1. Unfounded sexual assaults and the role of police governance: Laying the groundwork
CAPG Annual Conference, Winnipeg
August 10, 2018
Holly Johnson, PhD
Department of Criminology

2. Canada is a leader in law reform
Formal equality is enshrined in law
Removed spousal immunity
Removed codification of rape myths:
Legal requirements related to recent complaint, need for corroboration, and past sexual history
Codified the requirement for affirmative consent
Law reform, police training and victim supports have not improved reporting, charging, or prosecution rates

3. The law on sexual assault
Level I: defined by case law
Level II: sexual assault with a weapon, threats to a third party, more than one offender, or causing bodily harm
Level III: sexual assault causing wounding, maiming, disfiguring or endangering the life of the victim

4. Rates of police-recorded sexual assault, Canada
Statistics Canada, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey
Excludes cases deemed to be unfounded.

5. Rates of police-recorded sexual assault levels II and III, Canada
Statistics Canada, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey
Excludes cases deemed to be unfounded.

6. Stats Can’s measure of sexual assault
Sexual attack: “Has anyone forced you or attempted to force you into any unwanted sexual activity by threatening you, holding you down or hurting you in some way?”
Unwanted sexual touching: “Has anyone ever touched you against your will in any sexual way…anything from unwanted touching or grabbing, to kissing or fondling?”
Sexual activity where the victim was unable to consent: “Has anyone subjected you to a sexual activity to which you were not able to consent…where you were drugged, intoxicated, manipulated or forced in ways other than physically?”
Statistics Canada, General Social Survey on Victimization

7. Rates of sexual assault against women, Canada
Statistics Canada, General Social Survey on Victimization

8. Percentage of sexual assaults reported to the police
Statistics Canada, General Social Survey on Victimization

9. Risks for sexual assault against women
Statistics Canada, General Social Survey on Victimization, 2014

10. Unfounding rates, sexual assault
Globe & Mail, Uniform Crime Reporting Survey

11. Attrition of sexual assaults through CJS
Convicted
55%
Prosecuted
49%
Charges laid
43%
Recorded as a crime
81%
Reported to police 5%
Reported to survey interviewers
553,000
Actual incidence of sexual assault
unknown
0.3% convicted
overall
Attrition of sexual assaults through CJS
19% unfounded
Figures derived from Statistics Canada sources, 2014

12. Research shows:
Police operate within a ‘‘culture of skepticism’’ where the goal of investigation is to detect fabrication (Kelly et al 2005)
Rape myths shape legal responses, eg., women lie about rape, women are responsible for men’s sexual behaviour
Stereotypes function to blame and disqualify women who fail to conform (DuMont et al 2003; Randall 2010; Tasca et al 2012)
Officers hold firm views about ‘‘real victims’’, how they react to trauma and narrate their experiences – a narrow view of who can be trusted (Quinlan 2016)
Officers misunderstand the law on consent (Globe & Mail; Randall 2010l)

13. A UK example (Sleath & Bull 2012)
60% of male officers agreed ‘‘women who are caught having an illicit affair sometimes claim that it was rape’’
40% agreed that ‘‘many so-called rape victims are actually women who had sex and changed their minds afterwards’’
32% agreed that ‘‘rape accusations are often used as a way of getting back at men’’
No differences between male and female officers

14. Credibility is enhanced in cases involving strangers, White women, a weapon, physical injuries, vigorous resistance, recent complaint, no prior complaints, emotional upset, a linear account, a sober respectable woman with no prior sexual relationships and no history of psychiatric or intellectual impairment (Brown et al 2007; Feist et al 2007; Jordan 2004; Kelly 2010)

15. Inconsistencies in complainants’ testimony and requests to drop the case are taken as evidence against the genuineness of the complaint
whereas non-linear and partial statements are a normal consequence of trauma (Randall & Haskell 2013)
wanting to withdraw from a sexual assault case typically results from negative treatment by police, fear of hostile court processes, or negative impacts on other areas of the woman’s life (Alderden & Ullman 2012; Feist t al 2007; Kelly et al 2005)

16. In a US study of 891 police officers, half believed that up to 50% of complainants were lying about rape and 10% believed the percentage was higher (Page 2008)
Research shows that only 2–10 percent of complaints are false (Lonsway et al 2009)
Sexual assault investigators in Ontario consider psychiatric diagnoses, reluctance to report, and prior sexual assault complaints to be motives for lying (Quinlan 2016)
Officers believed that women who are caught being unfaithful falsely report rape to cover up the affair
Survivors are treated as suspects

17. Advice for police, Ottawa study
Believe the women when they report something. If you don’t, take our word for it anyway until you can have enough evidence to decide otherwise. If we had the courage to report it, it is very difficult to report and be willing to go through the process, so take it as a sign of honesty especially if the woman does not want to charge him—it indicates fear of him and not need for revenge, which therefore cannot be considered as motives to report—instead, consider the possibility of some women having as motive to expose the truth and protect themselves and the public. Second: be a little compassionate. Third: Do not use physical force. We probably already have PTSD and a lot of us have been physically abused, so don’t traumatize us more, and don’t make us relive our past in present time as if flashbacks are now reality. Fourth: Maybe come out from behind the glass wall to speak to us? Fifth: try not to question everything we say. It doesn’t make us feel like you believe us at all.