Vulnerability, resilience, and rape: Uncovering the hidden work of police officers during rape investigations
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02697580231151974 |
| Author | Phillip NS Rumney,Duncan McPhee |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02697580231151974
International Review of Victimology
2023, Vol. 29(3) 366 –384
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02697580231151974
journals.sagepub.com/home/irv
Vulnerability, resilience, and
rape: Uncovering the hidden
work of police officers during
rape investigations
Phillip NS Rumney
De Montford University, UK
Duncan McPhee
University of the West of England, UK
Abstract
Drawing on original empirical data comprising police interviews and case file analysis, this article
seeks to better understand the policing responses to cases of rape and specifically, the ways
in which officers assist victims in the context of two themes – encouraging engagement with the
investigative process and ensuring victim safety and general welfare. This work – which we call ‘hidden
work’ as it is often neglected in the research literature – involves victim care, multi-agency
working, provision of practical assistance, along with efforts to protect victims from physical
and psychological harm. This article reaffirms key observations in the existing literature that
emphasise the importance of victim welfare and engagement as part of a police investigation. A
focus on victim care can be seen as an end in itself but also as a strategy that may carry benefit
to the police themselves in the pursuance of performance goals should a victim remain engaged
with the criminal justice process. However, the central argument in this paper is that traditional
measures of police performance, such as detection and arrest rates, miss a significant amount of
police activity which are important to rape victims and that a broader range of considerations
should be factored into discussion of police performance. This is suggested not to diminish or
downplay the significance of traditional measures of performance, or indeed to minimise police
shortcomings in these areas, but to facilitate a more nuanced discussion of some of the realities
of investigative work in the complex field of sexual offences. The article concludes by arguing
that much of this hidden work should be included in formal assessments of police performance
alongside traditional key performance indicators.
Keywords
Police, rape, vulnerability, resilience, victim support
Corresponding author:
Duncan McPhee, Bristol Law School, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK.
Email: Duncan.Mcphee@uwe.ac.uk
1151974IRV0010.1177/02697580231151974International Review of VictimologyRumney and McPhee
research-article2023
Article
Rumney and McPhee 367
Introduction and outlining key concepts
This article draws on original empirical data to better understand the policing responses to cases of
rape and specifically, the ways in which officers assist victims in the context of two themes –
encouraging engagement with the investigative process and ensuring victim safety and general
welfare. This focus will help illustrate the ways in which the actions of officers may assist victims
in building confidence in the investigative process and at the same time address their pressing and
complex needs. This work – which we call ‘hidden work’ as it is often neglected in the research
literature – involves victim care, multi-agency working, and provision of practical assistance,
along with efforts to protect victims from physical and psychological harm. Indeed, for some vic-
tims, such support and assistance may be far more valuable than securing an arrest, charge, or
conviction. The work is normally not captured by traditional measures of police performance such
as arrest, detection, or charge rates (HMCPSI, 2019; Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2018),
yet it is of central importance to modern approaches to policing rape.
Police activities that support victim welfare are an important means of assisting victims, encour-
aging engagement with the investigative process and providing practical assistance to address
immediate and longer-term problems. It is argued that although these endeavours may in some
instances contribute to better ‘performance’ in terms of the progressing of investigations and case
building, they are invaluable in their own right. Indeed, such activity should be recognised as an
essential measure of police performance in cases of rape and can be framed within the context of
both interactional and procedural justice perspectives that have informed many victim-focussed
studies (Bies and Moag, 1986; Laxminarayan et al., 2012). The concept of procedural justice,
described as ‘the fairness of processes used by those in positions of authority to reach specific out-
comes or decisions’ (Ballucci and Drakes, 2021: 83), is a particularly important prism through
which interactions between police officers and victims should be interpreted. It has been argued that
for many of those who report their victimisation to the police, a greater priority is perhaps placed
upon the nature of the interactions and their treatment at the hands of authority, rather than the out-
come or progression of formal process (Tyler and Lind, 1992). In their work that explored Canadian
police responses to sex crimes, Ballucci and Drakes (2021) found that approaches focussed around
trust building, inclusion, and a recognition of individual needs resulted in greater victim satisfaction
with both the process itself and case outcomes. In the context of a literature that frequently prob-
lematises interactions between police and victims, an emphasis on procedural justice and its associ-
ated values may yield positive outcomes in a number of respects; as will be further explored in this
current work.
Rape investigations, policing, and performance in England
and Wales: the background to the current study
There have been long-standing concerns about the nature of the criminal justice system’s responses
to rape and other forms of sexual violence across many jurisdictions. In England and Wales, a
recently published review provides a current synopsis that cites (among other issues) an increasing
volume of reports of rape, alongside proportionately fewer prosecutions and convictions (Ministry
of Justice (MOJ), 2021). Concerns identified include the proportion of cases resulting in victim
withdrawal (increasing from 42% of cases in 2015–2016, to 57% of cases in 2019), the potential
influence of ‘rape myths’ and their impact at various stages of the criminal justice process, and the
To continue reading
Request your trial