AS ‘Believe the Victim’ Scandals Engulf England, US Investigations Embrace #StartByBelieving
Alison Saunders was a crafty prosecutor who rose through the ranks of the English Crown Prosecution Service, and was named director in 2013. Saunders’ top priority was to prosecute sex assault cases more aggressively, promising a one-third increase in prosecuted cases by 2015. Saunders’ solution can be summed up in a eight words: “affirmative consent,” “believe the victim,” and “hide the ball.” Alarm bells began to sound last December when media accounts revealed a growing number of rape cases in which police failed to disclose crucial evidence to defense counsel. One article lamented, “the number of aborted trials, often at the 11th hour, has soared by 70% in the past two years.” In response, Alison Saunders doubled down, embracing the “believe the victim” ideology, by which investigators are told to blindly “start by believing” the complainant’s story. But this tactic failed and the most devastating revelations revealed that police had been “trained to hide vital evidence” exonerating the accused. On April 2, Police Commissioner Cressida Dick announced the London police were being ordered to abandon its practice of believing all sex crime complainants, explaining, “Our job is not all about victims. Our job in investigations is to be fair, to be impartial, and when appropriate to bring things to justice.”.. Ironically, here in the United States, a ‘believe the victim’ movement is growing and gaining support. If there is any doubt about the “convict first, ask-questions-later” mindset of the #StartByBelieving proponents, consider this recent admonition by a campus sex investigator: “[Accusers] need the college- and you as its representative- to unequivocally state upon receipt of the allegations, ‘I believe you. I believe that what happened was unacceptable and a violation of our policy, and we will bring you justice.’”
ifeminists.net By E. Everett Bartlett
