Cameron: Rape as Political Football

In one sense I'm glad to see that David Cameron is trying to address the issues I raised five months ago.

However his announcement today, widely spun as "Tougher Rape Laws", was pure politics, aimed at securing his still flaky support on the Conservative right.
However let's do something radical and look at what Cameron said. His speech (PDF) is here. There are three recommendations:

Review sentencing for rapists, on the grounds that rape sentences have been falling. I can't see any evidence that sentences have been falling. As things stand, rape is one of the most serious criminal offences: it is difficult to make judges dish out even longer terms without introducing mandatory life sentences, as there are for murder.
Long term funding for rape crisis centres - sounds eminently sensible to me (though are there an other organisations in a similar financial boat?)
Include education on consent as part of sex education - this one sounds good but I don't seriously believe that teachers are teaching sex education without talking about the idea of consent.

So, there you are: posturing and rhetoric. What did you expect from Dave?

The real scandal in rape comes from the absolutely minimal number of cases which come to trial, and are then convicted (as I said a while back). None of Dave's 'three ideas' will have any serious impact. Indeed, it has seriously been suggested that reducing the sentence might increase the willingness of juries to convict. I wouldn't go so far as to say that's definitely a good idea, but it does show that "tougher sentences" doesn't necessarily mean more justice.

Perhaps if Cameron had made conviction rates the emphasis of his speech, rather than mentioning them as an aside, he might have helped his reputation for substance. As it is he's just kicking a football marked 'rape' around to try to impress the Tory right with his skills. Which is a shame.

EDIT: Good article on this at Liberal Conspiracy.