Male violence against women and girls has dominated the news cycle this week, with a series of government announcements and a report on the horrific murder of Sarah Everard. It’s ok to feel overwhelmed by the different names, numbers and initiatives in the headlines and wonder how they will realistically and meaningfully help women and girls to live our lives free from violence (and the fear of it). I’m lucky enough to work at the End Violence Against Women Coalition and am here to give my take.
The Announcement:
£550 million for into specialist services that offer practical and emotional support to victims and witnesses
The Take:
The devil is always in the detail when it comes to funding. This Ministry of Justice announcement comes when frontline charities are having to issue redundancies to staff and turn away women and girls from accessing life changing and lifesaving support. Much has been said about the dire situation incredible services are in, operating on shoestrings to go above and beyond. This funding is welcome – it spans across three years so gives a degree of certainty (even longer-term funding would have been better). However, while it sounds like a big number it’s only a 2% increase above inflation, which given rising costs and NIE payments and previous cuts won’t translate as a real-time increase. Let’s also compare it to £2 billion allocated to the AI Opportunities Action plan, and an annual £2 billion Research and Development budget for the Ministry of Defence and the estimated £1.8 Billion cost to launch Digital ID.
The Announcement:
The Angiolini Part 2 First Report: Prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public
The Take:
Following the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens, this part of the inquiry was to look at the risk of other police officers committing similar crimes, as well as highlighting wider societal issues. It sets out what many will resonate with – the lack of safety women and girls feel going about their day to day lives – particularly younger women. The report makes 17 recommendations, and the findings highlight the lack of funding and prioritisation of prevention, lack of effective action and coordination and lack of data. It is an in-depth report, that sets out how perpetrators are slipping through the cracks, despite VAWG supposedly being designated a national threat. One area of disagreement is around her recommended rollout of Project Vigilant – a police operation of undercover officers infiltrating nightlife to target predatory behaviour. More undercover police cannot be the answer to police perpetrated abuse, particularly as the report stresses the lack of change and improvement across forces. Prevention should and must be rooted in unpicking and dismantling gender inequality in schools, youth clubs, workplaces, online and in wider communities.
As it stands Angiolini states that “women will continue to be harmed”. I agree. Her informed expert analysis should be a rallying cry to government and leaders. However, the scale and harm of VAWG have long been ignored, so to this cynic it seems unlikely that the tide will change anytime soon.
The Announcement:
Swift and Fair Justice
The Take
There is a massive backlog of more than 78,000 cases in the Crown Courts, and the Justice Secretary is enacting recommendations made in the ‘Leveson Review’ to look at inefficiencies in the court systems to try and reduce the huge delays. The result is essentially the removal of a right to jury trial for all but the most serious cases. Much of Lammy’s announcement was framed under the auspice of improving outcomes for rape victims. Delays for rape cases to reach court (the few that do) can be up to 5 years (Rape Crisis England & Wales does excellent work tracking and challenging these delays). So there is no argument that it is a desperate situation. It’s one that specialist organisations have been talking about for years, but the system has been run into the ground by governments who like to appear tough on crime but fail to maintain the basic upkeep required for courts to run.