Victim Support

Victims of rape receive support from several government bodies such as sexual assault referral centres (SARC) and there are also Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs). SARC is an organisation that provides services to the victims of rape or sexual assault regardless of whether

the victim reports the offence to the police or not. They are designed to be comfortable and multi-functional, offering private spaces for interviews and examinations, and some may also offer counselling services for the victims. They hire specialist staff that are trained to help victims make informed decisions about what they wish to do next (The Survivors Trust, 2015). SARC is seen as a good organisation as it offers advice and support for both men and women

They are an independent charity for victims of crime in England and Wales. In regards to victims of rape, they

provide robust, professional and consistent support to all victims, and also offer specialist support for young victims, male victims and those experiencing it within same-sex relationships (Victimsupport.org.uk, 2015). Victim support provides a service inclusive of everyone, of every background and gives them the help and advice needed. However, the issue with victim support is that most of its funding comes from the government. Since 1997, government funding of victim support, including the witness service, has almost tripled from £12 million to almost £30 million.

Due to such a large amount of money coming in from the government, it could be said that they are then influencing the work that victim support does, and it is a question as to how independent the service actually is in

Positivists think of victims of rape as people who most likely are partly responsible for the offence happening. The positivist ideologies such as victim precipitation and also victim proneness lead to said victim being blamed for the attack against them, instead of the blame being placed on the perpetrator. Feminists think of victims of rape as nothing else other than someone who has been targeted and become a victim of an offence that is the fault of another. Feminist ideologies such as intersectionality show that it is the small things that make up a person that increase or decrease their likelihood of becoming a victim of rape. Although they may be seen as being more likely due to their race, religion, social class, gender, age and sexuality, it does not mean they are to blame for the offence against them. The blame, in feminists eyes, always lies with the perpetrator, and not the victim. Unfortunately due to rape myths being so prevalent, it means it affects the reporting rate, and makes victims fear coming forward due to the backlash they may receive. However, the reporting rate for rapes are rising. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) reported that, at the end of March 2015, there had been a rise of 37% of sexual offences, and in particular there had been 29,265 reports of rape, which was at the highest level since the introduction of the National Crime