Blame the rapist, not the victim

"I always blamed women for bringing rape on themselves," says Linda, "until it happened to me." The film-maker thought she knew what a rapist looked like. But he was nothing like the man who pinned her down, and anally raped her. "That man was my boyfriend, and I used to love him, so no, he did not fit my idea of a typical rapist."

Yet Linda's previous views are far from rare, according to a new survey, Wake up To Rape, conducted by the Metropolitan police and the Havens (a collection of sexual assault referral centres in London). Documenting the attitudes of more than 1,000 Londoners, it found that one in 10 respondents consider most claims of rape to be "probably false", and more than half the female respondents think there are situations when the rape victim is to blame. If she had performed a sexual act on her attacker, more than 40% believed she should take some responsibility. Almost 20% think a rape victim is also to blame if she went back to the attacker's home.

It is an attitude that Linda, 30, understands. "I went back to his house," she says, "just like I used to after a night out. And I had been drinking, and I had slept with him willingly loads of times. That made me the type of woman who I used to think almost asked for it. How mad is that?"

Elizabeth Harrison, manager of the Whitechapel Haven in east London, said she was shocked by the results. "We were surprised by the number of women in particular that think rape victims should take responsibility for what happened," she says. "The findings actually support an argument for vetting juries. Our survey suggests that, statistically speaking, the majority of jurors come into court with a bias against the rape victim before they hear any evidence."

At first glance, another study released this week, this time into the "secrets of a jury room", appears to contradict Harrison's arguments. It found that jurors convict more than they acquit in rape cases. But it is worth noting that the rape cases that get to court are often those committed by strangers, or where the victim has obvious physical injuries, and such cases are more likely to result in a conviction than those involving a partner or acquaintance.

So why do so many women blame rape victims? Dr Roxanne Agnew- Davies, a clinical psychologist and an expert on the effects of sexual violence, says it can be to reassure themselves that this will not happen to them. And, she says, it is not surprising when so many rape victims blame themselves. "[Female jurors] can look at the woman in the witness stand and decide she has done something 'wrong' such as flirting or having a drink with the defendant. She can therefore reassure herself that rape won't happen to her as long as she does nothing similar."

Today, alcohol also plays as significant a factor in blaming women and excusing men as the short skirt used to do. Twenty five per cent of female respondents say they would not report being raped if they had been drinking excessively. Almost the same number would not report it if they had been flirting. A quarter of women and almost a third of men do not consider a man forcing his partner to have sex as rape.

"I am sure if I asked men, 'Have you ever raped someone?', most would say certainly not," says Harrison. "So it is not understood that being too drunk to consent is rape. As a society we are almost brought up to think it is OK to get someone a bit drunk to have sex with them. What is worrying is that so many women also buy into this myth." However, men who set out to rape a comatose woman know that if they simply target a very drunk woman, preferably strutting her stuff in view of a CCTV camera, they will have a ready-made defence.

With young women seemingly drinking more than ever, and the media saturated with images of near-naked females out on the lash, flashing their underwear while throwing up on the pavement, it would be easy for women to comfort themselves with the thought that if they stopped getting drunk, they wouldn't get raped. But it is not as simple as that, says Agnew-Davies. "It is easier and safer to blame the actions of the victims than to have to admit that there are more than a handful of men who chose to commit this crime."

This year also sees the publication of the largest ever survey on rape in the UK. Conducted by feminist lobbying and advocacy group Campaign to End Rape (CER), the all-female respondents were asked questions about their own experience of rape, access to appropriate services, and what should be done to improve the reporting process. The survey shows the way some women are treated by the criminal justice system – where they are not believed and viewed with suspicion – has led to many other women treating them similarly. The fact that so many men paint rape victims as liars has a profound knock-on effect on women.

While not a random sample, the survey delivered some shocking results. Forty per cent of respondents had been raped, the majority by men they knew. Just 42 of the 123 instances where the women reported the rape to the police resulted in a criminal trial. In the best-known prevalence study – of 1,007 women, published by Kate Painter in 1991 – just a quarter said they had experienced rape or attempted rape. "Women are becoming more confident in reporting it," says Kate Cook, a founder of CER, "as a result of feminists campaigning for the shame and stigma to be on the men who rape and not the women it happens to."

Marcie was one of the 1,500 respondents to the CER survey, who, after being raped, decided to report to the police. Two years ago, at 19, she was attacked outside a nightclub. "I ran away from him as soon as I could and flagged down a cab. I told him what had happened but he said he didn't want to get involved, refused to take a fare and dropped me at the top of my road."

Marcie wrote that she would have liked to be, "treated like the person who had been abused rather than the one in the wrong. The doctor who examined me seemed to behave as though he had somewhere better to be, and I ended up having to give five different statements to different individuals and agencies.

"The Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to proceed because I had been drinking and there was no physical evidence. I was not believed, and women need to be believed or nothing will change."

Despite this, her case did come to court although it took eight months – by which time Marcie had tried to rebuild her life and the trial "opened up the wounds".

Having not been introduced to the prosecution barrister on the morning of the trial, she found herself confused and faltering during cross-examination by the defence. "The judge allowed the defence barrister to bombard me with repetitive questions," says Marcie, "and I was really aware of my attacker's relatives and friends sitting in the public gallery and smiling and giving him the thumbs-up."

The defence accused Marcie of enjoying parties more than other women of her age, and said that she had called herself "bonkers" in front of friends while on a night out, and therefore had to be "unstable".

"It was horrible having to answer questions about the rape, and challenge all the rubbish being said about me in front of the rapist," she says. "It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do."

After a four-day trial, her attacker was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison. "I don't regret going to court," says Marcie, "and I would do it again. But the system has to improve or fewer will be prepared to go through the ordeal."

It is little wonder, believes Cook, that women blame each other, bearing in mind that we have been raised to blame ourselves.

Agnew-Davies agrees, and says that this obsessive focus on the victim results in the abuser remaining invisible. "For women it is much harder to survive with the idea that we can prevent being raped by curbing our behaviour than to live with the unpredictability of it, and to admit that the perpetrator is more likely to be the a man we know or love than a stranger."

Some names have been changed.