Review of Tranchese, Alessia. (2023). From Fritzl to #metoo: Twelve Years of Rape Coverage in the British Press. Palgrave Macmillan

You would be forgiven for thinking that #metoo has improved societal attitudes to the issue of male violence against women, and we have consequently evolved into a society where women are liberated from male sexual violence.Certainly, figures show that more women feel emboldened to report sexual violence to the police, and perhaps stigma associated with being a victim has dissipated.But whether victims of sexual abuse are taken more seriously, and whether their claims for justice are more likely to be met is questionable.Journalists, feminists and women's rights groups in the UK have been working to raise the alarm about the deeply troubling legal situation that has arisen in that country whereby rape has effectively been decriminalised.According to Rape Crisis England and Wales, a feminist charity organisation that works to eliminate sexual violence and abuse, of the 55,259 rapes reported to police in 2019, a mere 1,659 were prosecuted, of which only 702 were convicted (Rape Crisis England and Wales).Another report in 2021/2022 had similarly depressing results (Baird 2022).In 2021, 67,125 rape offences were recorded.This was a record high, which suggests victims feel more comfortable than ever reporting the crime to police.In 2020-2021 there were 2,409 prosecutions.Compared to 5,190 prosecutions in 2016-2017 when there were fewer reports, we can see a large drop off in rape prosecutions relative to 1