London Met Repository

What can we learn from Police data about timeliness in rape and serious sexual offence investigations in England and Wales?

Lists

Tools

Lovett, Joanna, Hales, Gavin, Kelly, Liz, Khan, Aneela, Hardiman, Margaret and Trott, Louise (2022) What can we learn from Police data about timeliness in rape and serious sexual offence investigations in England and Wales? International Criminology, 2022. ISSN 2662-9976

[+][-]

Abstract

The issue of timeliness in rape and other serious sexual offence investigations has been raised in a number of inspections and reviews, and there are policy imperatives to decrease delays, but there has been little exploration of police data to understand what contributes to them and enable practical recommendations or options. This paper explores what official data from two police forces participating in Operation Soteria Bluestone tell us about the timelines of these investigations, what this reveals about the gaps in policing data, and what additional knowledge can be gained from qualitative methodologies, in this instance case file analysis and case reviews.

Documents