by Harriet Wistrich, director, Centre for Women’s Justice
In the wake of the Sarah Everard murder, the protests by women about safety on the streets and the subsequent revelations about the police officer murderer, Wayne Couzens, the government and police announced a range of kneejerk measures which fail to address the problem of the collective belief that women are not safe from male violence. In part this is because they have failed to understand the depth and breadth of the problem. In some cases, it is because they don’t even understand the problem, for example when Dominic Raab, the new appointed Justice Secretary, astonishingly stated “misogyny is absolutely wrong, whether it’s a man against a woman or a woman against a man.”
Initially the government proposed better street lighting and undercover cops policing night clubs. Later, it was more bobbies on the beat patrolling danger spots and advice to women to flag down a bus or passer by if they feared a police officer’s motives. This was followed by an initiative in which women could speak to the control room to establish if a lone plainclothes officer really is an officer. More recently the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, said the government would consider a new App that could track a women’s movements to ensure she reached her destination. These proposed “solutions” are not solutions at all. They fail to recognise that Wayne Couzens was a police officer, just as other perpetrators may be; they fail to see how these solutions won’t assist some community groups such as minoritised and/or disabled women and ultimately they place the onus on women to protect themselves, including with respect to the app, to give up their civil liberties just to live more safely.
Many organisations, including our own, have been suggesting solutions for years. The State has not been listening.
The Home Secretary’s limited inquiry, currently without statutory powers, to find out what went wrong to enable Couzens to remain in the police despite previous indications of sex offending, also does little to inspire confidence that anything will change. Furthermore, as we know from our work on police perpetrated abuse, Couzens was unfortunately, not as Met Commissioner Cressida Dick suggested, a completely rogue “wrong ‘un”. Sadly there are far too many police perpetrators not being held to account.
There is no doubt that we are living in a moment where there is heightened national awareness of the problem of male violence against women and the need for change. Centre for Women’s Justice, particularly given our extensive work on these issues, including on highlighting police perpetrated violence, have regularly been invited by both the media and political sources to comment and provide advice on what needs to be done.
The truth is that those of us working on the ground know what the problems are and what needs to change if women are not simply able to feel safe, but also able to live free from the fear of male violence that curtails our liberty and undermines our full participation in society. Many organisations, including our own, have been suggesting solutions for years. The State has not been listening, or where they are hearing us, they are wilfully ignoring what we are saying because the proposals are too challenging, too difficult or too expensive to implement.
The problem, of course, is wider than criminal justice solutions alone can address and ultimately requires a war on misogyny and patriarchal culture. But as part of that revolutionary change, we at the Centre for Women’s Justice propose a manifesto for change in the criminal justice system. Although there are new laws and amendments to existing legislation that may help, one of the key problems is that existing laws and policies are not being implemented effectively or at all. Indeed that is one of the main reasons CWJ exists, namely, to hold the police and other criminal justice agencies to account when they fail to do what they are supposed to do or when they do something they most definitely are not meant to do, such as punish victims or discriminate against marginalised groups.
We set out below ten steps to transforming the response of the criminal justice system to violence against women and girls. We don’t pretend that this is a comprehensive list, and we invite readers to share other ideas and suggestions for what is required to make the criminal justice system more effective in tackling violence against women.
Radically transform the investigation and prosecution of crimes of violence against women and girls
Implement the existing laws and measures, designed to tackle violence against women and girls
End the criminalisation of victims
Tackle police perpetrated abuse
Make all criminal justice agencies properly accountable
Understand the problem through research and the publishing of meaningful disaggregated data
Explore and implement reforms to the criminal court system to ensure proper equality before the law and an end to victim blaming
Ensure victims who do engage with criminal justice processes are adequately and appropriately supported
Understand who represents risk and ensure that criminal justice interventions are primarily directed
Related court and justice processes – ensure consistency and end the misuse of other types of legal proceedings by perpetrators
Every week we will be publishing more details covering each of the ten steps we have identified. We invite readers to comment now and send us your thoughts and proposals for change below…