Cameron calls for tougher rape laws
Updated on 12 November 2007
The Conservative leader David Cameron has called for tougher laws on rape claiming too many offenders think they can get away with it.
He cited figures which he said showed Britain had the lowest rape conviction rate of any country in Europe and promised stricter punishments as well as more help for rape victims.
Mr Cameron also returned to a familiar theme, blaming the media and music industry for fostering a culture that glorified violence against women.
Research using mock trials found that jurors thought a woman could be partially responsible for a rape if she'd accepted drinks from the defendant and thought it could be reasonable to assume that a woman had consented to sex even if she was paralytic.
The Conservative leader puts such attitudes down to a moral collapse in the UK. David Cameron believes society has become increasingly sexualised over the past decade, creating an atmosphere, especially amongst the young, where treating woman as a sex object is viewed as cool.
Cultural attitudes towards woman and sexual violence show one in four think it's ok for a boy to expect to have sex with a girl if she's very flirtatious. Studies show one in two men think it's ok to force woman.
Cameron is calling for the media and the music industry to be more responsible in how it presents female role models and for schools to talk about the need for consent to sex at a much earlier age, but he also believes much more must be done to secure a conviction.
But is he really comparing like with like. In 2003 25 cases of rape per 100,000 of the population were reported in England and Wales compared to just 5 in Italy. Does that mean there were five times as many rapes or just five times as many were reported?
In many of European countries they define rape much more narrowly than we do.
David Cameron believes the way the justice system treats rape victims is a symptom of a wider morale malaise. But changing prejudices in the jury room will take more than a government initiative.
