The Home Office has launched plans to tackle violence against women and girls. Spouses and partners of UK residents who are forced to flee their relationships as a result of domestic violence will now be able to access vital support services.
The UN declaration on violence against women defines such violence as “any act of genderbased violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
The British Crime Survey reports that every year in the UK more than one million women experience domestic abuse and one in four women will be affected by domestic abuse. More than 300,000 women are sexually assaulted and 60,000 women raped; and more than one in twenty women will be stalked.

The ‘Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls – Action Plan’ has been published alongside the government’s response to Baroness Stern’s review into the handling of rape complaints (see blog “Stern Review” posted on 25.03.10). Key actions from the plan include making data on regional levels of violence against women – including domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking – more accessible to ensure resources are targeted to where they are most needed. There will be new research aimed at countering the myth that false allegations of rape are common and an independent consultation on the measurement of rape conviction rates.

A new national stalking group will be set up to support the work of the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service in improving the police response to stalking. Action will be taken to raise awareness of the law around sexual offences and challenge attitudes of abuse within teenage relationships. There will be more training for key frontline professionals – including doctors, nurses, health visitors – on identifying and dealing with violence against women. Central funding will be provided for frontline services including rape crisis centres, Independent Domestic Violence Advisors, and four years of funding for the National Domestic Violence Helpline.
Introducing the plan, Home Secretary Theresa May said: “I want to see an end to all forms of violence against women and girls. Our comprehensive and detailed action plan sets out how we are going to tackle these crimes – supporting those at risk, helping victims and ensuring offenders are brought to justice. Most importantly we need to prevent these crimes occurring in the first place. That is why we are challenging and where necessary working to change, attitudes and behaviours.”

The Ministry of Justice has announced more than £10.5 million of funding for three years for rape crisis services. Baroness Stern said: “I welcome the government’s response to the recommendations in my report. Particularly in a time of financial stringency it is good that the government recognises the importance of a specialist and supportive response to rape victims.”

The ‘Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls – Action Plan’ can be found at:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/crime/call-end-violence-women-girls/vawg-action-plan?view=Binary

Photo courtesy of ghetto_guera29′s photostream

There are two main sources of official statistics on crime: the police recorded series and the British Crime Survey (BCS). The BCS is a nationally representative sample survey of the population resident in households in England and Wales, now based on more than 45,000 respondents.
 
As a household based survey, the BCS does not cover all offences or all population groups. While police recorded crime has a wider coverage of offences, including crimes such as drug and sexual offences, and covers the entire population, it does not include those crimes not reported to the police. Both sources have their strengths and weaknesses but together provide a more comprehensive picture than either on its own. Home Secretary Theresa May has announced a review by the national statistician, with the publication of crime statistics transferred from the Home Office to an independent body to improve “public trust and confidence in crime statistics.”

The most striking new finding within the latest report is that both the 2009/10 BCS and police recorded crime are consistent in showing falls in overall crime compared with 2008/09. Overall BCS crime decreased by nine per cent (from 10.5 million crimes to 9.6 million crimes), and police recorded crime by eight per cent (from 4.7 million to 4.3 million crimes). Both sources are consistent in showing marked falls in vehicle crime (BCS vehicle-related theft down 17% and police recorded vehicle crime down 16%). In addition, the 9% fall in domestic burglary from the BCS is broadly in line with the 6% reduction recorded by the police. The 2009/10 BCS shows there were an estimated 659,000 domestic burglary incidents in England and Wales. The number of incidents of theft from the person fell by 28 per cent. Overall police recorded property crime fell by ten per cent between 2008/09 and 2009/10, from 3,352,989 offences to 3,032,182. There were falls in all main recorded property crime categories.

Over recent years there has been an overall reduction in violent crime estimated by the BCS, consistent with trends in police recorded crime. The murder rate in England and Wales has fallen from 644 to 619 over the last year to its lowest level for 12 years. Police recorded violence against the person fell by four per cent between 2008/09 and 2009/10. Longer term trends from the BCS show violent crime down by 50 per cent from its peak in 1995. Sexual offences recorded by the police increased between 2008/09 and 2009/10 by six per cent. Within this category, there was a seven per cent increase in ‘Most serious sexual crime’ and a two per cent increase in ‘Other sexual offences’ over the same period. This increase coincides with steps the police have been taking to improve the recording of serious sexual offences. Police recorded drug offences fell by four per cent between 2008/09 and 2009/10, this being the first year-on-year fall since the police were given greater powers to issue warnings for cannabis possession in 2004/05, which account for over two-thirds of drug offences.

There is a clear pattern from the BCS of crime reaching a peak in 1995 with a subsequent decline, with overall crime down by 50 per cent since 1995. The full 200 page text of the ‘Crime in England and Wales 2009/10’ report, full of fascinating details, charts and diagrams, can be found at:

http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/hosb1210.pdf

For the first time victims of stalking have had their ordeal recognised in official government guidance. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has published revised guidance on stalking and harassment. It emphasises the existence and widespread nature of stalking as a particular category of harassment and it identifies the various ways in which stalking occurs.

