Police attitudes to rape attacked

By MARTIN JOHNSTON

Police attitudes to rape stymie the investigation of many women's sexual assault complaints, a researcher says.

Victoria University criminologist Dr Jan Jordan, who addressed a sexual abuse treatment conference which ended in Auckland at the weekend, wants specialist police trained to investigate all sexual assault complaints.

She said such specialists now investigated sexual abuse against children but not adults.

Her comments follow rape or sexual assault allegations by Louise Nicholas and several other women against police officers. The Government has appointed a commission of inquiry to look into the allegations.

A police national headquarters spokeswoman indicated last night that the police hierarchy were unlikely to comment on Dr Jordan's research and if they did it would not be until today.

"We've got a commission of inquiry into police attitudes to rape anyway. There's some sensitivity about what we would say," the spokeswoman said.

Dr Jordan has interviewed many rape complainants and checked all rape files from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch for 1997. "The attitudes and way in which some police talk about rape suggests a confusion in their mind," Dr Jordan said.

Some made a distinction between "real rape" and what they called non-consensual sex. "I would argue that non-consensual sex is by definition rape."

Dr Jordan said an experienced officer had distinguished between stranger rape and rape by someone known to the victim.

The latter and those raped in marriage were seen as victims of non-consensual sex rather than of rape, she said.

"That suggests a prioritising. Rape is what people like [convicted serial rapists] Malcolm Rewa and Joseph Thompson do. It's what men who are animals - and some police talk of rapists as animals - do, but it's not what the guy next door does ...

"It's a distancing mechanism. Men who really rape are seen as something 'other' than most police officers."

Some victims of rape felt that police officers, by their language and behaviour, were endorsing "an offender's perspective more than a victim's perspective".

She said women with intellectual disabilities or a history of psychiatric problems who made rape complaints had particular difficulty persuading police to believe them because they were considered unreliable witnesses. They were also a group that was vulnerable to sexual assault.

Dr Jordan hoped that one outcome of the commission of inquiry would be for all police to realise that rapists could come from any background and that rape was just as serious if the offender was married to the victim.

"The fundamental culture of the New Zealand police does need to change and I think it is changing."

The police had become more sympathetic to the needs of rape complainants, for instance by waiting until the morning after to take a statement rather than demanding one in the middle of the night.

Dr Jordan acknowledged that some of the police attitudes she criticised reflected common New Zealand attitudes.

Track record

Of 164 rape files from 1997:

* Police indicated on 21 per cent that they considered the complaints genuine.

* They were unsure about 38 per cent.

* 33 per cent of complaints were considered false.

* 8 per cent were withdrawn by the complainants.