Lengthy police investigations into sexual offences: Survivor Survey

This survey is aimed at survivors of sexual offences who have reported to the police.

This survey will ask you about your experiences of very long-running police investigations into sexual offences. By very long running, we mean 3 years or more, before a decision was made by the police or CPS on whether to charge the perpetrator, or close the case.

Please don’t worry if you don’t know the exact length of time your case was investigated for. This can be hard to keep track of, but if you think it was over 3 years-please do take part and just give us your best idea of how long this was. The information you provide will be used by Rape Crisis England and Wales, Centre for Women’s Justice, Bindmans and Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre, as evidence to support a ‘super-complaint’ around very long running Police investigations into sexual offences. We may use quotes from your answers, but will not identify you or your case in any way.

A super-complaint is a type of police complaint that identifies widespread systemic problems that are happening for lots of different people. The people impacted (you) don’t have to submit a complaint directly, instead, we will present information about the problem of very long running investigations, and ask this to be investigated, so ways to improve the situation can be identified. The agencies who look into super-complaints are: His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (who inspect Police Forces), The Independent Office for Police Conduct (who manage some complaints about Police) and The College for Policing (who are responsible for Police learning) to look for ways to improve the situation. You can read more about super-complaints here.

We know that long running investigations can be very distressing, if you feel you need to speak to someone after completing this survey, you can find your local Rape Crisis Centre here. You can also call the Rape Crisis England and Wales 24/7 confidential support line on 0808 500 2222 or use our live chat service.

We know that it can feel intimidating to complain about the police. Maybe your case is still open, and you worry about how taking part could impact this. For that reason, responses to this survey can be anonymous and we ask that you avoid including identifying information, such as names, or specific details about locations, officers, offenders, or witnesses. We will remove any accidentally identifying information from responses before storing the data. 

If you do feel comfortable speaking in more detail about your experiences, we may want to contact you again later down the line. This could be to discuss your experience in more detail, to support our super-complaint, or to involve you in any media opportunities that may arise from our work. There is no pressure to engage in any of this, but if you would like to be contacted, there is an optional section at the end of the survey to enter your contact details.

 

Please find our full privacy notice about this survey here.

If you have any questions or change your mind, contact us at rcewinfo@rapecrisis.org.uk. 

The following questions ask for demographic information, including special category data. If you consent to Rape Crisis England & Wales processing your data in this way, and you later wish to withdraw your consent, you can contact us at rcewinfo@rapecrisis.org.uk. You will need to provide your survey reference number (provided in the 'Thank You' page at the end of this survey). 

You can also read our full privacy notice here.

If you are happy for us to contact you about your experience in relation to future work on the topic of lengthy police investigations, please provide your contact details below.