Barriers to Reporting Rape.

July 2, 2014, kelly n, Personal Experiences,

Unfortunately my 15 year old daughter has experienced the 'Barriers to Reporting' and all I can say is thank god for the charity Rape Crisis! Getting help for my daughter to help cope after she was raped was an unnecessary fight - due to her age there was no domestic violence support available even though her doctor has identified she was in a domestic abuse relationship.

There was no support from the school when my daughter started to get bullied due to her right to anonymity being broken on a daily basis; their idea of helping was to isolate her and make her a victim all over again. As well as this, they were so unsupportive (this was all happening through her GCSEs), it got so bad she had to change schools 6 weeks before she left school just to complete her exams.

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There was no support when the perpetrator broken his court bail a number of times also putting other young girls at risk and interfering with witnesses;

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There was no support from CAMHS or my daughters doctor when after months of her not sleeping, hardly eating, sevearly self harming and battling thoughts of suicide; they eventually diagnosed her with P.T.S disorder and she delt with this for 8months without any help dispite me voicing my concerns many times;

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There was no support from the liason officer who was fairly new to her post and couldn't answer the majority of our questions or provide an adequate support;

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As a parent, this is all very soul destroying. I've spent countless hours ringing round police, liason officers, doctors, schools, school board, CAMHS and charities.

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Rape crisis have been a godsend! Although they are very limited, the support they could offer has been extremely helpful just that extra bit of support my daughter and I need as the trial gets closer!

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I think there are far to many barriers to reporting rape and I can only speak from experience with my teenage daughter, starting from the moment its reported, the terminology used from the police/doctors/schools to the victim is vital, as is support from report to court!

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Surely the victim needs the most support straight away not months/years later?

 

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