Soteria shows early promise in transforming rape investigations

The police inspectorate has today (22nd August 2024) published its report on progress in delivering a new model for investigating rape and serious sexual offences, known as Operation Soteria.

Operation Soteria is one of the most promising outcomes of the government’s End-to-End Rape Review – aiming to transform how the police investigate rape by focusing on investigating the suspect’s actions rather than whether or not the victim is ‘credible’.

Responding to the report, Andrea Simon, Executive Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), said:

“Nationwide failures in prosecuting rape have made it an imperative to transform the way police investigate sexual offences. Today’s report shows Operation Soteria has started to make a real difference to the way some police forces are handling rape cases, but this response has got to be turbocharged if we are to see the scale of transformation needed across the country. We welcome the inspector’s recognition of the need for culture change and a systems-based approach, and that Soteria’s ambition must be met with the resources it needs.

The inspectorate has reinforced just how vital funding for specialist frontline women’s support services is, so that they can be there for victims during the justice process and beyond. Embedding progress and good practice requires the government also resources the work of the Joint Soteria Unit beyond March 2025. This is a pivotal time for the roll-out of such promising work, but there is still a long way to go to address poor practices in rape investigations and we cannot risk complacency or thinking the job is done. We are clear that the reason Soteria has been particularly impactful has been because of the ongoing independent academic input, support and scrutiny of this work, which should continue to ensure we don’t have police forces effectively marking their own homework.

Disappointingly, the report highlights a lack of progress in tackling repeat offenders, with 1 in 4 sexual offences involving a repeat suspect. In addition, in nearly every police force inspected, half of rape investigation teams aren’t fully qualified. Inexperienced and non-specialist officers should not be routinely investigating rape. We expect rapid improvements in the early identification of sexual offenders and proactive work to target repeat offenders to prevent further abuse. We also need to see the prioritisation of specialism in rape investigation, and greater consistency in the roll out of Soteria training for staff, to tackle rape myths, understand trauma, and help investigators reflect on their beliefs, behaviours and use of language.

Although the report acknowledges some improvements in communication with victims, it also highlights ongoing issues which are putting them at further risk – for example, inconsistent management of pre-charge bail breaches and ineffective use of protection orders. Victims also currently face court backlogs that means they are waiting many years for their case to reach trial, if it ever progresses that far, highlighting wider failings in the criminal justice system.

Driving the implementation of Soteria and the new national model for investigating rape and sexual offences must be seen as vital work. Alongside its roll out, we need to see ongoing monitoring of how embedded the new model for investigating rape is becoming in police cultures and practices. This is long term work – but it is absolutely critical that we do not lose momentum now.

However, if the government is serious about its pledge to halve VAWG in a decade, it must look beyond the criminal justice system alone and take a whole-society approach that focuses on preventing women and girls from becoming victims in the first place. This includes unpicking the attitudes and inequality that drive this violence, through sustained education and public campaigns geared towards preventing abuse.”

ENDS

Media contact

Sinead Geoghegan, Head of Communications, media@evaw.org.uk