DRCC anniversary - Lack of confidence in legal system

While the philosophy expounded by a senior judge that offenders should pay victims of rape and other crimes compensation would be generally endorsed, it is a concept basically defective in regard to rape.

Undoubtedly, Justice Maureen Harding Clarke's remarks were prompted entirely out of consideration for victims when she addressed a conference organised yesterday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC).

But for compensation to arise, there must first of all be a successful prosecution and currently in this country such an outcome is very difficult.

It is difficult for the simple reason that women who are victims of this crime are reluctant to report the offence because they have no confidence that in our criminal justice system a conviction will ensue.

It is the experience of the DRCC that most of their clients regard the court process as being "at least as traumatic as the offence" and conference chairman Breda Allen said the legal system needed to be radically changed.

Because of this, only one-third of sexual abuse or assault victims lodge complaints.

The number of calls the centre handles annually mirrors the extent of the problem to which rape gives rise.

Their helpline received a total of almost 11,000 calls last year, almost one-fifth of them from people aged 17 and under. Of those calls, almost 5,000 were from people who had been raped at some stage in the previous 12 months.

Over two years ago a report found that Ireland had one of the highest attrition rates in Europe referring to the number and proportion of cases that drop out of the system without a prosecution and one of the lowest conviction rates.

Given that 95% of rape cases do not result in a conviction, according to the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland (RCNI), it is hardly surprising that victims have little or no faith in the criminal justice system here.

Obviously, there is a correlation between the two which is very worrying for a number of reasons, one of them being that so many victims of this appalling crime believe that justice is out of reach in this country.

The implication is that undetected perpetrators of so brutal a crime remain at large to continue to prey on women at will.

Consequently, for as long as it is perceived that rape is a violation without inevitable repercussions for the attacker, so long will it remain a constant peril to women.

Figures from the Court Service show that the number of rape and aggravated sexual assault cases brought to trial at the Central Criminal Court has fallen by a worrying 70% in the course of the last six years.

Last year, the court heard a mere 37 cases, while there were 130 in 1999.

Far from indicating a decrease in this area of crime, it reflects the lack of confidence by women who have suffered such trauma that any result will flow from reporting it.

The work of the DRCC is further complicated because of the increase in the number of calls from refugees and migrants who had been raped or sexually abused in their home countries or since coming here.