International Women’s Day has got off to a good start with the news that female police officers are outperforming their male counterparts in the area of pressing rape charges.
A new Danish PhD study reveals that three times as many rapists are charged if the victim is interviewed by a female police officer.
The study looked at 248 rapes reported to East Jutland Police over a three-year period and found that 30 percent of the culprits were charged if a female officer carried out the interview, compared to just 9 percent if it was a male cop.
“It looks like it’s of consequence whether it’s a man or a woman that the rape is reported to,” Ole Ingemann Hansen, a PhD student at Aarhus University who is the co-author of the report, told Metroxpress newspaper.
“It’s an exciting discovery, but it is also important to remember that these cases are only in east Jutland and there are not too many case studies.”
READ MORE: Reports of rape increase dramatically in Copenhagen
Change looking likely
The government called the findings “very interesting” and noted it would use the data as part of new rape package it is working on.
Konservative wants rape victims to have the option of being interviewed by a female police officer and for one of the investigators on every case to be a woman.
Enhedslisten said that it would be a better idea to establish specialised rape departments in the police, as is the case in Norway.
