ESSEX Police has explained how it plans to do more in the fight against sexual violence against women and girls after it was revealed just three per cent of reports of sexual violence end in a conviction reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

Essex Police have reported a 11.3 per cent decrease  – reflected by 677 fewer number incidents – in the level of sexual offences committed against females in the 12 months to March 2024 compared to the 12 months to March 2023.

Police , fire and crime commissioner for Essex Roger Hirst said work learnt from other forces has led to positive results. 

The number of rape investigations has gone up threefold. The force has managed to get domestic abuse down by about 15 per cent in that period. 

He told an Essex crime panel: “It is still 40 per cent of all the incidents reported to Essex Police.

“That is far too much. But we have found techniques that work to change perpetrators’ behaviour and support victims better.

“The harsh reality though – and this is why I have in the past asked the chief constable to think further about what we can do to improve our performance around rape and serious sexual assault and why it will be one of the big priorities – there were 75 successful prosecutions out of a total reported of 2,500.

“So you’re talking about rape itself of a solved rate of around three per cent.

“Now that, appallingly, compares quite well on a national comparison.

“But it’s still not where we need to be by a very long way.

“What we do compared with other police services is good. What we do compared to what the public need is not. And that’s where the chief constable and I rub up on this one.”

Chief Constable for Essex BJ Harrington said: “We don’t have a particular issue with stranger attacks. What we see is in a relationship or a former relationship.

“And of course that makes the gathering of evidence very difficult.”

He added: “We focus on the victims. We also focus on the perpetrators so where we have an individual who we think is committing sexual offending and a victim feels they cannot for whatever reasons legitimately support the prosecution or the evidence to support it we are proactive in dealing with those individuals as well where we can bring prosecutions for other means.

“To be victim centered and suspect focused I think is the phrase we would use.”