Every three days in the UK a woman is murdered by a man, according to Femicide Census. This statistic has not declined since 2009. Not only are we not making progress, we are actually going backwards.
A National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) report released in July revealed some shocking statistics. Despite the former Conservative government’s repeated pledges to tackle the scourge of violence against women and girls (VAWG), it has only increased. These are the sobering facts:
- 3,000 VAWG offences recorded each day, an increase of 37% since 2018;
- over one million VAWG related crimes recorded 2022/23;
- over 8% of women annually are victims;
- it accounts for 20% of all police recorded crime, and tragically:
- Child sexual abuse and exploitation increased by over 400% from 2013 – 2022
The Conservative government’s 2021 strategy for tackling VAWG had talked about prioritising prevention, but the measures taken were more about punishing perpetrators and supporting victims after these horrible crimes happened.
We need to stop it happening in the first place.
Why does it happen?
Many women are killed or attacked by men known to them. With wider publicity in recent years, we have a sense of why some men hurt women after big football matches, why some men kill women they know (as in the recent dreadful crossbow murders), or why women killed this year had their lives abruptly ended.
We know about some factors leading to gender-based violence, like children’s access to violent pornography. It is known that the vast majority of young people witness sexually violent pornography before they are 18. Now it is recognised that toxic social media influencers are driving extreme misogyny too. This is not a healthy environment for children to grow up in and affects how they perceive and shape relationships.
Can Labour reverse the trend?
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said before the election that violence against women is an “epidemic” and pledged to treat it as a “national emergency”.
Jess Phillips, Home Office minister for tackling violence against women and girls, and domestic violence, recently said that Labour’s mission is to halve violence against women and girls in the next decade.
To this end, the Labour party manifesto stated that they would:
- “Introduce new specialist domestic abuse workers in 999 control rooms and put specialist rape investigation units in every force across England and Wales – so that early opportunities for prevention and protection are not missed.”
- “…police to target dangerous repeat offenders with tactics and tools normally reserved for counter-terror and serious organised crime investigations, to get serious perpetrators off our streets.”
Clearly there is at least something about prevention in there – but more detail is now needed.
Prevent misogynistic attitudes forming
Younger and younger children are being exposed to extremely harmful influences online so government and tech companies must finally find ways to block illegal violent content effectively.
It’s clear that positive preventive education must start young. Schools are already required to teach about respect, consent, harassment, coercion and violence, but more is needed. Non-governmental organisations like UK Feminista and ThinkEqual are leading the way on this.
Prevent reoffending
The Change Project‘s #Reflect campaign has led to over 500 people seeking help to change their behaviours and Essex Police believe they have an effective intervention which reduced violent offences against women and girls by 13.6%, and sexual offences by 12.1%, in 2023 compared to 2022.
Knowing that certain behaviours can be precursors to fatal violence, the police have made their interventions more pre-emptive. Instead of flagging up perpetrators after committing serious offences, they look at allegations of stalking, control, coercion and harassment. They manage the alleged perpetrators, phoning them daily, tracking their cars and monitoring their social media output.
Offenders are offered counselling sessions and given opportunities to change their behaviour before it gets even more serious. So far, it’s a small project, but has had some success. Essex Police say prosecutions aren’t the only measure of success, because real “success… means stopping people from suffering violence”.
Whole-system approach
All agencies – health, education, local authorities, voluntary sector and industry – should work alongside the criminal justice system on prevention and intervention, says the NPCC. It calls for the 4P approach (Prepare, Protect, Pursue, Prevent) used against terrorism to apply to VAWG. Perhaps it should be Prioritise, Pre-empt, Prevent, Protect and if that fails, Pursue and Prosecute?
End Violence Against Women calls for measures to prevent VAWG: gender equality, education, tackling harmful media and working with perpetrators. They also believe this is a civil rights struggle which is everyone’s business: all public figures must speak out against it.
As Jess Asato, new MP for Lowestoft, says, “Violence against women and girls remains one of the most pressing injustices in this country.”
Perhaps with strict controls on harmful online content, proactive relationship education, and an interventionist strategy like that of Essex Police, we’d have the beginning of the end of violence against women and girls.
If you’d like to know more about this issue, or need help, contact Women’s Aid at this link – it is a national charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children.
