Law and the Police - hannah

t extent is the police the most significant factor for why ious sexual assualt conviction rate is so low in the UK?

est in this topic following the Sarah Everard case in 2021. Once I had t of 70,330 serious sexual assaults which were recorded by the police in hich were charged, let alone convicted, I had known that this was a suited new that there was a backlog in court cases following Covid-19 which conviction rate, but when doing some general research, I had uncovered asons too.

What did you discover?

There was not just one reason for why the conviction rate was low but an accumulation of many: victim attrition, gathering of evidence as well as the general distrust, causing people not to report. If a report is made to the police, the investigation will begin whereby evidence shall be collected - however, there have been cases where the interviews and forensic medical examination have not been conducted thoroughly enough to be used in court When this happens, the case is dropped and labelled as NFA (No further action), thus reducing the conviction rate. Furthermore, victim attrition - when victims withdraw from the case themselves - was equally as important in causing the overall conviction rate to be lowered. Many withdraw due to stigma, the nature of the investigation and the role of the police in terms of their attitude and methodology. Overall, there was not just one reason for why the conviction rate is low, but rather an accumulation of lots of factors. One thing that was made clear to me after writing my dissertation were the extensive faults within the criminal justice system and more significantly, the police force They have a general lack of tru h the public following several scandals, and when considering cas act as a trigger for cases being withdrawn.

Philosophy - miek

Why this topic?

I have always been interested in Phil about topical issues and how the his our society today is truly fascinating to me. I chose reality because I thought that researching what is real - or what is perceived to be real - a daunting, but captivating, idea I looked at 3 types of reality (Subjective, Objective and Intersubjective), and learnt about different theories within each It was so interesting to learn about theories I’d never heard about! A difficulty was knowing how to decide which theory of reality outweighed the other. I then came up with the criteria of how well the reality would fit with our modern society. This was such a great topic, and has made me love Philosophy and Ethics even more!

What did you discover?

I discovered that there was not a clear answer to which reality outweighed the other. This is because it is impossible to say that the strengths of Subjective Reality outweigh the strength of Objective and Intersubjective combined. I therefore concluded that the most beneficial reality for our society to have would be a combination of the strengths from each reality, rather than just one on its own, as each have their own weaknesses. There could be many other conclusions from the same topic, but in terms of modern day society, this appeared to be the most beneficial to me.