BEFORE any votes are cast, the media often ascribe a theme to an election – the Brexit election, the Covid election, the independence election.

While the big issues of the day do tend to steer the debate and are a considerable factor in how people decide which party to vote for, they aren’t the only matters that deserve an airing.

May’s Holyrood election has been characterised in many ways. All parties are rightly concerned about Scotland’s post-pandemic recovery and have made pledges and designed policies that promise to kickstart the economy.

As we saw from the BBC’s televised leaders’ debate last week, independence is still a hot topic. The SNP say a vote for them is a vote for indyref2. The Scottish Conservatives say that a vote for them is a vote to stop indyref2. The ongoing Sturgeon/Salmond saga has already filled more column inches than anything else.

While so much attention is being given to those issues, there is a risk that other matters – that are just as important – are being forgotten about.

After the death of Sarah Everard there was a renewed focus on the scale and impact of violence against women. But it seems that attention is already waning.

That’s usually how it goes.

When there is a high-profile instance of violence against women, we see a flurry of activity. Politicians from all parties step forward to say that something must be done. Broadcasters dust off their contacts books and give a platform to experts in the sector to say what they have been saying for years.

Then the story slips off the front pages and out of public consciousness until the next time. Then we repeat the process again.

Last week, a study published in the Journal of Law And Society examined the attitudes of 32 juries in a mock trial of a rape case.

The study gives an insight into how embedded rape myths are in the minds of jurors and how those misconceptions about what sexual violence is and how victims should respond before, during and after can have a detrimental impact on women’s access to justice.

Professor James Chalmers led the study and said: “We were surprised at the extent overall to which the jurors tended towards acquitting.’’

Only four of the 32 juries in the mock trial found the defendant guilty, with some jurors saying that because the victim didn’t scream or fight back then that could indicate that she consented to sex.

Rape Crisis Scotland chief Sandy Brindley said that the findings of the study were “extremely concerning”.

“What we’re really worried about is jurors are making prejudicial decisions and guilty men are walking free,” she said. “We’d welcome the setting up of a pilot to examine how specialist courts without a jury get on in rape trials.’’

That is just one of a number of suggestions being made to try to tackle Scotland’s woeful conviction rates in rape cases.

At the moment, fewer than half of rape and attempted rape trials in Scotland result in a conviction. And that’s the ones that actually make it to trial.

While sexual violence crimes are at their highest level since 1971, reporting rates are worryingly low – with one study from 2015 suggesting that only 16.8% of people who were victims of rape reported it to the police.

This week, Nicola Sturgeon pledged to look at what reforms can be made to Scotland’s system of offering a “not proven” verdict. A commitment to implementing a review into the verdict is expected to be in the SNP’s manifesto for the election.

THE plan is also backed by other parties. Nicola Sturgeon said: “The conviction rate for rape and sexual assault is shamefully low and I think there is mounting evidence and increasingly strong arguments that the not proven verdict is a part of that. So I think it is something that it is time to look at.”

All this comes in a week when a new landmark study into online pornography was published. The study by the British Journal of Criminology shows that mainstream, free-to-use sites regularly publish clips which depict degrading and extreme violence against women.

It found that one in eight clips (which require no age verification to view) show incestuous or non-consensual acts, including where the women or girls in the videos were described as unconscious, drugged or “very young”. Campaigners say this material normalises violence against women and gives young people a skewed and unhealthy perception of sex and consent in relationships.

Violence against women and girls is so widespread and ingrained in our society that it is perhaps not surprising that it’s not the first thing parties want to talk about on the campaign trail.

No one campaign pledge or soundbite can solve the problem. It needs more examination and sustained attention than a news cycle allows.

But if anything, the size and scope of the problem is surely a compelling reason to bring it front and centre. It is not a fringe issue and shouldn’t be treated as such.