RCNI Press Release - 16 January 2010

Findings in rape trial research show ‘she was asking for it’ still holds sway in our court rooms

Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) say we must wake up to our role in victim-blaming in rape cases following Senator Ivana Bacik’s findings today (16th January, Dublin Castle) on the introduction of a rape complainant’s previous sexual history by defence.

Fiona Neary, RCNI Director said, ‘if women are to be safe from sexual violence in our society it is urgent that contradictory and sexist attitudes towards woman and sex are addressed.'

‘How can it be reasonable to argue that it was not rape because the woman was not a virgin at the time of the alleged rape, had slept with a friend that night, or that the woman was known to have children by two different fathers? These and other such facts cannot be a reasonable excuse for a man to have sex with a woman without her consent. Yet these are exactly the type of defences that are being put forward, in our court rooms, by men accused of rape.'

‘As was found in Rape & Justice in Ireland (2009), and all other reliable data on sexual violence, in the majority of rape cases the rapist is known to the victim and the majority of these assaults happen in their own or the victims’ homes or other private setting. 65% of survivors in the Rape & Justice in Ireland research knew the person who raped them, a typical example is one survivor who told researchers that she was raped when, “a friend came into my bedroom while I was sleeping after having been drinking”. The fact that a double standard in sexual behaviour can continue to act as a cloak for rapists is part of the explanation for why the most common type of rape is the least likely to be successfully prosecuted.

‘Senator Bacik, in research, commissioned by DRCC and presented today found, in her sample of 59 cases between 2003 and 2009, that leave to include previous sexual history was requested in 40 cases. Defence argued in 15 of this 40 cases that the complainant’s ‘promiscuity’ was to be a defence. In 16 of the 40 cases, defence said her previous sexual behaviour would support an argument that she had consented. Shockingly, 70% of these requests were granted and the numbers of applications are on the increase.

The RCNI welcome that the DRCC is now also opening a legal information service, models of which have been running very successfully in other Rape Crisis Centers across Ireland.

• The RCNI is the national Rape Crisis Sector body, which provides a voice for survivors and is a catalyst for social change towards a society free from abuse.