PIER Research Seminar Series 2020-21: Should rape during military service be tried in the civilian courts?

The UK military deals with sexual offences committed by service personnel through the service justice system (SJS). However, policy scrutiny and media attention have highlighted significant failings in the SJS response to sexual offences, including low conviction rates, sexual offences not being properly recorded, and failings in investigations by SJS prosecutors. Several recent government reviews have recommended that all rape cases committed within the UK armed forces, be dealt with in the civilian criminal justice system (CJS) rather than the SJS. However, this recommendation has been rejected by the Ministry of Defence on that basis that the SJS can adequately deal with these offences. In this seminar, we will report an in-depth comparative analysis of the CJS and SJS processes and responses to sexual offences to understand the successes and failures of each system. Ultimately, we will highlight significant obstacles to justice in both systems, including numerous barriers to reporting, poor victim treatment, high attrition and low convictions.