A Call to Action was published in January 2020 demanding a domestic abuse perpetrator strategy for England and Wales. Police and crime commissioners, academics and organisations including Respect, SafeLives and Women’s Aid, all added their signatures.
The report pointed out that, shockingly, while there were at least 400,000 serious perpetrators, fewer than 1% received specialist intervention to challenge and change their behaviour. So why is there so little provision? As the Observer reports today in the latest article in our End Femicide campaign, the epidemic of male violence against women and girls (VAWG) makes up 40% of police business, yet prevention – stopping perpetrators before they inflict psychological, physical, sexual, economic and digital damage (utilising social media) – is given a low priority. Convictions for domestic abuse offences have dropped 35% in five years; a woman is killed by a man every three days, according to the Femicide Census, whose data has helped to inform our campaign, a terrible statistic unchanged for 10 years.
Zoe Billingham, former lead inspector on the police’s response to domestic abuse at Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, says that if this was organised crime, police would be using all the covert tactics at their disposal to arrest offenders.
According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales in the year ending March 2020, there were an estimated 1.6 million female victims of domestic abuse, aged 16 to 59. Men are victims too, but women are far more likely to become victims of sexual and psychological violence. Data on police recorded crime based on information from 36 forces in the year to March 2021 shows that 82% of sexual grooming offences are against women and girls and 80% of victims of stalking, voyeurism and exposure are female. This month, the government will publish its first statutory domestic abuse strategy. Influenced by the Call to Action, it also addresses perpetrators. That is welcome – if the strategy is comprehensive, well funded, properly evaluated and monitored and does not drain resources from victims.
Prevention begins in early childhood to counter the toxic culture that breeds misogyny and male sexual entitlement. Sex and relationship education is compulsory in schools, but what works best to engender respect and empathy is far from understood. A teenage boy who is concerned about his behaviour will find few resources if he seeks help.
Perpetrators are hugely diverse, but missed opportunities for intervention include childhood trauma, mental ill health, a history of criminal behaviour and substance misuse. The abhorrent actions of police officer Wayne Couzens, killer of Sarah Everard, have triggered several investigations into our institutions, including the police and army, which reveal the appalling scale of abuse of women and a shameful lack of action by those in authority. BBC research revealed that UK police forces received more than 800 allegations of domestic abuse against officers and staff in the last five years, yet only 5% were prosecuted. What does that say about our culture and a shameful lack of accountability?
Femicide and abuse won’t end until misogyny is recognised for what it is and eliminated. Two steps would make a difference. First, VAWG must be included in the new Serious Violence Duty, part of the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which requires public bodies such as police, health, housing and education to work together to end violence. Second, VAWG needs to be included in the strategic policing requirement that dictates the top priorities for all 43 police forces in England and Wales, along with counter-terrorism, serious organised crime and child sexual exploitation.
As Billingham says: “If this opportunity is squandered now, we all lose.”
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