operation Soteria, and on the complexities associated with engaging in this kind of evaluative impact-oriented work in a heavily scrutinised and often highly political environment.