One in ten sex crimes is wrongly recorded
MORE than one in ten sex crimes is not properly recorded by police, sparking concerns that some victims are being marginalised.
A report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in scotland (HMICs) found there was room for improvement in the recording of sexual offences.
The watchdog also warned that four police divisions – Renfrewshire and Inverclyde, Ayrshire, Edinburgh and Argyll and West Dunbartonshire – must perform better.
Campaigners said they were concerned police were reporting ‘no crime’ in cases in which the victim was unco-operative.
The HMICs report found that 11 per cent of the 1,200 audited sexual incidents were not recorded correctly, including a rape reclassified as sex with an older child when there was no indication of consent.
Rape investigation units are also operating ‘shadow systems for recording crime’ where incidents are investigated off the record, HMICs found.
Eight per cent of the 2,238 violent offences were recorded incorrectly, including a person knocked unconscious with hammer blows to the head who was deemed to be
‘Not happy with how they were treated’
the victim of a serious assault rather than attempted murder.
In addition, several crimes were not recorded because police dismissed them as pranks, lost rather than stolen property, civil rather than criminal matters or where officers did not believe the complainer but did not give sufficient reason why.
Derek Penman, HM Inspector of Constabulary in scotland, said: ‘Most incident and crime recording decisions are good. A few divisions fell below the standard we would expect and Police scotland should ensure these divisions develop improvement plans to address their crime recording practice.’
sandy Brindley, of Rape Crisis scotland, said: ‘ One thing that does seem to need improvement is where the victim is uncooperative. There could be a host of reasons why a complainer becomes uncooperative. They could be intimidated, or not happy about the way they have been treated.’
Police scotland insisted it was ‘unlikely’ that ‘technical’ errors in how crimes were recorded would affect an investigation.
A scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We will work closely with Police scotland and the scottish Police Authority to ensure HMICs recommendations to strengthen the accuracy of data are put in place.’