Intersectional injustices: police responses to migrant, Black and minoritised victim-survivors of rape and other sexual offences in England and Wales

ABSTRACT

Research has explored how gender discrimination and sexist stereotypes in the form of rape myths permeate police investigations in England. Yet, scant attention has been given to the impact of intersectional structural disadvantages on shaping police responses to rape. Recent quantitative studies reveal a criminal justice gap for Black and minoritised victim-survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, pointing to a troubling policing reality that demands further scrutiny. This paper turns to that by drawing on data from 25 cases from four forces collected between 2021 and 2022 as part of Operation Soteria Bluestone (OSB) through a novel method in which police investigators critically peer review their colleagues’ case files to assess strengths and weaknesses. Our study provides a unique methodological and empirical contribution to the field, as qualitative research on Black and minoritised women’s experiences of policing as victim-survivors of sexual and domestic violence has primarily relied on interviews with police officers, victim-survivors and practitioners. The framework of institutional racism and intersectionality sheds light on how the police may inadequately respond to rape cases and the intersecting needs of migrant, Black and minoritised women. As Black feminists contend, the intersection of multiple categories of oppression both generates and invisibilises specific forms of violence and institutional responses to them. Our findings indicate that migrant, Black and minoritised victim-survivors are being failed on multiple fronts, including police neglect and inaction in rape investigations, ineffective addressing of language needs of migrant victim-survivors involved and a lack of referral to by-and-for specialist support services.

KEYWORDS:

• Police rape investigations
• migrant women
• Black and minoritised women
• institutional discrimination

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Professor Miranda Horvath and Dr Kari Davies, the co-principal investigators of Pillars 1 and 2 of Operation Soteria Bluestone for their ongoing guidance and helpful comments on the first draft of this article. The content of the manuscript and any errors that remain are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics declaration

Ethics approval for this study was granted from the Bournemouth University Ethics Committee, reference number 39633, and the University of Suffolk Staff Ethics Committee, reference number RETH21/006. Data collection constituted secondary data analysis of information already collected from the data subjects, the requisite permissions were granted from the data owners (the police forces) to use the data.

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of the research, and due to ethical and legal restrictions, supporting data is not available.

Notes

1 This research was conducted as part of Operation Soteria Bluestone, funded by the UK Home Office. Designed by Katrin Hohl and Betsy Stanko, work package (pillar) leads were Kari Davies, Miranda Horvath, Kelly Johnson, Jo Lovett, Tiggey May, Olivia Smith, and Emma Williams.

2 We recognise that migrants are racialised differently and that not everyone with a migration background identifies as a migrant (e.g. British-born children of parents who migrated to Britain). We use the term ‘migrant’ to refer to people who are foreign nationals and have themselves migrated to this country regardless of whether they are white or non-white. In contrast, the term ‘racialised’ or ‘minoritised’ is used to refer to non-white people, emphasising the process of racist racialisation they are subjected to and the socially constructed meanings of race and racism which reduce them to a ‘minority’.

3 Operation Soteria Bluestone is a programme underpinned by rigorous social science designed to improve the investigation of rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) in England and Wales.

Additional information

Funding

This research was part of Operation Soteria Bluestone funded by the Home Office, led by the National Police Chief’s Council and hosted by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime.