Public Perception of Police Support for Sexual Abuse Victims in the UK

Unit 29: Research Project
Public perception on how police support the
sexual abuse victims

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY....................................................................................................................................2
Literature review.....................................................................................................................2
Methodology justification.......................................................................................................4
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................6
APPENDIX 1....................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Historically, it has seen that sexual abuse victims have been treated poorly by investigate
and criminal justice systems. These victims have been subjected to violent questioning and
disbelieving attitudes by appointed police. Rape, child molestation, incest, and other forms of
non-consensual sexual contact are all considered forms of sexual abuse. The majority of sexual
abuse professionals agree that it is never just about sex. Instead, it's usually a ruse to gain control
over others (Hurrell, Draycott and Andrews, 2018). Immediate crisis intervention following a
sexual assault can be extremely beneficial and even life-saving. A person can report sexual
assault to the authorities by phoning the local police department. Survivors may also want to see
a hospital for a physical examination. In such instances, the police play a critical role and have
the ability to save lives. In order to do this, they must be adequately prepared and have the
necessary training. Police force plays very important function in the modern culture. Many girls
and women have faced situation where they have been groped, flashed at, cat-called and stalked
on the streets of London and these situations have faced by women even in broad daylight. Many
females have started using different methods so that they can avoid such situations such as
covering every part of the skin, sharing location to relatives or friends or making a fake call.
There are cases which have highlighted that police officers are also actively involved in abusing
girls and women sexually. This has questioned police force and resulted in a lot of criticisms
from public as well as media (Maslen and Paine, 2019). The public has lost faith in the police
because they know they are not going to get any support from them. For helping people who
have faced sexual assault, authorities suggest that victims must report the crime so such future
situations could be prevented.
For providing support to sexual abuse victims, the website of Metropolitan Police
Department has great piece of information for things to do when such kind of situations occur.
This also includes various names of organisations which victims can easily trust and share about
their incidents. One of the organisations is Independent sexual violence advisors which work
with children and adults who had experienced sexual violence. Sexual abuse victims could easily
approach this organization without speaking to police. Therefore, the present investigation aims
at collecting information about the perception of public in relation to the support provided by
police of the United Kingdom. The present investigation has aimed at collected detailed piece of
information about the support provided by police for sexually abused victims. Qualitative
research methods will be used so that theoretical data can be easily accumulated and evaluated to
attain defined aim and objectives in a proper manner. This investigation will be limited to United
Kingdom and this will be covering information about the public perceptions of sexual abuse
victims. This report will highlight the actual situation about the cases related to sexual abuse in
the United Kingdom and the actions taken by police force to prevent it.