Rape Symptoms: Part Two

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3uMgcRUYBs

It has been revealed that vital evidence was withheld from defence lawyers in 47 cases of rape and sexual assault in the UK, the Crown Prosecution Service has revealed.

The withholding of evidence was the main reason 5 of the cases had been stopped.

Fourteen of the defendants had been held in custody on the charges. More than 3,600 cases were looked at in England and Wales after high profile rape trials recently collapsed due to lack of disclosure by prosecutors and police.

The then Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders, who stepped down from the role in October 2019, finally admitted: "Getting disclosure right is a fundamental part of a fair criminal justice system. Our analysis shows that in the vast majority of cases we are doing that - but there are cases where we are falling short, and that is unacceptable. I recognise the huge impact on individuals involved, and deeply regret every case where mistakes have been made." She had not been prepared to agree that there were any innocent men in prison as a result of this procedure by her department.

Men Who are Sexually Assaulted by Women.

Whilst recognising that some females are falsely accused of sexual crime, and suffer mental ill health to the same degree, the vast majority who suffer this crime against the person are male.

For men who are sexually assaulted by women - in these cases, those who are falsely accused of rape or sexual assault, it is extremely likely that they will experience particularly pronounced feelings of isolation, shame and confusion. On the one hand, men who have been sexually assaulted by women will suffer the same feelings of helplessness, fear, and anxiety as actual female rape victims. But there is a different historically-based culture among men than among women. It has been said that if a male victim tells any of his male friends about what happened, their reaction is likely to be one of disbelief, doubt, trivialisation, or even laughter, and that some males will wryly ask: “How lucky can some people get? Why doesn’t that ever happen to me?”

As a result, male victims who undergo the sexual onslaught of a false allegation by a woman are often left with feelings of self-doubt, isolation, and depression. It is critically important that legal professionals, care providers and others in the supportive community firstly recognise the fact that it does happen and that it has happened, and secondly respond appropriately.

Regardless of the gender of the victim and the suspect(s) involved in a sexual assault, all reports must be taken seriously, investigated thoroughly and responded to by care-givers appropriately. It has proven in the past - and continues to be so today that this is a difficult aim to achieve, but it is absolutely essential that investigators and law enforcement professionals including the Crown Prosecution service (in the UK) must maintain an open mind - which means not prejudging the issues of victim / perpetrator, looking at all the evidence, handing over any and all exculpatory evidence having been properly evaluated by competent professionals at all times when investigating these alleged crimes. If this process is not scrupulously done there is more than a likelihood that innocent people will go to jail. these innocent people will find themselves victims of increased mental health problems in a much less resourceful prison environment.

Trauma Victims with PTSD.

This condition arises from the experience of extreme physical and emotional trauma. Symptoms often include problems in intimate and family relationships. PTSD is about a loss of the ability to trust others, inability to become emotionally attached, to communicate effectively, controlled assertiveness - there be uncontrolled outbursts of anger or unpredictable bouts of crying and an inability or unwillingness to address problem-solving. In time, there may be a loss or diminished desire to commit to social or sexual activity. Feeling emotionally numb and distant from others may elicit feelings of hurt, alienation or discouragement from friends and family, who may then withdrawn contact from, or express anger towards the victim of the condition. Help may be sought from mental health services, but in the UK at this time, these are woefully underfunded and sparse in provision. I do not think that an occasional talk therapy session and the offer of leaflets on the disorder or the provision of mind-calming drugs are a hopeful way forward. There is much room for multi-disciplinary engagement and a willingness to extend the boundaries of what is understood to be mental health provision.

Host Communities: Supportive / Rejecting.

All religious communities are composed partly of extreme and powerful dogmatic sub-groups. Often their default attitude regarding anything touching on questionable sex and sexuality is to reject both the assumed activity itself and the individual connected with it. These sub-groups do not reflect on any external truth, but only their dogma.