There is no legal definition of stalking, neither is there specific legislation to address this behaviour. It is a term used to describe a particular kind of harassment, and is generally used to describe a long-term pattern of persistent and repeated contact with, or attempts to contact, a particular victim. Harassment is also not specifically defined but can include repeated attempts to impose unwanted communications and contacts upon a victim in a manner that could be expected to cause distress or fear in any reasonable person. The term harassment is used to cover the ‘causing alarm or distress’ offences under section 2 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 as amended (PHA), and ‘putting people in fear of violence’ offences under section 4 of the PHA. (See Chapter 32 of ‘Criminal Offences Handbook’, specifically sections 32.43, 32.44, 32.56 and 32.57). Critics have long called for reform of a law that still does not recognise stalking as a distinct criminal offence. Stalking curtails a victim’s freedom, leaving them feeling that they constantly have to be careful. In many cases, the conduct might appear innocent if taken in isolation, but when carried out repeatedly so as to amount to a course of conduct, it may then cause significant alarm, harassment or distress to the victim.

In the most recent British Crime Survey, published this year, 18.7% of women and 9.3% of men said they had been stalked at some point in their lives. Experts say that half of all stalkers now use the internet to contact or target their victims. Prosecutors estimate that around 1 million people in the UK have experienced stalking. Although no figures are collated on the number of cases dealt with through the courts, there are thought to have been only a few hundred prosecutions. Introducing the new guidelines, Nazir Afzal, CPS Community Liaison Director and lead on stalking and harassment crimes, said: “Stalking is pernicious and can affect anyone regardless of their walk of life. It has a devastating impact on the lives of those who become victims”.  “Stalkers steal lives,” he said. “We as police and prosecutors haven’t taken it seriously in the past. Now we do.” He went on to say: “What we now understand more fully is that victims of stalking, just like victims of domestic violence, continue to live in fear of their stalkers despite the fact that they may have been prosecuted and imprisoned or subject to other sanctions.” The new guidance is designed to give prosecutors a better understanding of what stalking is and provide a framework to build stronger cases and to apply for more effective restraining orders.
 
Alexis Bowater, Chief Executive for the Network for Surviving Stalking (NSS), said: “As the UK charity that represents stalking victims and their families, the Network for Surviving Stalking welcomes the new CPS guidelines on stalking and their swift and comprehensive response to a real need. We hope the inclusion of cyber-stalking for the first time will encourage everyone involved to take this crime more seriously. This new guidance will go a long way to improving the lives of victims and to making sure that perpetrators are treated appropriately by the courts.”
The full text of ‘Stalking and Harassment Guidance’ can be found at:-

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/stalking_and_harassment/

“Rape is a serious and deeply damaging crime. It is unique in the way it strikes at the bodily integrity and self-respect of the victim, in the demands it makes on those public authorities required to respond to it and in the controversy it generates…(it) is unique as it is an inherently lawful activity made illegal because of lack of consent. Women, men, children, and people of all ages and all social groups can become rape victims”.

 The words of Baroness Stern, invited by the Government Equalities Office and the Home Office to carry out an independent review into the treatment of rape complaints by public authorities, in presenting her final report. In one respect the report is ground breaking. Rape and sexual assault have usually been seen as women’s issues – the victims are female, the perpetrators male – but this is no longer the case. Male rape was recognised by English and Welsh law in 1994 and, according to the Stern Review, the victim is male in around 8% of all recorded rape cases. The report states that only a small proportion of rape is reported to the authorities. Probably about 11 per cent of those who have been raped tell the police about it. In England and Wales in 2008/9, 12,129 rapes of women and 964 rapes of men were recorded by the police. The most recent data, the British Crime Survey from 2008/9, show that the lifetime prevalence for rape and attempted rape in those over 16 was nearly one in 24 women (4.2 per cent) and one in 200 men (0.5 per cent). The number of rapes recorded by the police has risen considerably in recent years. Figures from the Metropolitan Police area for 2009/10 show that recorded rapes increased by 29 per cent in a year and, for England and Wales as a whole, the number of recorded rapes rose from 2,855 in 1988 to 7,636 in 1998 and 13,093 in 2008.

Rape can occur in a range of circumstances. Those usually referred to as ‘stranger rapes’, the sort of incidents most often reported on by the newspapers, where the victim and the perpetrator do not know each other, are a small proportion of rape cases. Most rapes are carried out by someone the victim knows. Much rape occurs in families. False notions about rape are widespread. There is a view that women are in some way to blame for being raped if they go out wearing revealing clothes and have too much to drink. The subject of false allegations came up so often in discussions about rape, and the information about the prevalence of false allegations is so scanty, that Baroness Stern recommends that research be undertaken to establish their frequency. The percentage of all the cases recorded by the police as a rape that end up with someone being convicted is usually quoted as being around six per cent. The ‘Guardian’ leader of 16 March is trenchant in the view that “the scale of rape and sexual assault in our society is appalling. People are right to be indignant that so few rapists still answer for their crimes”.

In dealing with rape complaints, the report states that a substantial amount of change has been introduced in recent years by the responsible public authorities. “Attitudes, policies and practices have changed, fundamentally and for the better. In England and Wales we now have a system with specialisation in dealing with rape at the police, prosecution and judicial levels. We have measures in the courtroom to minimise the trauma of the trial for the complainant. We have a programme to provide state-of-the-art medical centres in every police force area, where victims of rape can be examined and assisted”. In accepting that current policies are right, the report recommends “that the Government and those authorities should take further some of the excellent developments already under way. We have made some detailed recommendations to the police and prosecution services which are designed to make implementation of the existing policies more effective”.

In her report Baroness Stern pays tribute to the work done by Sara Payne, whose findings were the subject of the blog entitled “Rape – the Victims’ Champion’s Review” posted on 4 December last year. The full text of the Stern Review can be found at:-

http://www.equalities.gov.uk/PDF/Stern_Review_acc_FINAL.pdf