At our charity we were never required to treat survivors of rape differently. Clarke's hierarchy of seriousness is perverse
You might assume survivors of rape need all the support that society, and indeed their government, can afford them. And yet, Ken Clarke on Wednesday delivered a special kind of blow to those already down, with his astonishing statement that some rapes were more serious than others.
I volunteered as a telephone counsellor for three years at Manchester Rape Crisis and we were never required to treat survivors of rape differently. An hour of counselling for survivors of "proper, serious rape" and a little less for victims of silly "date rape"? Certainly not. We did not distinguish between types of rape because all forms of rape are exceptionally distressing for the survivor ? and all types of rape are serious. Through distinguishing "serious" and "less serious" rape, Clarke assumed a perverse gradient of suffering, a warped taxonomy of perceived victimisation. Perhaps one of his gravest errors is that by choosing his words so uncarefully, he removed agency from the victims, with the level of seriousness of the crime committed against their own body no longer evaluated by themselves, but by a politician.
"Date rape" is already a woefully misleading and loaded term, and it must not be characterised as a less serious crime. Instances of date rape are already received with dismissive attitudes, which often seem to imply "oh well, she probably regretted it the next day", or insinuations that by eating opposite someone in a restaurant, you somehow offered your unbridled sexual consent. It is no great secret that the sweeping majority of rapes are not of the masked-man-in-a-dark-alley variety, but by someone the victim knows. Does Clarke believe this is a less serious form of rape? When it is by your boyfriend? Your husband? The father of your children?
Disassociating one type of rape from another removes a small comfort many survivors have ? they are not alone; shattering their experiences into "levels of seriousness" in the public discourse removes a unity survivors can draw strength from. Group therapy proves to be an outlet through which many survivors find support; it is a setting in which they are able to explore their thoughts, and where their experiences are shared and understood. This outlet would be put in jeopardy if survivors' experiences were to be widely marked or publicly referred to on a hierarchy of seriousness.
Regardless of the circumstances surrounding rape, survivors go through the same traumatic investigation, the same demeaning trial, the same stigma and a similar process of recovery. Clarke made these comments as part of a proposal to increase rape convictions; surely the most important part of this proposal is ensuring survivors of rape feel comfortable enough to come forward without fear their allegations will not be taken seriously, and that they will not have to compromise in order to achieve a semblance of justice?
Clarke is calling for reduced sentencing for those pleading guilty. Are lesser sentences for rapists pleading guilty the most pressing area in need of change within rape trials and investigations? Why not propose extended sentences for those convicted who didn't plead guilty? Or address a dismissive and sceptical bureaucracy in which women saying they have been raped are largely doubted? Bargaining with rapists won't improve rape conviction rates ? confronting a discourse that enables attitudes such as these will.
One of the reasons why I eventually stopped volunteering with Rape Crisis is because at the end of one phone call, there is always another. And another. And another. There is a wider issue to be addressed here, and it's to do with what many have called "rape culture". It's to do with widely held beliefs that victims somehow ask for it. It's to do with the adjectives used by Clarke. And having these opinions echoed by a senior member of parliament validates them.
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