Every police force should set up a specialist squad to investigate rape allegations, a leading officer says.
John Yates, who speaks on the issue for the Association of Chief Police Officers, argues such teams would help raise standards of victim care.
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About 6% of reported rapes in England and Wales result in a conviction.
'Significant advances'
Five per cent of women have experienced rape but only 15% of victims report their attack to the police, the British Crime Survey found.
Of reported rape cases, 70% do not even make it to court, according to the survey.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who speaks for Acpo in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, will call for a consistent approach to investigating rape, at a conference of senior officers, organised by the Home Office, in London later.
Some uniformed officers have been trained to deal with sexual assaults, but investigations are often carried out by detectives drawn from a general pool.
Mr Yates wants every force to have its own rape investigation unit, along the lines of child protection and murder teams.
He argues more expertise in the early stages of an investigation would improve the quality of evidence gathered and prevent rapes being wrongly classified as "no crime".
He said: "In recent years we have made significant advances in the way we approach investigation of this difficult offence, but despite that, delivery remains inconsistent and there is much more to do."
'Difficult crime'
Mr Yates said rape was a difficult crime to investigate given that most cases involved people who knew each other, where consent was the primary issue.
"But the fact that it's difficult means we need to up our game and redouble our efforts to ensure victims can have confidence in the way they are approached by those working in the criminal justice system," he said.
"We are determined to ensure the best possible standards are reached and applied uniformly across the country
Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said the government was determined to improve rape conviction rates and acknowledged the crime remained under-reported.
He highlighted progress, including the introduction of specially trained officers and prosecutors and better guidance for police.
He added: "Every force has a responsibility to ensure that every single officer who comes into contact with a rape victim is supportive and believes the victim.
"It may only take the raising of an eyebrow to cause her to lose courage."
'Policy avalanche'
Women's equality group, the Fawcett Society, welcomed the government's drive to improve police responses to victims of rape.
But policy officer Sarah Campbell said: "The fact that only 5.7% of reported rapes lead to a conviction is a national scandal.
"The government needs to drive cultural change within the criminal justice system, to ensure that rape is given a high priority by every police force in the country and to invest in a national network of rape crisis centres."
The group released a map this week highlighting how in some areas, women who report they have been raped are almost five times less likely to see their attacker convicted than in other areas.
It says the conviction rate has got worse in 18 out of 43 police areas since it last looked at the figures in detail in 2004.
The map showed that fewer than one in 30 women who reported a rape in Leicestershire saw a conviction, while in Cleveland the figure was far higher, at about one in seven.
A spokeswoman for the campaigning group Women Against Rape, said: "Over three decades we have seen the police and the government unleash an avalanche of new policies, procedures, specialists, experts, initiatives, conferences and press releases, while conviction rates have fallen or stuck at such an appalling level that women call us wondering what is the point of reporting rape."
(BBC)
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