Women’s experiences of crime and the criminal justice system

Violence towards Girls and Women

The authors (Rosie Knighton & Natalie Regulation) acknowledge that, whereas definitions, fluctuate VAWG can take many types together with:

home abuse, probably the most prevalent kind, with 2.3 million victims estimated within the 2019-20 Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)rape and sexual violenceso-called ‘honour-based’ abuse and compelled marriageabuse coated by new offences launched since 2010, akin to stalking, and controlling or coercive behaviour

The federal government’s 2021 Tackling VAWG Technique acknowledged the “profound impact” of such crimes on victims, survivors and wider society. In 2023, the Nationwide Police Chiefs’ Council famous a rise of 37% in police recorded VAWG between 2018 and 2023, and that VAWG was now an “epidemic”, with 3,000 circumstances recorded each day throughout England and Wales. The brand new authorities has confirmed its manifesto purpose to halve violence towards girls and women over the following decade.

Challenges and alternatives

Alongside bettering sufferer assist and rising the variety of prosecutions, the 2021 Tackling VAWG technique aimed to prioritise prevention, together with by a nationwide communications marketing campaign. It famous the mandating of Relationships and Intercourse Training in secondary faculties from 2020, with the supply of further assist to academics.

There’s a rising on-line aspect to VAWG and abuse towards girls. For instance, VAWG might be facilitated by web sites and blogs the place males specific views hostile to girls, the so-called ‘manosphere’. The Critical Crime Act 2015 and the Home Abuse Act 2021 cowl some components associated to digital coercive management, and the On-line Security Act 2023 prohibits service suppliers from internet hosting dangerous content material. Nevertheless, tutorial specialists highlighted that this laws doesn’t recognise the complete scope of on-line VAWG and fails to stipulate preventative approaches.

Following the rape and homicide of Sarah Everard in 2021 by a serving police officer, analysis for The Finish Violence Towards Girls Coalition discovered that 47% of girls and 40% of males reported a decline in belief for the police after seeing particulars of the crime. 

Educational analysis has additionally highlighted how the language of police studies can undermine feminine victims and their experiences. After Wayne Couzens was sentenced for the homicide of Sarah Everard, a police commissioner was reported as stating that girls “must be streetwise about when they are often arrested and after they can’t be arrested”.

Authorities and sector stakeholders have expressed concern over the low ranges of reporting VAWG, which is a barrier to understanding girls’s expertise of crime and the CJS. For instance, the CSEW estimated 2.1 million individuals experiencing home abuse within the yr ending March 2023, whereas police recorded 889,818 circumstances over the identical interval. The proposed Crime and Policing Invoice will embrace measures to supply a stronger, specialist police response to VAWG.

In a 2021 assessment of rape crimes , the federal government acknowledged that the CJS was “letting down rape victims”. House Workplace knowledge for 2020/21 confirmed that only one.3% of recorded rape offences assigned an final result resulted in a cost or summons. That is for a wide range of causes together with longer investigation occasions, victims withdrawing, and pressures on assets. As a part of an ambition to greater than double the variety of grownup rape circumstances reaching courtroom between 2021 and 2024, the House Workplace applied Operation Soteria Bluestone, which mixed analysis with piloting improved procedures in 4 forces. A 2022 progress report discovered a number of points that also wanted addressing, together with a scarcity of specialist information and coaching, disproportionate investigation into the sufferer, and officer burnout.

In August 2024, the House Secretary introduced a assessment of the UK counter-terrorism technique, together with treating excessive misogyny as a type of extremism. It isn’t identified how this may occasionally have an effect on the response to VAWG.

The POST briefing poses 4 key questions for parliament:

How can the federal government work with police, well being professionals, native authorities, and different stakeholders to be sure that VAWG is recognised and higher reported?What authorities approaches are efficient in stopping VAWG, together with by schooling in faculties?How can the federal government enhance confidence within the policing of VAWG?How can the CJS enhance the quantity and timeliness of rape circumstances delivered to prosecution?

Girls within the CJS

As common readers will know, implementation of the Feminine Offender Technique has been gradual with the MoJ forecasting a rise within the feminine jail inhabitants of over a 3rd between 2022 and 2025. One of many key points highlighted within the scan was jail capability with the earlier Authorities controversially saying that it could construct as much as 500 new locations in present girls’s prisons.

There has additionally been minimal progress within the piloting of residential girls’s centres as alternate options to brief custodial sentences. We’ve identified for many years that girls are disproportionately given brief jail sentences, which have been criticised for his or her value and effectiveness. In November 2023, the Sentencing Council for England and Wales consulted on modifications to the rules for utilizing group and custodial sentences, to incorporate particular concerns, akin to caring obligations, when sentencing feminine offenders.

Once more the POST horizon scan highlights two key questions for parliament:

What actions is the federal government taking to scale back the variety of girls in jail, and the way do these align with new jail locations being created for feminine prisoners?What does the federal government and CJS perceive about how and why girls are handled in a different way from males in convicting, sentencing and in jail, and the way can it guarantee fairness?

It’s clear that these points will probably be excessive on the gender for the present sentencing assessment undertaken by David Gauke and as a result of report in Spring subsequent yr.

Because of Andy Aitchison for form permission to make use of the header picture on this submit. You possibly can see Andy’s work right here