Petition Review the role of juries in sexual offence trials

A review could include evaluating whether only certain jurors should serve on these cases, based on their knowledge and any biases, and whether they should have to undergo training before a trial.

More details

Sexual offence cases are complex when it comes to the law, stereotypes, biases and taboos. We believe Jurors are not always equipped.

The rape conviction rate in the UK is extremely low, reported last year to be just 1%, and we believe the current system does not work.

Many victims of sexual offences do not come forward due to the fact that there is rarely a conviction and they are concerned about how they will be treated by the justice system.

Juries may not be able to comprehend the complexity of these cases without training. There are also taboos associated with some sexual offences cases, and we believe the justice system works in the suspect's favour. This can mean that people who might have been guilty of an offence are acquitted due to a jury’s misunderstanding or bias.

This petition closed early because of a General Election Find out more on the Petitions Committee website

28 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 28 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Show on a map the geographical breakdown of signatures by constituency

10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Date closed 30 May 2024
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.