Hidden Depths: A Detailed Study of Rape Crisis Data

Sexual violence can lead to a range of individual and social harms, including long-term impacts on physical and mental health and wellbeing. We currently know most about cases that enter the criminal justice system (CJS), but this is a small minority of recent and historic cases - all of whom may have support needs. This project involves access to a unique, and never before available for research, dataset held by Rape Crisis Centres (RCCs).

Systematic data collection and analysis can help identify who is most at risk of victimisation (and most likely to perpetrate), what their needs are, and which interventions best enable them to move on with their lives. These data can inform and improve support services. The government's violence against women (VAW) action plan and various European institutions have called for improved data collection, yet quantitative data analysis on all forms of VAW, particularly sexual violence, is under-developed in the UK and Europe.

Specialist support services hold a wealth of data on victim-survivors, including many who are hidden from official sources, as they have never reported to state agencies. Support services have historically been reluctant to share their data externally because of client confidentiality. However, new restructuring and commissioning processes mean these services must increasingly evidence their work, though not all have the resources or experience to know how to do this. The Rape Crisis (RC) sector has embraced these developments and is at the forefront of driving forward improvements in recording and monitoring their work. One such advance is their development of a Data Performance Management System (DPMS), which is now used in half of all RCCs nationally.

Facilitated by our non-academic partner, South Essex Incest and Rape Crisis Centre (SERICC), a number of RCCs using DPMS are willing to provide the applicants access to their datasets. They combine to make a total sample of approximately 10,000 victim-survivors who have contacted RCCs since 2008. Three RCCs also hold large historic datasets (around 10,000 cases) they are willing to share and these will be linked with the DPMS-based data. This dataset is unique and its availability now is due to a longstanding relationship between CWASU, SERICC and the national RC Network.

This project will combine three elements. Firstly, we will conduct in-depth analysis of this previously unavailable dataset, which includes victim-survivors seeking support about recent events and childhood sexual abuse. This will be extended to include data from further RCCs during the project. Secondly, we will build capacity in the RC sector to improve the quality of future data collection and maximise use of findings from data analysis. We will hold three workshops with a working group of RCC staff responsible for data management. These will inform the analysis and reflections on findings, whilst also exploring how RCCs can improve data collection processes and use their own data more effectively in service planning, awareness raising and policy work.

CWASU has a history of collaborating with support services, practitioners and policy makers, including compiling some of the most extensive existing quantitative datasets on sexual violence in previous projects. However, our existing datasets are all limited to cases known to statutory services, especially the CJS, which we know comprise a minority of sexual violence. The project would contribute to the ESRC priority: Influencing behaviour and informing interventions. The research will produce greater understanding of the profiles of victim-survivors, perpetrators and contexts in which sexual violence takes place. We will also explore intersections of age, disability, ethnicity and class with health status and revictimisation. The outputs, alongside traditional academic papers, will include a series of briefing papers, some internal for RCCs and others for wider publics.

This project will increase knowledge and understanding of sexual violence, including the profile of victim-survivors and perpetrators, contexts in which such violence takes place and outcomes for users of Rape Crisis Centres (RCCs). The proposed research has wide policy and practice relevance, as well as being of likely interest to academics in a range of fields, local/national policy makers, professionals working in frontline services responding to sexual violence and the public themselves.

A key element of the project is to enhance the capacities and capabilities of RCCs, based in the third sector, in relation to data recording and analysis. Primary beneficiaries will thus be RCCs, with whom we will be working closely throughout the project in the form of our partner, South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre (SERICC), the data managers from eight RCCs who will participate in the working group, and the wider national Rape Crisis network. The data RCCs hold is not currently fully exploited, but the research findings from the project and the increased reporting functions we will develop in conjunction with the working group and the database contractor will greatly enhance their capacity to utilise their data more effectively in many areas of their work, such as improving service planning and provision, developing funding bids, education and awareness raising, advocacy and policy work, as well as making provision of information for local and national government consultations more readily accessible. Testing the tacit knowledge of RCCs will enable them to draw on an evidence base in their local, regional and national engagements with policy makers and funders. For example, it has long been their contention that more of the women they work with are involved with the health and child protection systems than criminal justice. This has huge implications for public policy, which has to date been focused on attrition in the legal process.

Local and national policy makers have asserted commitments to addressing violence against women and girls (VAWG), including sexual violence. Improving knowledge of who is affected by sexual violence and what works to address it, through data collection and research are key aims of government, is stated in the current government Action plan on VAWG, and, increasingly, at EU level, and many local areas have VAWG strategies. This project has potential to inform the policies and practices of these institutions by extending the available evidence base with its predominant focus on those who have reported to the police to those who are often hidden from existing data sources. By demonstrating the links between sexual violence and health/mental health and wellbeing, there is also potential to increase opportunities for these issues to be taken account of by Health and Wellbeing Boards, as funding for health and social care services transfers to them from local authorities. Providing information to support the boards to understand VAWG is also an action point in the government's VAWG action plan.

Ultimately, improved understanding of the profile and contexts of sexual violence, as well as the support needs of victim-survivors and what is effective in enabling them to move forward will benefit victim-survivors themselves and the wider public. Using data to better understand the needs of this population and target services and interventions accordingly will increase the effectiveness of public services and policy and enhance quality of life, health and wellbeing.

The Data Performance Management System developed by SERICC in conjunction with Visia Software Limited is now a commercial product, having been installed in 21 RCCs, with plans its use to extend to the wider network in 2014, and in several domestic violence organisations. This project would further promote knowledge of this software, heightening the potential for its installation in additional settings.