Project: Exploratory Parallel-Group Randomised Controlled Trial Of New Serious Sexual Assault Investigator’s Development Programme
Using a mixed methods approach this research seeks to provide an evidence base for the new Serious Sexual Assault Investigators Programme (SSAIDP). The aim of the new learning offer is to provide specialist knowledge, attitudes and skills to investigators and improve the police investigation of rape and sexual offending.
In 2024 a new course for investigators of rape and sexual offending was rolled out nationally. The work drew on the findings from Operation Soteria, a three-year Home Office funded project aimed at improving the police response to rape investigation. The new course was developed as a collaboration between the College of Policing and the academic team who worked on Soteria. This research resulted from long-term issues with attrition in cases of rape, low satisfaction in relation to victim experiences of the police and issues with the distribution of justice outcomes. This research seeks to provide a robust evidence base for the new course – Serious Sexual Assault Investigators Programme (SSAIDP) – with the aim of providing specialist knowledge, attitudes and skills to investigators.
As a result of a three-year Home Office project, Operation Soteria, a new learning offer was developed through a collaboration between academics and the College of Policing. The course is for investigators of rape and serious sexual offending, with the outcome aim of delivering specialist knowledge, attitudes and skills to improve the police response to rape and sexual offending. The research for Operation Soteria concluded that the training delivered through the serious sexual assault investigators development programme (SSAIDP) needed rewriting to incorporate the findings from the Soteria research which were focused on three core principles - that investigations of rape and sexual offences are suspect focused, victim centred, and context led. As it was, the course was considered by officers and civilian investigators as ineffective and they reported that the lack of specialist knowledge delivered in the training was impacting on their ability to deliver investigations effectively and their own professionalism. The course is the core enabler of the new model for investigation in this area of policing (National Operating Model (NOM)).
The research applies a mixed methods approach to review the process of implementation in one force and, in a further eight forces, will review attitudinal change over three points (pre-course/post-course and six months on). This will allow for a review of the impact of the training on officers through a survey that considers attitudes towards particular typologies of rape and sexual offending. The process evaluation involves observations of training sessions and interviews/focus groups with learners and trainers. The impact evaluation is being completed as a quasi-experiment through deploying the survey to both the treatment (those who have received the new training) and control group (those that have not had the training) in eight forces.
This course is fundamental to the improvement of delivering rape investigations. For decades the attrition rate in these cases has been high and justice outcomes are distributed unfairly (particularly within vulnerable groups). The success of this new learning has implications for police legitimacy in wider society-particularly given the issues with the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) agenda. This work will provide an evidence based for this course which could them potential be considered for other areas of relationship-based crime and areas of public protection.
