Mr. Tom O'Malley:

There is often misinformation circulating about the rape conviction rate. Sometimes one hears figures of 2% or 5%. That is not necessarily misleading in the sense that what it is often referring to is the attrition process, whereby the number of people who are eventually convicted formally by a court of rape will only represent a very small fraction of the total number of rapes that were actually committed. Of course, the vast majority of rapes are not reported, which explains the considerable difference between the two. The figure we should look at is what the conviction rate is for those who are indicted for the offence, that is, those who are tried and prosecuted. It is quite high. I am reluctant to mention a figure. I have Courts Service statistics in front of me but I am not sure if it readily gives that figure. I believe it is over 60%, and possibly considerably more than 60%. One of the things that complicates it is that when one is looking at the figures, one has to differentiate between people who are convicted of the offence with which they are charged - rape, for example - and other people who may be acquitted of that offence but convicted of a lesser offence such as sexual assault or another offence of that nature. I believe the conviction rate is quite high overall.