ABSTRACT
There is widespread agreement that most instances of rape and sexual assault do not result in convictions in court. In England and Wales in 2001-2, for example, the police recorded 9,008 women as having been raped, resulting in 559 convictions or cautions (Home Office recorded crime statistics). Myhill and Allen, using data from the British Crime Survey, estimate that in 2000 61,000 women aged between 16 and 60 were raped, i.e. 12.6% of victims reported the incident to the police (Myhill and Allen, 2001, pp. 48-9). In my book Date Rape and Consent (Cowling, 1998) I looked at various estimates extrapolated from surveys which would show that there were anything up to 270,000 incidents of rape and attempted rape each year in England and Wales. Whilst it is very difficult to find an exact
estimate on which most people would concur, it is clear to all that there is far more rape and sexual assault than appears in either recorded figures or convictions. Further, if rape was prosecuted at anything like the rate at which it occurs the prison population of England and Wales, currently at a record of around 73,000, would need to at least double.
