What is Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG)?

VAWG includes crime and incidents of violence and abuse that disproportionately affect women and girls. It encompasses but is not limited to:

  • Domestic abuse including controlling or coercive behaviour
  • Rape and other sexual offences, including child sexual abuse
  • Stalking and harassment
  • So called ‘honour’ based abuse
  • Forced marriage
  • Female genital mutilation
  • Modern slavery and human trafficking, focusing on sexual exploitation
  • Pornography offences for example revenge porn and up-skirting

Whilst the term violence against women and girls’ is used to acknowledge that women are disproportionately affected by multiple forms of violence and abuse (both in frequency and severity), this cannot and should not negate the experiences of, or provisions for, male victims-survivors of crimes such as domestic abuse; rape and serious sexual offences; child sexual abuse and exploitation; and stalking and harassment. I am committed to tackling VAWG crimes in any form and ensuring support for all victims, regardless of sex or gender.

VAWG Strategy

The strategy is broken down into 4 priorities:

  1. Prioritising prevention
  2. Supporting victim-survivors
  3. Action against perpetrators
  4. Creating stronger systems to address VAWG

You can view and download the strategy here.

Prioritise prevention

I want Northumbria Police to:
  • Work with partners to make sure women and girls are safe and feel safe from sexual violence and harassment in public places including transport systems and in the night-time economy.
  • Work with partners to increase confidence to report VAWG crimes to the police through campaigns and awareness raising.
  • Support my office in promoting work to tackle misogyny and sexism which are some of the root causes of VAWG.
  • Ensure effective use of all available protection and prevention orders to safeguard victims of domestic abuse, sexual offences and stalking and harassment.
  • Promote the Right to Ask and Right to Know about a current or ex-partner and whether they have a previous history of violence and abuse.

 

Support victim survivors

I want Northumbria Police to:
  • Treat victim survivors of rape, serious sexual assaults, domestic abuse and stalking with empathy ensuring access to the best support to meet their needs from the services commissioned by my office or others.
  • Continue to explore options to provide support and engage victims at the earliest opportunity, for example building on the success of domestic abuse specialists in the police control room.
  • Ensure that Northumbria Victim and Witness Service (NVWS) is responsive to the needs of victim-survivors helping to maintain victim engagement through any criminal or court proceedings.

Action against perpetrators

I want Northumbria Police to:
  • Continue to strengthen investigations involving rape, serious sexual offences, and domestic abuse, ensuring more offenders are brought to justice.
  • Support my office around the delivery of behavioural change programmes engaging men and boys to reduce harm to women and girls.
  • Work with partners to provide the best response to stalking and harassment ensuring that alongside support for survivors, we are also targeting priority perpetrators causing the most harm.

Creating stronger systems to address VAWG

I want Northumbria Police to:
  • Continue to listen to victim survivors to understand barriers to reporting or accessing support and ensure information is widely available.
  • Support the work of my VAWG External Advisory Panel, responding to the voices of victim survivors and specialist VAWG organisations.
  • Help shape my commissioning intentions to ensure a broad range of services and clear support pathways are in place for adult and child victim survivors.
  • Drive the work with partners to improve the victim journey through the criminal justice system.
  • Support the Government’s ambition to halve the number of victims of Violence Against Women and Girls by focusing on reducing the number of repeat victims and prolific perpetrators.

 

Measuring progress:
  • Number of VAWG offences
  • Satisfaction with services provided to victim survivors of VAWG