Violence against women and girls has dominated the news cycle this week, with the government announcing reforms to the justice system and the latest recommendations from the Inquiry set up after the horrific murder of Sarah Everard. It's natural to wonder if and how these will realistically and meaningfully help women and girls to live their 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.
Bad faith actors are at it again.
The Announcement:
£550 million for specialist services that offer practical and emotional support to victims and witnesses
The Take:
Frontline women's services have been faced with a dire funding situation, operating on a shoestring to go above and beyond for survivors in their time of need. In the last year alone, 3 Rape Crisis centres have closed, with many services having to issue redundancies to staff and close waiting lists for life-changing and lifesaving support.
This funding announcement from the Ministry of Justice is welcome – it spans across three years, giving services a degree of certainty (even longer-term funding would have been better). However, it is not as ambitious as we’d have hoped for. While it may sound like a big number, given rising costs, employer taxes, and following a series of previous cuts, funding for Rape Support, which is only a 2% increase above inflation, won't translate as a real-time increase to services.
Plus if you compare it to government spending in other areas, it suggests a lack of prioritisation – see the £2 billion allocated to the AI Opportunities Action plan, and the estimated £1.8 Billion cost to launch Digital ID, the government could choose to be invest much more on life saving support for victims of violence against women and girls – estimated to affect 1 in every 12 women in the UK each year
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 then-serving police officer Wayne Couzens, this part of the inquiry focused on 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, with 9 in 10 women aged 18-24 saying they had experienced an incident where they felt unsafe in a public space because of the behaviour of another person.
The report makes 17 recommendations, with a major finding being the lack of funding and prioritisation of prevention. It sets out how perpetrators are slipping through the cracks, despite VAWG being designated a national threat, and rightly asks why policing has not implemented fundamental reforms to ensure a ban on those entering the police who have sexual offence histories Given this – we question if national rollout of Project Vigilant – with undercover police officers infiltrating nightlife to target predatory behaviour is an appropriate response. As it stands, Angiolini states that "women will continue to be harmed". I agree. Her analysis should be a rallying cry to government and leaders who must prioritise work on prevention that is rooted in unpicking and dismantling gender inequality in schools, youth clubs, workplaces, online and in wider communities.
Technology-facilitated abuse is on the rise, yet the digital world also holds the power to create a safer future for women and girls. We need to fight for the latter, says Refuge ambassador Zara McDermott.
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 auspices 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 drawing attention to 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.
The question is whether this is the best solution. It may well improve some victims' experiences in terms of waiting times, but it is an established fact that Magistrates and Judges hold bias – racism and sexism operate in the justice process, and David Lammy's own review found that juries (though equally fallible to such discrimination) were fairer for Black and minoritised defendants. It is also important to consider these moves that impact our rights not in isolation, but as part of a trajectory with the ongoing crackdown on protest, the rise in surveillance (see facial recognition and Digital ID) and the consistently inflammatory anti-migrant rhetoric favoured by successive governments.
The Announcement
Use of Victim's Bad Character will be restricted and other Law Commission recommendations enacted
The Take
As it stands, when a victim/survivor of rape reports the offence to the police, previous disclosures of rape and sexual violence they have made can be used against them as evidence of their ‘bad character’, even when these previous experiences are completely unconnected to the case. This defence strategy is an incredibly harrowing and re-traumatising experience and is often sprung on the victim without any warning during the trial. Sexual violence is devastatingly common and we know that it is perfectly plausible for a person to experience more than one incident of sexual violence across their lifetime.
This government announcement is hugely positive and one that expert organisations like End Violence Against Women Coalition, Rape Crisis England & Wales, Centre for Women's Justice, Imkaan and Rights of Women have been calling for. Other recommendations mean that defence lawyers will also not be able to bring up whether a victim has applied for compensation (another common practice to frame a victim as money-driven), and making it easier for a defendant’s previous convictions for domestic and sexual abuse to be brought into the courtroom. These have the potential to significantly improve the experiences of women and girls who choose to report to the police.
Gender-based violence is not inevitable.
We are still waiting for the government to actually tell us how it intends to halve violence against women and girls, and how they plan to measure it. We know what we’d like to see though, and have 5 Key Tests for whether the strategy will make the grade.
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