FIGHTING FOR THE VICTIMS OF RAPE

As far as careers go, it couldn t have been one of the easiest. For seventeen years, including ten as Director, Olive Braiden has been a lynchpin of Dublin s Rape Crisis Centre.

Braiden, like her colleagues, began at the difficult coal face: staffing the 24-hour crisis line, rushing to the aid of distressed victims, guiding them through the difficult process of hospital visit, garda report and subsequent advice, support and later counselling. Over the years her role has changed, she could be found lobbying to change legislation.
Now Braiden has stepped down in order to take a sabbatical, as she calls it ( a year of reflection, a broadening of the mind ) to read for an M.Phil in women s studies at Trinity College. It s a convenient point from which to look back on, how much has changed in only two decades and how far there is still to go..

Before the RCC was established, twenty-one years ago, Braiden remembers, if somebody was raped and became traumatised as a result, they were sent, in many cases, to psychiatric hospitals as if there was something wrong with them. There was no understanding of how being the victim of a rape would affect somebody.
Also, the feeling was that it happened very infrequently, and that when it did, it was committed by somebody who was totally deranged, she says. In contrast, the DRCC s figures for 1999 report that at least 80 percent of adult rapes last year were committed by someone the victim knew well and 20 percent of those, were spouses or lovers.
Judges at the time made some horrific statements. There was one particular case where a young woman in a country town was gang-raped, and the judge made a statement that it really wasn t a good idea for a woman to walk down the street with two men, only one of whom she knew. He was missing the point entirely. She knew one of them and he also raped her.
Needless to say, this fundamental misunderstanding of the causes and nature of the crime made it that much more difficult for Braiden and her colleagues to affect change.
It took a long time to lobby and be accepted, Braiden recalls. I mean, we were seen in the beginning as this mad group of feminists. We were faced with disbelief in the community, disbelief in government, disbelief from authority figures.
When we used to collect on Flag Day [the DRCC s annual fundraising drive], she continues, people would come up to us and insult us in the street. They d say: It s the likes of ye who are responsible for what s happening here, for bringing all this out into the open. It s better left unsaid. It s exaggerated. One of our greatest achievements over the last 17 years, I suppose, is that it can now be spoken about.
Speaking about it on every level, from confiding in a friend or family member, to going to a counsellor, to taking the stand in court is one of the bravest things a rape survivor has to do, as well as one of the most important steps in his or her recovery ( his or her, as approximately 15% of rape victims who received counselling from the DRCC last year were male). But speaking about it and, in particular, going through every detail for the benefit of the courts is far from easy.
Our legal system is a very difficult, very arduous process. There s a big backlog of rape cases people have had to wait two years, which is the worst. It is unacceptable.
That must be part of the reason a lot of rapes aren t reported (the DRCC s latest figures indicate that only 28% of victims go to the guards), and a lot of those that are, are dropped (more than 20%).
One of Braiden s proudest accomplishments from her time at the DRCC is called The Legal Process and Victims of Rape, a research study published in 1998 in conjunction with the School of Law at Trinity College. It examined the differences in the perception, statistics and legislation relating to the crime across Europe, and unearthed some interesting and instructive distinctions between them.
We did a study on the law on rape in each EU member-state, and every country except Ireland and England allows separate legal representation for the victim. If a victim goes to court now, they re not entitled to have a lawyer; they re just the witness to the crime. The prosecution takes the case on behalf of the state. The accused has his barrister from day one, working with him, making up his case.
Too often, according to the DRCC, the victim appears to be the one on trial. He or she must take the stand; he or she gets cross-examined by the opposing legal team, in an effort to get them discredited; he or she is not entitled by law to separate legal representation.
From our lobbying, Braiden continues, the victim is entitled to meet with the prosecution, but sometimes they only meet in the corridor, in the morning. And the prosecution is afraid to talk to the victim, because they can be accused of coaching the witness. So it s terrible: the victim is isolated, alone in the witness box; she s questioned about her previous sexual history
Braiden also reminds us that most rape cases rest on the issue of consent, which is notoriously difficult to prove in court.
All the cases rest on consent 99 percent of them. It s seldom the case where somebody is saying, Yes, I know this woman was raped, but it wasn t the accused, it was somebody else . It s usually the guy saying, Yes, I did have sex with that woman, but she agreed . It s his word against hers.
It seems that the cards are very much stacked against the victim. So what are the arguments for putting oneself through the legal process?
Interestingly, Braiden does not answer immediately. She considers, and then says: I think people like to be vindicated.
But when it can be so difficult to be vindicated to win why do it?
Well, firstly, rape has been shown by research to carry more psychological problems than any other crime, and it has more long-lasting effects and I believe that the victim will recover better if she brings the perpetrator to justice.
Even if the attacker isn t sentenced at the end of the day, the victim after being humiliated, degraded is saying, This should not have happened to me; this is a very serious crime; and I am an innocent person .
Then, there s the other side of it: that recidivism is a serious problem. The person who commits rape has been shown by research to repeat the crime over and over again. It s not a once-off: that s what all the research shows. It s compulsive and addictive.

