Committee
Equal Opportunities Committee, 14 Mar 2000
14 Mar 2000 · S1 · Equal Opportunities Committee
Item of business
Violence against Women
Cara Gillespie (Scottish Rape Crisis Network):
Watch on SPTV
Good morning. Thank you for inviting us to give evidence. My name is Cara Gillespie. I am a worker at Edinburgh rape crisis centre. On my right is my colleague, Sandy Brindley, who works for Strathclyde rape crisis centre.
I will begin by highlighting some of the key issues in relation to the nature and prevalence of violence against women in Scotland. I will follow that with some information about the rape crisis movement. Sandy Brindley will then give her input on issues relating to the criminal justice system. I ask members to refer to our written evidence for a more detailed outline of what we will say today.
As we speak, the first national rape crisis leaflet paid for by the Scottish Executive is being launched by Jackie Baillie in Stirling. That is an historic occasion. To my knowledge, it is the first time that rape crisis centres in Scotland have received any kind of dedicated support from central Government. It is important to note that, although the leaflet is being paid for, our services are not. There is no centrally funded provision to ensure that support is available to the women who will read those leaflets and who take the difficult decision to make a call for help.
Last year, Scottish rape crisis centres supported more than 3,000 women and girls. We know that that is the tip of the iceberg. In 1998, a pilot study by Strathclyde rape crisis centre showed that only one in 10 callers were able to get through. If that is the case across the country, it suggests that tens of thousands more women out there are unable to access support because services are overloaded.
Despite more than 20 years of campaigning and awareness raising by the women's movement, rape and abuse remain taboo subjects, shrouded by secrecy and silence in our society. Women who use our services cite experiences of a range of forms of sexual violence, including child sexual violence, rape and sexual assault. Sexual violence is embedded in our culture. If people doubt that, they should try to name one other form of crime or human rights violation for which the victim is regularly held responsible, not only by the perpetrator, but by society.
Women and girls who speak out about their experiences are still likely to be blamed for what has happened, even if they were children at the time of the abuse. Women are still likely not to be believed; the fear of being branded a liar prevents many women from coming forward for help.
In recent years, great work has been done to combat those problems but, like funding for rape crisis centres, such work has been patchy and inconsistent. As a nation, we still seem to be unable to make up our minds whether we want to deal with the issue. Given that context, it is unsurprising that women who survive abuse in any of its forms seem to be expected to deal with it alone.
That is reflected in funding for our services. We are dependent on voluntary donations to provide basic necessities such as travel costs and child care for women who want to come to us for support. Our waiting lists are often lengthy or closed altogether, due to the volume of women who want our help. There is no provision whatever in some local authority areas. To take one example, Edinburgh rape crisis centre struggles to offer a service to women from East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, the Borders and Fife, as well as from Edinburgh city.
We receive regular inquiries from workers in other agencies, including social workers and health professionals, who want to refer women to us. They all cite abuse as being at the root of a range of other problems, such as mental ill health, alcoholism, drug abuse, homelessness and so on. There is widespread provision for individuals who experience those other problems, yet scarce specialist resources to tackle the issues at their root.
Recent attempts by the Government to take a lead role in tackling violence are welcome. It is unhelpful, however, to single out one form of sexual violence and to prioritise it over another, as has happened with domestic abuse. Evelyn Gillan from the Zero Tolerance Trust will talk about the links between forms of sexual violence in more detail. At least 25 per cent of the women who come to us have experienced more than one form of violence in their lives.
We urge the committee to move for coherent, practical action on violence against women and ask for that to be reflected in adequate, on-the-ground provision for support services.
Thank you for listening. I will hand over to Sandy Brindley, who will talk about criminal justice.
I will begin by highlighting some of the key issues in relation to the nature and prevalence of violence against women in Scotland. I will follow that with some information about the rape crisis movement. Sandy Brindley will then give her input on issues relating to the criminal justice system. I ask members to refer to our written evidence for a more detailed outline of what we will say today.
As we speak, the first national rape crisis leaflet paid for by the Scottish Executive is being launched by Jackie Baillie in Stirling. That is an historic occasion. To my knowledge, it is the first time that rape crisis centres in Scotland have received any kind of dedicated support from central Government. It is important to note that, although the leaflet is being paid for, our services are not. There is no centrally funded provision to ensure that support is available to the women who will read those leaflets and who take the difficult decision to make a call for help.
Last year, Scottish rape crisis centres supported more than 3,000 women and girls. We know that that is the tip of the iceberg. In 1998, a pilot study by Strathclyde rape crisis centre showed that only one in 10 callers were able to get through. If that is the case across the country, it suggests that tens of thousands more women out there are unable to access support because services are overloaded.
Despite more than 20 years of campaigning and awareness raising by the women's movement, rape and abuse remain taboo subjects, shrouded by secrecy and silence in our society. Women who use our services cite experiences of a range of forms of sexual violence, including child sexual violence, rape and sexual assault. Sexual violence is embedded in our culture. If people doubt that, they should try to name one other form of crime or human rights violation for which the victim is regularly held responsible, not only by the perpetrator, but by society.
Women and girls who speak out about their experiences are still likely to be blamed for what has happened, even if they were children at the time of the abuse. Women are still likely not to be believed; the fear of being branded a liar prevents many women from coming forward for help.
