subject: Dublin Rape Crisis Centre [print this page] Dublin Rape Crisis Centre Dublin Rape Crisis Centre
Services outside of the Criminal Justice system for victims of sexual offences have improved vastly over the past thirty years. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre was set up in 1979 and has been offering a wide range of services to women and men who have been sexually assaulted in some way. Although it is part funded by the Government it's also heavily reliant on donations from the public and fundraising events stating that over three decades after its inception finance is still a constant problem.
The national organisation offers services such as one to one counselling, court accompaniment, a national 24-hour helpline. As detailed on its website (www.drrc.ie) the number of people who contacted it in 1979 when it opened was 76 that increased to fourteen and a half thousand by 2004. However gathering accurate statistics in relation to sexual assault in Ireland and all over has always been a major problem because of under-reporting.
In 2008 1,840 people used Rape Crisis Centres counselling services (www.rcni.ie). The Rape Crisis network details that survivors of sex assault take up their services through a number of different avenues and most formal referrals come from the gardai or GPs and the network is calling for specialist training for them on sexual violence so that they can work with the survivors and carry out their roles to the best of their abilities. The Rape Crisis Network is constantly submitting papers and proposals to the Government to help them improve their service and to improve the status of rape victims here so that their journey through the criminal justice process from reporting the crime to giving evidence to perhaps conviction and sentence can be a less traumatic one.
For example the network forwarded a paper based on the Director of Public Prosecutions move to give reasons, in certain cases, for his decision not to prosecute and in relation to the 2001 legislation introduced which allows victims separate legal representation during their trials. In the UK, in contrast to the Victim support UK which has been deemed neutral, Britain's Rape Crisis service "with its overtly feminist agenda, asks the establishment uncomfortable questions". Goodey goes on to state that again, not unlike the network in Ireland, Rape Crisis in Britain has struggled financially to survive while Victim Support enjoys extensive funding. The interests of victims of sexual offences in this country have been increasingly taken into account over recent years particularly within the trial process, which historically they have approached with much dread. A study carried out into the laws and legal procedures affecting victims of sexual assault within the EU in 1998 found that the Irish participants said they felt "significantly more negative about having been involved in the legal process when compared to participants from the other four member states"
The Irish participants were less confident about testifying in court and rated the defence lawyer as significantly more hostile that participants from other countries, they were also significantly less satisfied wit the legal process compared to participants from for other EU states. Recent statutory developments in Ireland to help victims and witnesses include video-link facilities for victims who are perceived as vulnerable or intimidated so that they do not have to give evidence within the court room itself, this was introduced in 1999. In our adversarial system, where the defence and the prosecution are competing, the state's fights to prove it's case and in the defence strives to raise doubt or disprove it and the victim, is caught in the middle, can be further marginalized and his or her experience can be made rendered even more traumatic.
For victims of sexual offences the Sex Offenders Act 2001 introduced the entitlement to have separate legal representations where their previous sexual history is an issue, this has been a welcome development, which could be described as "victim centred" as is the move to abolish the mandatory requirement on judges to warn juries about the dangers or uncorroborated evidence, this was introduced following the enactment of the Criminal Law9 Rape) Amendment Act, 1990 (Vaughan et al: 2010:66).
Also the press must at all times protect the anonymity of the victims in sex assault cases or risk being found in contempt of court. In the UK the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 introduced new measures put i to help vulnerable witnesses, those included as evidence by video link, the act also prevents defendants from cross examining the complainant in person and the use of evidence such as the complainant's sexual history. Complainants can also have their cross-examinations video recorded ahead of the trial; this is not in place in Ireland and would be viewed as a welcome option. But this has been critiqued because there is still a major onus to give live evidence whether its in the courtroom or not and the measures are at the trial judge's discretion.
