3.26 Operation Soteria Bluestone (year 1)

Operation Soteria Bluestone forms the policing, operational arm of a wider project reviewing rape across the criminal justice system in England and Wales. The research will mirror the methodology of Project Bluestone with four new forces on board - the Metropolitan Police Service, Durham Police, West Midlands Police and South Wales Police. 

The project brings together leading academics from across the UK to work alongside police officers and seeks to improve the investigation and response to rape and serious sexual assault. The research is split into six workstreams all looking at different aspects of the investigative process:

• suspect focused investigations
• challenging and disrupting repeat offenders
• victim engagement
• learning and development and wellbeing
• review of data
• performance and digital forensics

The CPRL research team, headed by the Lead Investigator Dr Emma Williams, are working on the learning and development and wellbeing workstream and will seek to explore the relationship between the training delivered in the four forces for those involved in RASSO investigations, their developmental requirements and how these are identified, learning experiences and officer wellbeing. 

Outputs