Centre for Women’s Justice largely welcomes the National Policing Statement for VAWG published on 23 July 2024 by the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing. The report outlines the scale of violence against women and girls (VAWG), deeming it a ‘national emergency’ and lays out plans to address it.
The report found that:
In 2022/23 more than one million VAWG related crimes were recorded, accounting for 20% of all police recorded crime.
At least 1 in 12 women will be a victim of VAWG each year, however the exact number is expected to be much higher.
1 in 20 adults in England and Wales are estimated to be perpetrators of VAWG per year.
Harriet Wistrich, Director of Centre for Women’s Justice, said:
“The findings in this report show the police are beginning to acknowledge, what those of us working on the frontline with victims and survivors have known for a long time, that VAWG is perpetrated on a terrifying scale and, even with increased reporting, the majority of victims still don’t report.
“Many of the proposals are welcome including the creation of National Centre for Public Protection, the creation of more specialised units where officers are properly trained to understand VAWG and respond appropriately and the demand for a whole system approach.
“However, the report makes little mention of the issue of police perpetrators of VAWG which – following the recent exposure of the scale and nature of this issue – has massively dented trust in the police from victims. It also does not tackle head on the issue of criminalisation of survivors of violence which, aside from being an affront to justice, is a huge waste of criminal justice resources.
“There are also serious weaknesses in data recording across the system which prevent us having a proper understanding of not only the scale of the problem but of intersectional abuse which means, for example, that black and minoritised women and those with disabilities can be subject to multiple disadvantage and discrimination. We also see huge inconsistencies of practice across police forces and consideration needs to be given to having a centralised system of accountability.
“The new Labour government have made extremely ambitious announcements of their determination to halve violence against women and girls. They will need to ensure the police are using any additional resources provided to them to prioritise this critical area for policing and to hold police forces to account where they fail.”
ENDS