Perspectives
Tuesday 10 December 2024
Tackling violence against and girls is a priority for the government, the police and for the wider criminal justice system. It’s also a priority for Crest Advisory and for our team of analysts and policy experts who are proud to have supported a number of key developments during 2024. These include:
The development of the 4Ps framework for policing to help drive the law enforcement response to VAWG for the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC)
The production of the National Policing Statement for Violence Against and Women and Girls for the NPCC
The continued implementation of the Serious Violence Duty across 43 police force areas in England and Wales.
An independent assessment of domestic abuse safe accommodation-based support provision for the London Mayor’s Office of Policing and Crime.
To mark the end of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, we’re sharing our team’s views and perspectives on working in this critical area.
What have they found rewarding?
What have they found frustrating?
And what one thing would they change to improve the response to VAWG?
If you’re interested in finding out more about the Crest team and how we work, please visit www.crestadvisory.com/careers
Sam Cunningham, Executive Director
Most rewarding: VAWG is at epidemic levels, we know its volume is increasing, that it has become more complex, increasingly affecting girls and young women and leaving survivors with life altering trauma. It has been rewarding to have worked alongside a number of leaders in policing and the wider CJS to think through the difficult questions and to consider new approaches to tackling VAWG - approaches that are focused on moving policy and practice away from the inevitability of VAWG towards a relentless focus on perpetrators and longer term prevention.
Most frustrating: Despite the focus of the new government on VAWG, it is simply taking too long to address the systemic issues that enable VAWG to continue to increase. It is time to move beyond research and put into practice what we know works and to address the long term failures for survivors of VAWG. We need to see real investment in prevention - not to replace the much needed services to support victims recovering, or the enhanced pursuit of offenders but to run in parallel to ensure short term improvements are supported by a longer term approach that aims to reduce, in the long term, the impact on women and girls and the demand on public sector services.
Change one thing: I would focus on two things: prevention and meaningful criminal justice outcomes for victims of VAWG. We need long term investment in a system of targeted prevention. We should galvanise the data, the partnerships/systems and professional expertise that exist to reach and provide effective interventions for those that are caught up in the ongoing cycle of abuse. We know this cycle exists - yet our response and support to affected children, adolescents and families remains inadequate and inconsistent to address the trauma and to prevent the next generation of offenders and survivors. Victims of VAWG should be given a better service through the criminal justice system from their initial report through to the outcome of court. We know what to do and largely have the right policies in place, but criminal justice agencies need to prioritise, commit and invest to deliver the best possible service.
Sarah Kincaid, Director of Strategy and Insight
Most rewarding: Because it is such a big area of work, with so much to progress and so many different angles to explore, I learn something new in every project: a new perspective we haven’t thought of, some new evidence or a new stakeholder with new insight. Every project provides another piece of the jigsaw and helps me grow my understanding of the issue at a strategic, policy or practice level.
Most frustrating: The various protective orders and notices, available to police and courts to manage or stop perpetrators and protect victims, are underused and unenforced. IDVAs say that one of their key roles is trying to get the police to use these, often victims are left to find their own legal help. In addition, there is no single system where orders can be uploaded and viewed: victims have to carry around a paper copy of an order with them to 'prove' an injunction exists.
Change one thing: If I had the power, I'd build the capability and capacity of policing and others to ensure that VAWG was really treated as a strategic threat. It has this classification already but the police tackle VAWG with virtually no additional intelligence infrastructure or special assistance, in the way that for example, CT as a strategic policing priority, has MI5 to do intelligence gathering; Providing additional intelligence on and identifying and tracking the most dangerous and recidivist perpetrators, alongside systematic and proactive sharing of information, nationally and regionally, is needed to drive real change
Callyane Desroches, Head of Strategy and Insight
Most rewarding: It’s incredibly rewarding to be working to tackle MVAWG at a systemic level and to be working on tangible, collaborative solutions with our clients and colleagues. I feel privileged to be able to take a step back from the firefighting on the front line and to be able to consider how all agencies have a part to play. It can feel a bit like redrawing the rules of a complicated board game.
Most frustrating: VAWG is still often considered a ‘woman’s problem’, discussed by roomfuls of women picking up the pieces. It’s even in the name – much of the language, literature and systems are focused on protecting women and girls – rather than driving visibility and accountability towards men and boys who overwhelmingly perpetrate this violence. I welcome the recent conversations around male allyship - we need more of that!
Change one thing: I would welcome a slew of measures focussed on supporting boys and young men to define and develop positive masculinities, including therapeutic support for young men who were victims of domestic abuse as a child.
Beth Mooney, Head of Research
Most rewarding: Focusing on VAWG at Crest has put us in touch with lots of organisations doing excellent work in tackling VAWG and working with victims. It is encouraging to learn how much positive work is being done in this space. Even better, we have had opportunities to demonstrate how beneficial some of these programmes are, helping to improve the chance they can keep delivering.
Most frustrating: The more we learn about VAWG, tackling it can feel increasingly complex and challenging. However, this learning is progress in and of itself - it gives us new opportunities to think about how we can work to reduce VAWG. It is important to remember that.
Change one thing: I’d encourage an additional focus on perpetrators. While it is vital to understand victims’ experiences, in order to reduce future violence against women and girls, we also need to better understand perpetrators of VAWG, why they offend and what works in preventing or reducing this so we can prevent future VAWG harms altogether.
Jess Hull, Senior Strategy and Insight Manager
Most rewarding: It’s encouraging to see an awareness of and commitment to preventing and reducing violence against women and girls as a priority for many of our clients and partners, and increasingly understood as central and vital rather than additional, specialist or thematic.
