How to Get Away with Rape: Early Findings in the Making of a Documentary Film

Improving sexual assault reporting processes is a crucial piece in reforming police responses to sexual assault allegations but this work is moot if the reporting is not followed by rigorous police investigation. In the course of documenting survivor stories for a film project, the author began documenting the stories of women police officers who have experienced sexualized violence on the job. These stories provide a behind the scenes look at a culture that is both producing an extraordinary number of offenders and paradoxically entrusted with handling sexual assault as a public threat. These stories expose a culture that recruits, rewards, and promotes the kind of toxic masculinity that is most aligned with rape culture, suggesting that radically restructuring police services around the needs of women officers may also be the key to creating a culture that is more responsive to the needs of sexual assault survivors.