You have to wonder what goes through the minds of the people at the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICS) when it decided that a 25-year-old, who was raped after a night out, had been told the standard £11,000 award would be cut by 25%. The reason the authority gave was the evidence shows that your excessive consumption of alcohol was a contributing factor in the incident. Beggar’s belief. Lisa Longstaff of Women Against Rape is spot on when she says.

The original decision by the CICA was symptomatic of the “blame culture” experienced by rape victims. It used to be that they were always blamed if they were wearing a short skirt, today it’s that they were drinking. It’s very important for women who’ve been victims of rape to get compensation because often it’s the only acknowledgement you are going to get that you have been a victim of crime, given that the conviction rate in this country is only 6%.

As the victim herself said, it is not illegal to go out and have a drink; it is illegal to rape somebody.

Thankfully, her lawyer successfully argued it was wrong to regard alcohol consumption as a contributing factor in rape cases. The CICA acknowledged its rules had been applied wrongly in 14 other cases.

It is a sad indictment of the CICA that the victim had to resort to the law to get the CICA to admit the obvious.

Source: The BBC.