Military investigations - failing victims

[RosieH]

A shocking report by Channel 4 News today shows that conviction rates following investigations of rape in the military justice system are a staggeringly low 2.6%. And we thought 6% in civilian courts was appalling.

My knee jerk reaction as a woman is revulsion at a violent misogynistic organisation that protects its own. On reflection though, and before I start picketing the MOD, I wonder about wider prosecutions of all violent assault within the armed forces, whether it's sexual in nature, or a group of squaddies kicking the shit out of someone they don't like the look of in town on a Saturday night.

Is the conviction rate for those too around half that of all forms of violent assault outside of the military? I've no doubt that the military protects its own, but is it a question of degree, or is rape a special, and deeply disturbing, case?

[ImpetuousVrouw]

This is pretty grim. I don't know if it's an indication of general lack of accountability in the armed forces or mysogyny.

I think there may be a level of brutalisation in the military which makes it possible for them to do the things asked of them, that might be responsible for the mysoginistic attitude to women.

But the closing of ranks that follows incidents would make any prosecutions problematic in my opionion.

Not sure what the answer might be though.

[Loz]

Whilst the non-military rape allegation to conviction rate is a low 6%, that is pretty comparable to most other crimes. If the complaint actually gets to court, the conviction rate is about 58%.

As far as the military investigation goes, were the complaints predominately soldier against soldier, UK civilian against soldier or Afghan/Iraqi civilian against soldier?

[RosieH]

That's interesting Loz - can you point me in the direction of the info that says 6% is comparable to other crimes? The 58% stat, while baldly accurate as the conviction rate for cases that do make it to court, doesn't account for the huge number of cases that don't. And then you have of course the stigma around rape, that may be unique to crimes of sexual violence, that means that many crimes go unreported. These issues need to be addressed.

However the C4 report was looking specifically at the military and it was that that interested me - why the conviction rate should be less than half that of a civilian court. My understanding of the report is that it covers all complaints - though the specific examples given were of women civilians in Germany.

[Loz]

Well, I found them, Rosie - and it was a much harder task that I thought.

There are two figures: Attrition Rate (from complain to conviction) and Conviction Rate (cases that get to court that are convicted).

For attrition rates, I found the following on this site. I'm not entirely happy with the source web site (I like well known and believable sources). However, as the stats seem to have originally come from the Beeb, and I can't find any others, I'll go with them.

Attempted murder - 14%

Robbery - 10%

Cruelty and Neglect of Children - 9%

Rape - 6.5%

Violence against the person - 4%

However, it is worth noting that the 6.5% is the figure for rape complainants that end in a conviction for rape. If you take into account other convictions (e.g. sexual assault) then the figure rises to 13%. Part of this is thought to be due to misunderstanding about what 'rape' (in the eyes of the law) by the complainant, though I imagine part of it is chances of a realistic conviction meaning prosecutors going for a lesser charge.

I can't find figures for any other offences. These ones were hard enough to find!

Conviction Rates were a bit easier to find, thanks to a Ministry of Justice report from this year (Page 30). The author detailed the offences with he lowest and highest Conviction Rates. These were:

Highest:

Making indecent photos of children: 89%

Death by dangerous driving: 85%

Drug possession with intent to supply 84%

Money transfer by deception 79%

Conspiracy to rob 78%

Falsely obtaining benefit,Conspiracy to defraud 77%

Murder 76%

Handling stolen goods,Burglary 73%

Lowest:

Unlawful wounding 49%

GBH 48%

Manslaughter 48%

Attempted murder 47%

Common assault 41%

Threatening to kill 36%

So, rape has a pretty average conviction rate, though high as violent offences against the person go. Seems sad that money/drug offences all have a higher conviction rate that any type of assault.

Burglary was the interesting one, as I can't find the Attrition Rate. I'm betting it's rather low.

Well, that was an interesting way to spend an hour!