ANALYSIS: Research from Operation Soteria has found numerous institutional issues in the policing of rape and serious sexual offences that require urgent attention: in this article, Dr Anna Gekoski, Dr Kari Davies, and Professor Miranda Horvath explore these issues, which include problems relating to staffing, training, and technology.

ANALYSIS: A recent report based on interviews with officers in England and Wales in 2021-22 highlights a number of ‘institutional challenges’ around investigating rape and serious sexual offences; however, Prof Betsy Stanko, Senior Strategic Academic Advisor for Operation Soteria, Chief Constable Sarah Crew, National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Adult Sexual Offences, and Detective Chief Superintendent Melissa Laremore, Operation Soteria Delivery Lead, set out the significant progress in addressing these and many other issues over the past five years.

ANALYSIS: Research from Operation Soteria has found that police officers believe that victims of rape and serious sexual offences may be subject to secondary victimisation by their experiences with the police, with such revictimisation occurring at the initial reporting phase, during evidence gathering, and if investigations are victim rather than suspect focused; in this article, Dr Anna Gekoski, Professor Miranda Horvath and Dr Kari Davies, who conducted the research, explore these issues further.

ANALYSIS: Attrition rates in UK rape cases have prompted considerable concerns, but data analysis led by Dr Fiona Vera-Gray and Jo Lovett of London Metropolitan University (as part of the Operation Soteria Data Pillar) has highlighted that significant numbers of police-recorded rapes originated through victim/survivors discussions with officers or the DASH assessment process, with victims having no intention to report the crime – a process described as ‘telling not reporting’ – and subsequently do not support the investigation.

ANALYSIS: Operation Soteria has been described as a ‘game changer’ for the police investigation of rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) in England and Wales, with the development of a new national operating model (NOM) for RASSO one of the key outcomes; in this article Professor Bernard Burnes, Dr Linda Cooper, and Dr Clare Rawdin – members of the change team for ‘Pillar 4’ (learning development and officer wellbeing) of Op Soteria – share some of the findings and insights from their work on the project.

ANALYSIS: The latest survey of survivors of rape and sexual assault into their experiences of the response by police in England and Wales has found that overall, Operation Soteria is improving the service delivered, but still only 40% of victims would report another sexual offence because of a lack of trust – although a series of simple steps could dramatically improve that reporting rate, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: With almost half of police forces in England and Wales having adopted and implemented the Operation Soteria model to tackle rape and serious sexual offences, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to City University of London Professor Katrin Hohl and Avon and Somerset Chief Constable Sarah Crew about the continuing roll out of the programme, the expansion of the approach to address domestic abuse, and concerns that an end to funding could threaten the progress already made.

FEATURE: Speaking at the Canterbury Centre for Policing Research’s annual conference, Dr Emma Williams – Director of the Open University’s the Centre for Policing Research and an academic with years of experience exploring the police approach to rape cases – gave her overview of why reform in this area is so difficult to get right, and her hopes that Operation Soteria could provide the path to progress, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

FEATURE: For Professor Betsy Stanko, co-lead of Operation Soteria Bluestone, policing’s “corporate culture” needs to change; during an event hosted at New Scotland Yard, she called for a new mindset that sees forces learn the right lessons about how they handle rape and serious sexual offences, as Policing Insight’s James Sweetland reports.

ANALYSIS: Police forces in England and Wales have yet to find a way of resolving low rape charging rates and poor victim experiences, but creating specialist rape investigation units is frequently proposed as part of the solution; Det Ch Supt Phil Sparrow of South Wales Police, and Operation Soteria joint academic lead Professor Katrin Hohl, explore how the Soteria approach to specialism has helped the force climb to the top of rape charging rate table, and discuss why distinguishing between ‘dedicated’ and ‘specialist’ units matters.

ANALYSIS: In this fifth and final article in a month-long series celebrating International Women’s Day, Dr Emma Williams, Dr Linda Maguire, Dr Arun Sondhi and Richard Harding of the Open University’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning share some important insights about the ground-breaking Operation Soteria Bluestone project currently underway to transform the police response to Rape and Serious Sexual Offences.

OPINION: The UK Government’s first year report into Operation Soteria highlights victim blaming and a lack of specialist knowledge among officers investigating rape, many of whom are over-worked, traumatised and inexperienced; Chief Constable Sarah Crew, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Adult Sexual Offences, believes that while the report makes difficult reading, it also offers the ‘best opportunity in a generation’ to improve the investigation and prosecution of rape.

ANALYSIS: The ground-breaking Operation Soteria-Bluestone initiative seeks to improve the investigation of rape and serious sexual offences, and has highlighted the impact on those investigating such cases; Research Fellows Richard Harding and Dr Arun Sondhi, and Dr Emma Williams (Director of Research and Strategic Partnerships), of the Open University’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning, look at the early findings in relation to learning, wellbeing and officer burnout, and the important role of the organisational environment.

OPINION : Project Bluestone involves Avon and Somerset working with leading academics to assess and address the force's issues around rape investigations; Dr Emma Williams of the Open University, one of the academics involved with Bluestone, assesses the ongoing project and its potential.