In recent years, great work has been done to combat those problems but, like funding for rape crisis centres, such work has been patchy and inconsistent. As a nation, we still seem to be unable to make up our minds whether we want to deal with the issue. Given that context, it is unsurprising that women who survive abuse in any of its forms seem to be expected to deal with it alone.
That is reflected in funding for our services. We are dependent on voluntary donations to provide basic necessities such as travel costs and child care for women who want to come to us for support. Our waiting lists are often lengthy or closed altogether, due to the volume of women who want our help. There is no provision whatever in some local authority areas. To take one example, Edinburgh rape crisis centre struggles to offer a service to women from East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, the Borders and Fife, as well as from Edinburgh city.
We receive regular inquiries from workers in other agencies, including social workers and health professionals, who want to refer women to us. They all cite abuse as being at the root of a range of other problems, such as mental ill health, alcoholism, drug abuse, homelessness and so on. There is widespread provision for individuals who experience those other problems, yet scarce specialist resources to tackle the issues at their root.
Recent attempts by the Government to take a lead role in tackling violence are welcome. It is unhelpful, however, to single out one form of sexual violence and to prioritise it over another, as has happened with domestic abuse. Evelyn Gillan from the Zero Tolerance Trust will talk about the links between forms of sexual violence in more detail. At least 25 per cent of the women who come to us have experienced more than one form of violence in their lives.
We urge the committee to move for coherent, practical action on violence against women and ask for that to be reflected in adequate, on-the-ground provision for support services.
Thank you for listening. I will hand over to Sandy Brindley, who will talk about criminal justice.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
Lab
I invite the first set of witnesses, who are from the Scottish rape crisis network, to take their seats. We will hear evidence from Cara Gillespie and Sandy ...
Cara Gillespie (Scottish Rape Crisis Network):
Good morning. Thank you for inviting us to give evidence. My name is Cara Gillespie. I am a worker at Edinburgh rape crisis centre. On my right is my colleag...
The Convener:
Lab
Thank you.
Sandy Brindley (Rape Crisis Network):
My name is Sandy Brindley. I have been a worker with Strathclyde rape crisis centre for around six years. During that time, I have spoken to a significant nu...
The Convener:
Lab
Thank you, Sandy. I open out the discussion to members for questions or comments.
Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab):
Lab
We had a big rape case in Inverness recently, which was well handled because we have a woman procurator fiscal who is extremely supportive of rape victims. H...
Sandy Brindley:
That depends on the good will and interest of the head teacher and the guidance to staff in individual schools—there is no strategic programme of education o...
Cara Gillespie:
Maureen Macmillan was absolutely correct when she talked about the legal definition of rape and said that it was about power. We think that it is important t...
Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab):
Lab
You will know that part of the context in which you are giving evidence is our examination of the way in which women are treated by the legal system as vulne...
Sandy Brindley:
A piece of research carried out in England and Wales last year addressed the specific issue of whether so-called date rape is less likely to lead to criminal...
Johann Lamont:
Lab
Do you agree with the idea of establishing special courts, so that the whole system is geared to recognising the vulnerability of certain witnesses? Those co...
Sandy Brindley:
Many different attempts, some of which have been more successful than others, have been made in different countries and states to deal with the problems that...
Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab):
Lab
Johann Lamont raised a topical point. Partly because of her work and partly because of the work of the SNP's Gil Paterson, the Executive has pledged to repor...
Cara Gillespie:
That is not my area of expertise, as I focus much more on service provision.
Sandy Brindley:
However, we agree that it was a disappointing document, because it made assertions that we found startling. For example, it said that there were no problems ...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
Cara, you referred to a leaflet that is being published today—you have knowledge that we do not have. What exactly is that leaflet? Was your point that the l...
Cara Gillespie:
That is correct. Around the time that a lot of work was being done on domestic abuse, the Scottish Executive published a leaflet raising awareness of the dom...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
The leaflet will refer to Edinburgh rape crisis centre and all the other rape crisis centres. Might we expect that those will become better known and be used...
Cara Gillespie:
We certainly hope so, particularly if we can use the distribution networks that have been made available to get leaflets right across Scotland to police forc...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
What combinations of funding do different rape crisis centres have? Are they different in different places?
Cara Gillespie:
Our funding is outlined in more detail in our written evidence. Some centres receive local authority funding, mainly through the section 10 funding strand, w...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
Would you like to see a central fund, similar to the domestic abuse fund?
Cara Gillespie:
Absolutely. We need to consider how much of this work should be a statutory responsibility—how much of the work we want to be done as part of creating a civi...
Malcolm Chisholm:
Lab
Maureen Macmillan reminded us that rape is really about power. Would you like to comment on the dreadful book that came out recently and took a different view?
Cara Gillespie:
I cannot remember which American feminist responded to it, but she made a very important point. Obviously, we dismiss the views that were expressed in the bo...
Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP):
SSP
Cara, do you share my concern that you will experience a difficulty similar to the one that the zero tolerance campaign has had over the past few years, in t...
Cara Gillespie:
That is certainly one of the things that we will be pursuing. Like many other organisations, we have been battering against a door for many years, so that no...
Tommy Sheridan:
SSP
I hope that we can assist you to make the case for statutory funding for the service.When the COSLA guidance on tackling violence against women was launched,...
Sandy Brindley:
That is a very good question, which we have raised in the different agency forums in which we are involved. There is no point in inventing new guidelines, as...
Tommy Sheridan:
SSP
Convener, I hope that the committee will agree to make representations to the Executive about implementation of the COSLA guidelines, as that would maintain ...