You may be thinking through whether or not to report to the police the sexual abuse you have suffered. The reality is that all non consensual sex is a criminal offence. We recognise that for adults whether or not to report to the police may be a complex decision for you to take.

If you are over the age of 18 years of age and there are no children at risk, then it is your decision whether or not you want to report the abuse you have suffered, so long as you are not a vulnerable adult. We recognise that this can be a hard decision to make and it is important that you make it on accurate information and not based on myths, fears and stereotypes of the criminal justice system. Lifecentre can provide you with an independent sounding board to help you think through what you want to do.

Many people are motivated to report to the police out of a desire to prevent perpetrators from abusing others in the future. Reporting to the police can also send out a clear message that you are not a victim, you will not be silenced or come under fear of the person/s who abused you. It can be a way of taking some of the power back, speaking out and being heard. Irrespective of whether or not it becomes possible to get a guilty verdict in court, by reporting to the police you will have broken some of the chains that can make us victims rather than survivors.

click here for help with thinking through some of the implications of making a police statement

However, you may decide for good reasons that making a full report to the police is not the route you want to take. It may not be best for you. For many people this is a good decision and enables them to concentrate on their own healing and ability to rebuild life positively.

There is also a ‘middle way’ which you might want to consider. This is to make a third party report of the rape/sexual assault you have been through, via us at Lifecentre. We can do this for you if the rape/sexual assault happened in Sussex, as we have set up a Third Party Reporting system with Sussex Police. If it occurred outside of Sussex we can contact the police force where it did occur to see if they will accept a Home Office 000/20 third party report under the same agreement as we have with Sussex police (although they may not agree to do this as it is a special system that we have set up in Sussex).

You can give as much detail as you choose about the offender/s and what happened, but without disclosing who you are.

click here to find out more about our third party reporting service

What happens if I report a sexual crime?

If you would like to know more about what happens if you decide to report a sexual crime, then please click here to read ‘From Report to Court’ which is produced by ‘Rights of Women’ and is full of clear information. Some people are worried that having counselling before a trial could be used against you in court – but this is not the case because we stick carefully to a ‘Pre Trial Therapy Policy’ which protects the integrity of your evidence.