More than support to court
| Author | Sarah-Jane Lilley,Marianne Hester |
| Published date | 01 September 2018 |
| Date | 01 September 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0269758017742717 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
More than support to court:
Rape victims and specialist
sexual violence services
Marianne Hester
University of Bristol, UK
Sarah-Jane Lilley
University of Bristol, UK
Abstract
This article explores the involvement of specialist sexual violence services, including Independent
Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs), in supporting victims/survivors of rape and sexual abuse to
engage with the criminal justice system (CJS) in England and Wales. The underpinning research,
conducted in one area of England, included referral data from the police and key specialist sexual
violence services, interviews with 15 victims/survivors of sexual violence in contact with the police
and specialist services, and interviews with 14 practitioners from sexual violence and related
services. We examine the complex needs of victims/survivors of sexual violence (who have
experienced historical child sexual abuse, acquaintance rape or rape in the context of intimate
partner abuse), how their needs differ and vary over time, and the ways in which these diverse and
changing needs are met by specialist sexual violence services. Non-specialist agencies, such as
statutory mental health services, are unable to provide similarly targeted responses. The research
found that specialist sexual violence services play particularly crucial roles through the use of
approaches that can be characterised as flexible, enabling, holding and mending. However, this
important work could easily be lost in the current climate of local service commissioning, to the
great detriment of victims/survivors of sexual violence.
Keywords
Rape, sexual violence, victim needs, sexual violence services, ISVAs
Corresponding author:
Marianne Hester, Centre for Gender and Violence Research, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Priory Road,
Bristol, BS8 1TZ, UK.
Email: Marianne.hester@bristol.ac.uk
International Review of Victimology
2018, Vol. 24(3) 313–328
ªThe Author(s) 2017
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/0269758017742717
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Introduction
Rape can have a devastating impact on every aspect of victims’/survivors’ lives and make them
vulnerable to further episodes of sexual abuse or violence (McMillan and Thomas, 2009). There
can be long-term physical, psychological and wider impacts of being the victim of rape and sexual
assault that include post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, inability to sleep and other
effects, such as physical disability. There are also secondary effects, such as a reduction in victims’
ability to work or study, difficulties with forging new relationships or maintaining positive rela-
tionships with family and friends, or problems with their ability to care for others, their children,
for example (McNaughton Nicholls et al., 2012: 21). In a study comparing mental health and
general population samples in England and Wales, Khalifeh et al. (2014) found that individuals
with severe mental health problems were 2.9 times more likely to have experienced sexual vio-
lence in the past year.
Before the late 1990s, specialist support for victims of sexual violence in England and Wales
was mainly provided by Rape Crisis Centres (RCCs) situated in the voluntary sector (Westmarland
and Alderson, 2013). Despite the name ‘Crisis’, RCCs have dealt with a large proportion of
historical rape or childhood sexual abuse (CSA) cases. By 2015 there were 48 RCC services in
England and Wales (Hawkins and Taylor, 2015).
Since 2000, attempts to improve victim treatment have also included provision of Sexual
Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs). There are
now around 41 SARCs across the UK (Survivors Trust, 2015), largely funded by and based in the
statutory health sector and which tend to support recent cases of rape and sexual assault and
provide forensic examination. ISVAs are based on the existing Independent Domestic Violence
Adviser (IDVA) model of specialist and independent victim-focused service provision (Robinson,
2009). First introduced in the mid 2000s, ISVAs have increased to at least 251 across England and
Wales (Lea et al., 2015) and tend to be situated within SARCs or RCCs (Lea et al., 2015).
Guidance on SARCs specifies that they should have ISVAs as part of their provision (Department
of Health et al., 2009).
While government policy has acknowledged the importance of specialist sexual violence ser-
vices such as SARCs, ISVAs and RCCS, the relationship between them is by no means clear, and
different mixes of services with various funding streams have developed in different localities
(Brown et al., 2010; Lea et al., 2015). Towards the end of our research, new commissioning
processes were being considered for sexual violence services in the research locality with health
commissionersquestioning the natureand range of services, and theirstructures and governance.The
commissioners had difficulty understanding the rationale for voluntary sector specialist sexual
violence services, and were considering re-focusing sexual violence support within mental health
services and the SARC.However, while mental health services provide supportfor victims of sexual
violence, this does not necessarily involve specialist input (Westmarland and Alderson, 2013).
Health commissioners have ‘often over looked rape crises, seeing them as “niche” or even
irrelevant to health commissioning’ (Westmarland et al., 2013: 3266). Woody and Beldin
(2012) point to the different philosophical perspectives of the sectors. Voluntary sector specialist
sexual violence services are rooted in a feminist empowerment perspective that frames rape as a
gendered, social and ‘whole-person’ issue, albeit with increasing professionalism and use of
recognised psychological approaches. The mental health sector is rooted to a greater extent in the
medical model and symptomatic approaches, which can also make it more difficult to focus on
victim/survivor needs.
314 International Review of Victimology 24(3)
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