And so, there can be no such thing as an acceptable member of the community who has been falsely accused of a sexual crime, since it smacks of questionable sexual activity. Normally in a healthy western liberal religious organisation, these people would remain an exclusive group wielding only limited powers. Normally. But these groups gain enormous power within large communities especially when that community has gained a shameful sexual abuse history of cover-ups, sometimes at the highest levels, failures to report sexual crime, and in-house ecclesiastical courts and internal systems of justice whose decisions and decision-makers - often not legally trained and often unaccountable outside the closed institution, never see the light of day. In this much larger scenario, to satisfy the no-risk taking dogmatists, it is considered to be better to throw an innocent to the wolves to ensure the safety of the rest of the flock.

It is generally accepted in the professional caring community that when victims of sexual crime find their host community to be supportive and accepting, membership in that community can be a cause of therapeutic help for the victim. It can even be a positive experience for the wider community and contribute to a fairer administration of justice in the national and local criminal justice process. However, when victims find their specific host community is resistant, rejectional or judgemental, this may seriously prejudice the falsely accused individual's mental health recovery.

My own experience of the lack of support from the Church of England and Methodist church hierarchies - my own host communities - who have both refused to accept the judgement of the Crown who have given me an unreserved apology for a wrongful prosecution - has resulted in me becoming a desperately ill victim struggling for daily survival outside of my supportive host communities.

It may be the anger and bitterness of a rejected individual experiencing PTSD as a result of this trauma who is writing this, but it must be said. This is an article looking at the effects of trauma on the mental health of those falsely accused of sexual crime. I am one of those people. My experience has been one of a dramatic and continuing mental and physical health decline. Most of this has been because of the negative, judgemental and rejectional attitude of my host communities.

There are as many responses to sexual assault as there are victims

Every victim of rape and sexual abuse is also an individual. Each has his or her own history and perception of reality. Each is placed within a specific community in which they live their daily life. No abuse is the same and no responses are exactly synonymous. Although there are classic overall responses that may be predicted, the experience is interpreted and felt differently by each abused individual. For example levels of anger or calm may vary in the extreme from one to another.

There are many kinds of sexual assault

This article has been specifically focused on that group of people, mainly males although there are some females, who have been victims of a particularly virulent and until recently unacknowledged form of sexual abuse. A form of abuse that brings with it much of the painful and destructive physical and emotional damage that other rape and sexual assault victims suffer. This damage can be repaired. But first, this specific form of sexual assault needs to be acknowledged as both real and common.

It is not known exactly how many innocent people are imprisoned in the UK, but the CPS has admitted that there are at least some

Reliable statistics and details of the numbers and personal experiences of those wrongly imprisoned for sexual offences are notoriously difficult to obtain. This is partly because those prisoners maintain innocence face further sanctions for refusing to exhibit remorse or insight into their offending behaviour. They are guilty because they have been found guilty, even though they are innocent.

There are many effects on the physical, economic, psychological wellbeing and mental health of all victims of sexual assault. These occur during the original trauma, but also for many months or years.

The longer-term impact of sexual assault victimisation, and how victims integrate the sexual assault experience and impact into their lives is something many organisations and institutions need to understand. How can victims integrate this experience of trauma into creating a positive and contributory lifestyle?

How can understanding the impact of the abuse contribute to strategies that will be effective in enabling professional carers to form compassionate policies to support the abused?

The Church of England National Safeguarding Team needs to enable truly independent people with no hidden agenda to protect the institution from critical analysis and challenge. These should be given power to help inform policy and procedure in how the institution deals first with its own sexual crime and then with those falsely accused of crime.

The vital role and impoprtance of care professionals and organisational policies in the process of recovery for victims.

Many organisations have procedures and protocols in place that are alien to the experience of the victim. Risk assessments and safety agreements designed to protect the reputation of the institution, purporting to defend members against further abuse actually function as a form of abuse against victims of false allegations. These need changing.

The host community's response and attitude to the depth and complexity of the victim's trauma are the major determinant of recovery and re-integration

One of the key issues in getting this right is a willingness on the part of the organisation to acknowledge the parallel trauma caused among the host community itself. Care professionals need to be encouraged to acknowledge and address these issues. It is a difficult task when members are diverse, independent and scattered in the population and possible delivery of education is tenuous.