Glenda Daniels A new project to improve the treatment of rape victims reporting the crime in the Western Cape has been completed by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). The BJA conducted a study of the experiences of women reporting rapes at three Cape Flats police stations. The report shows that women are often not believed, are asked to consider carefully if they want to press charges, do not find police officers available to take statements, are interrupted while making statements and sometimes suffer further abuse at the police station. The governmentOs main rape prevention strategy last year was to announce that the conviction of as many rapists as possible was necessary to deter potential rapists. Investigating how rape victims are treated from the time they report the crime until the actual conviction of the rapist is crucial to finding a rape prevention strategy that works. Between January and June 1999 23 900 cases of rape were reported nationally and only 10% reached the courts. In September last year Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna and National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka asked the BJA to investigate ways to improve the services to rape victims. The BJA designed its project based on its findings from the study of the three police stations. The project is designed for immediate implementation under Ngcuka to improve the investigation of rape cases and the treatment of victims in the first month after reporting the crime, and then to strengthen liaison with the courts and prosecution.
A Rape Crisis review of 887 women found the main reason why women do not report rape is that they fear the criminal justice system will not believe them. The document, released by researcher Virginia Francis for the BJA and the Vera Institute for Justice, says some investigating officers treated victims well, while other victims reported poor treatment.
The experiences below outline some of the problems that women encounter when they report rape. l OWhen I arrived at the police station there was no queue. I met with a male police officer who asked me what my complaint was. When I told him he immediately stopped me and called a female officer. After telling her that I was raped by my ex-boyfriend, she told me not to lay a charge against him. Instead she offered to call him and reprimand him. She emphasised that the docket would not be opened. She also said she does not want to get involved in such matters and she was angry.O
l OThe investigating officer was not patient with me. He kept telling me to be quick in relating my plight. He kept telling me he had no time to waste and this caused undue pressure on me. He then advised me to be sure that I wanted to lay a charge against the perpetrator. I never doubted to lay a charge. He advised that I go home and decide whether I lay a charge.O l ODistractions and disruptions while the statement was taken were intolerable. There were people disturbing us … The person who was taking the statement was fine and caring, but she was constantly disturbed and I was not happy with that.O l OThey only helped me at 1.15am. The policeman on duty was sleeping. They had to wake him up. One of the other policemen behind the counter was drunk. My father tried to explain to them what had happened and they chased him out.O l OI met with a male officer who asked me what my complaint was. When I told him, he immediately stopped me and called a female officer to attend to me. While the statement was being taken by the male officer, the female officer continued to utter abusive language at me.O The reluctance of the police to proceed with the charge when the perpetrator is an ex-boyfriend surfaced consistently, yet the study showed that rape is mainly committed by men known to the victims. The aim of hearing the stories of women from the three police stations, where between 20 to 40 rapes are reported a month, is to find ways to improve the services. The BJA will use the findings in the report to try to humanise investigations, speed up prosecutions, provide care for victims and produce more convictions.
Women in Johannesburg are the focus of a paper by Rachel Jewkes and Naeema Abrahams entitled Violence against Women, for the WomenOs Health Research Unit. The paper shows that 45% of women who reported a rape waited for three hours and nearly 11% waited for seven hours. Even more seriously, a CIET-Africa study, Beyond Victims and Villains, shows that in Johannesburg Southern Metropole only one in 16 women who went to a police station to report an incident of serious sexual violence entered the police data system as a OcaseO of rape.