Rape Awareness
Christmas is a time for going out with friends, drinking with work colleagues and attending numerous parties and get togethers. But it's also unfortunately a time where the amount of rape and sexual offences against women goes on the rise.
We all become vulnerable when we've been drinking too much, and during this period we do tend to overindulge and not know our own limits.
Following on from Greater Manchester Police's Rape Awareness campaign, FemaleFirst spoke to Superintendent Phil Owen about keeping safe this Christmas and what to do if you've been a victim of rape or a sexual attack.
The rape awareness campaign seems to sympathise more with women getting attacked, does the campaign also refer to men getting attacked at Christmas too?
"Yes it's equally applicable to men to be honest we find that rape and sexual serious assaults, whether the victim is a man or a woman is under reported."
"And we would encourage individuals to report crimes it to us and it's equally applicable to men as it is to women, I would even venture to suggest the under reporting of sexual assaults against men is higher than it is against women."
"We're quite lucky in the Manchester area to have a Sexual Assault Referral Centre, called St. Mary's. Now half the police offices in the country have a dedicated sexual referral centre, I know Lancashire have one too. The home office have just pledged some money to assist those areas as well that haven't got referral centres, to set those up."
Most people are unaware of what to do if they have been the victim of a sexual assault or rape, or indeed where to go to get help, so what does Superintendent Owen recommend?
"Well, I would say the first thing to do is to get yourself to somewhere safe, so if you do find yourself the victim of an assault, get yourself somewhere safe and then as a matter of some urgency phone the police."
"You'll be put through to what we call a 'call taker' in our control rooms, they have been trained to give the victim some advice regarding staying safe and also ensuring that they don't wash, drink incase they destroy forensic evidence by accident, you know they've taken the first courageous step in reporting the incident, so we want to make sure the attacker is caught."
"And then we will send an officer around- our first response officers are specially trained, they're called Sexual Offence Liaison Officers, and in Manchester they're called Nightingale officers, and whatever their labels, these uniformed officers will have received additional training and support in dealing with the victims of rape and sexual assault. "
"The training we give our Sexual Offence Liaison Officers receive an extra week's course and we do additional work about how to work with victims and counsel them too."
"So once the uniformed officer gets there, they will then stay with the victim and take what we call an early evidence kit and again that's with entirely the consent of the victim, everything is with the consent of the victim, so at every stage in the investigation or as the case progresses, it will all be at the victims pace."
"And if the victim is in an area covered by a sexual assault referral centre, or they can get to one, the uniformed officer will then accompany the victim to St Mary's and we will undertake a forensic examination and we will see what exhibits we need to save."
"It does sound a bit daunting and it's not a nice process and in actual fact there has been an invasion of that person's liberty and freedom, you know an violation of that individuals privacy and we then subject them to another violation with a forensic examination kit."
"But you know, once that's over then the individual can shower, wash, change and we will within the next 20 more hours do a comprehensive video interview, so we will then speak at length to the victim about the attack."
Below we've posted two averts that have been created specifically for the Rape Awareness. They are shown from two different perspectives; a male and a female. One of the adverts will remind offenders ‘No Consent No Sex’. The second advert is aimed at victims and highlights the effects of rape, the importance of reporting it and the support available.
FemaleFirst- Laura Terry