Operation Soteria and the Missing Methodology

In January 2021, Avon and Somerset Constabulary invited academics into their force to examine how they were investigating rape. What the academics found was what everyone in the field already knew but rarely said plainly: the investigation was focused on the victim. Officers were asking whether she was credible, whether her account was consistent, whether she had behaved in ways courts would accept. They were not asking what the suspect had done, why, and to whom else.

Project Bluestone became Operation Soteria, which became in July 2023 the National Operating Model that all 43 Home Office forces in England and Wales are now formally required to follow when investigating rape and serious sexual offences. At Avon and Somerset, reporting rates for rape doubled and charging rates went up fourfold.

The National Operating Model rests on three principles, victim-centred, suspect-focused and context-led, and five research pillars. Victim-centred means the victim's rights and interests inform investigator decision-making throughout. Suspect-focused means specialist knowledge about offending behaviour informs how the case is built: the question is what the suspect did, not whether the victim's response was typical. Context-led means investigators consider the full context from the start, including the suspect's history, the relationship, intelligence about patterns, and digital evidence.

HMICFRS inspected progress on Soteria across nine of the 19 early-adopter forces and published in August 2024. Independent Sexual Violence Advisers reported a positive cultural change. Inspectors described the programme as a game-changer. But beneath the framing were findings about implementation: in most forces inspected, about half of rape-investigation team members were trainees; victims waited months for specialist support; charging decisions took nearly a year; resource gaps in digital forensics, analysis and victim support produced high workloads and delays.

Stalking and harassment cases do not have a Soteria. They have the old methodology, the one that failed rape victims for decades before someone had the courage to name what was wrong and build an alternative. VNS documents cases where a victim reports stalking, the person causing harm makes a counter-report, and the investigation focuses on the counter-report rather than the original victim's account or the suspect's pattern. This is victim credibility testing. It is exactly what Soteria was designed to replace.

A suspect-focused stalking investigation would ask: what is this person's history? What pattern does this conduct fit? Have they done this before? These questions are explicitly required by the Stalking Protection Order framework and the College's APP on stalking. They are not routinely asked. HMICFRS confirmed in its 2025 investigating-crime thematic inspection that investigators lack an investigative mindset at first contact and that forces see stalking cases as standalone rather than joining the dots.