Rape is traditionally perceived, however incorrectly, as a women s issue, a sexual issue. What causes a person to rape?
Rape is about power, Braiden says. All the studies indicate that rapists are people who are inadequate in some area of their lives. They don t feel self-confident in some way maybe at work, or in relationships; maybe in their past life they were badly treated. So, this time, they are completely in charge. They are interested in humiliating their victims, showing, they think, that they have the power.
That sex-crime idea goes back to the old chestnut about how women bring attacks upon themselves because of the way they dress or
conduct themselves.
Oh, yes, right. If only women didn t dress in short skirts, low necklines, whatever: nothing would happen to them. Then you have to ask: Why are old ladies raped? Why are men raped? Why are little children raped? Why are normal people, who don t dress so-called provocatively, and aren t particularly goodlooking, raped? It has nothing to do with it.

Braiden feels that the increased number of rapes over the years and the increasingly violent nature of the attacks, like the recent abduction and torture of a prostitute in the Wicklow Mountains is a result of a general decline or absence of value systems in Irish life, that has come about alongside the nation s cultural and financial evolution.
In Braiden s view, the high level of violence in films and on television is unwittingly helping to make Irish society not only desensitised to violent behaviour, but more violent itself.
I think we are becoming a much more violent society, and there is certainly greater violence used in crime. I think that has happened because of the violence of pornography, which is much more widely available; I think it s also because of the violence of cinema and television. And we have such a tolerance for violence.
There was a report in the paper about that woman [who was abducted to Wicklow and raped] where it was written that she wasn t seriously assaulted. Even though they put a bag over her head, and tied her to a tree, and raped her: she wasn t seriously assaulted. So the level that s accepted is far too high. There should really be a zero tolerance of violence towards women, children, older people, vulnerable people. And I think the level of violence in films and on television is very high.

Does having a job like Braiden s eventually affect your faith in human nature?
She tells a story about her work in Croatia and Albania, working with refugees, counselling not only rape survivors but also those who had been ethnically cleansed from their countries, who had lost all their possessions, had lost their family; and she says: That would make you lose faith. In our area, we mainly deal with one single person at a time unless you re helping a family, maybe, where there was abuse within the family. And then, you go [to Bosnia or Kosovo] and you see this. And you say to yourself: What are we doing where we allow this to happen? If anything, that would make you lose faith.

Advice For Victims

Because rape is a crime about power, it is very important for victims to know how they can set about taking power and control back for themselves. The first steps are about looking after yourself, and finding others who can help look after you.
Below, Olive Braiden suggests four important first steps on the road to recovery.

1. GET MEDICAL ATTENTION.
This is very important. You could be pregnant; you could have caught a disease; you could be injured. Many women who have been raped are very seriously injured internally, and they haven t known this until they ve tried to or get pregnant. Because, of course, it s a very violent type of attack, and you may have injuries you aren t aware of.
The DRCC is available 24 hours, every day, on (1800) 77 88 88. On that crisis line you can get help, advice and information. But the most important thing is to get medical attention. In the Dublin area there is a Sexual Assault Treatment Unit at the Rotunda Hospital; or you can go to your own doctor. So medical attention is first.

2. CONSIDER REPORTING TO THE GARDAI.
You may decide that you want to speak with a counsellor, relative or friend about whether to do this. You should think about it immediately, however, because if you are reporting, it s very important that you don t wash yourself, don t even change your clothes or, if you must change, keep your clothes, get medical attention and then speak to the guards as soon as possible.
You can go to your nearest station and any rape victim, male or female, should know they are entitled to have a woman police officer take the report.
You do not have to give your whole statement on the day. You can give some of your statement, and if you re very tired, you are entitled to go away and rest and then come back and give the second part.

3. CONFIDE IN SOMEBODY.
Whoever it is whether it s your best friend, or a family member, or your neighbour, or a work colleague, you cannot keep this to yourself. The effects can be longterm and far-reaching if you don t get help, and if you don t tell.

4. KNOW IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE A FULL RECOVERY. You can recover; people do recover. While it may appear, at the time, that you can never ever forget this, and that you can never ever recover from the effects of it, you can recover, everyone can, and get back your life again.
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre s web address is www.drcc.ie