Most frustrating: The negative side of my response above - the risk that 'tackling VAWG' becomes a default statement in action plans and policy without evidence-based action sitting under it. There's lots of new evidence in this space, and it's important not to get complacent about following and responding to this evidence.
Change one thing: Investment in evidence-based prevention intervention / programming (including schools but also community-based).
Madeline Rolfe, Strategy and Insight Manager
Most rewarding: I have found it really rewarding to develop an evidence base on 'what works' to tackle VAWG with the intention that this information to be used to support commissioning decisions and the longevity and security of effective specialist VAWG services. Through an evidence review into approaches to tackle DA and SV, we identified some of the amazing specialist support delivered to women and girls who have experienced violence.
Most frustrating: To be operating in a landscape with limited resources to tackle such a huge problem impacting so many women and girls.
Change one thing: I’d address short term commissioning. Granting longer term funding for effective or promising specialist services would support staff to deliver the best services to women and girls by making it more likely they’re well trained, experienced, and secure in their roles.
Nishat Rahman, Senior Quantitative Analyst:
Most rewarding: Engaging with victims, and ensuring that their voices and lived experiences are at the heart of the systems, processes, and policies designed to support them. As many victims have told us, this is an opportunity to change things for the better, so that no woman has to experience what they have.
Most frustrating: The sheer scale of the problem, and its complexity, can sometimes be intimidating and make it difficult - particularly for partners in the criminal justice system - to understand where to even begin. There is a risk that, given the scale of change required as well as the resources needed, partners avoid addressing the root causes of the problem and instead opt for scraping at the surface.
Change one thing: Begin to put words into action. There is already quite a lot of research and evidence on VAWG, both from academia but also from frontline practitioners, outlining ‘what works’ in the space and what needs to change. It’s time to start using these insights to inform delivery, and implement the whole-scale changes required.
Dr Sophie Wilkinson, Senior Analyst
Most rewarding: The most rewarding part of working to address VAWG is knowing we have made some headway in reducing and/or preventing the harms caused by VAWG. Our work addressing VAWG is evidence-based and has informed strategies and actions to address VAWG. This means that our work addressing VAWG has made a real-world impact on victims/survivors and the wider community.
Most frustrating: Getting to grips with its reality and vastness can be challenging. This challenge is exacerbated when data on VAWG is poorly collected by various agencies (e.g., police, NGOs). This is most frustrating as poor quality or lack of data means our evidence base is limited, which restricts our approach's effectiveness in addressing VAWG.
Change one thing: I would focus more attention on identifying, and importantly addressing, the root causes of VAWG.
Rosie Margolis, Senior Analyst
Most rewarding: It is rewarding to build the evidence base and develop recommendations through big thinking and strategic approaches, and collaborate with a diverse range of stakeholders to identify good practice and contribute to systems change in tackling VAWG. Through this work, we have had the opportunity to see - and be part of - pockets of hope and change.
Most frustrating: Progress is slow and largely inadequate thus far. Despite increasing prevalence on the political agenda, the threat of VAWG is pervasive and continues to worsen, putting women and girls at risk on an unacceptable scale.
Change one thing: I would transform the approach to early intervention and prevention through consistent funding and evidence-based interventions. We must better manage and respond to children and young people affected by, or at risk of, VAWG at the earliest opportunity in order to break cycles of violence and abuse.
Dr Alyssa Knisley, Analyst
Most rewarding: Since I joined Crest, I have had the opportunity to work on a project examining how criminal justice agencies support survivors of VAWG. It has been rewarding to be part of a project that actively engages with survivors to ensure that their experiences directly inform the criminal justice procedures and processes that are designed to support them.
Most frustrating: We sometimes work with criminal justice agencies with long-established processes that are resistant to change. It can be challenging to ensure that the perspectives of VAWG survivors are embedded into organisational processes in a meaningful and sustainable way.
Change one thing: We know there are links between VAWG and other forms of serious violence—where violence against women and girls can be both a cause and consequence of other violent behaviour. Given the chance, I would focus on incorporating our approach to VAWG into the broader discussion around reducing serious violence. Understanding these connections can help us to address the root causes of VAWG and other forms of serious violence more effectively.
Tara De Klerk, Analyst
Most rewarding: Because VAWG and wider women’s inequality is often so ingrained in our society, tackling it fully is nearly impossible. Working on preventative solutions to address VAWG is therefore the most rewarding because it allows us to interrupt generational cycles. It has also been rewarding to recognise the different, and intersectional, ways in which VAWG manifests. Once it is understood that one-size really doesn’t fit all, we can finally start to explore and design personal responses to tackling VAWG.
Most frustrating: That significant reform will most likely take several years. Cultural attitudes are deeply entrenched and will take lengthy legal and social processes to be changed.
Change one thing: I'd ensure that policies to tackle VAWG take a more preventative approach and that all actors in society, from businesses, police, third-sector and government, are all empowered and incentivised to tackle VAWG. For example, policymakers should consider ring-fencing funding for primary interventions, such as training or education, to tackle VAWG.
Helena Procopis, Junior Analyst
Most rewarding: Working with some of these key agencies, like the police, to address VAWG is a welcome reminder that progress is being made. VAWG can feel abstract in its causes and hard to pin down, but working to evidence some of its causes and solutions feels really rewarding. Equally rewarding is working with partners who can tackle these causes, support victims, and implement solutions in practice, like Crest did this year with the NPCC on the VAWG strategic framework.
Most frustrating: It can be difficult to work on one element at a time and remain patient whilst steps are being taken to effect change elsewhere. VAWG is a society-wide problem that needs society-wide solutions - changes need to happen quickly because VAWG crime puts people’s lives under threat.
Change one thing: I’d centre the work around prevention, focusing on providing high quality interventions, clubs and other safe places for high risk young people. Interventions and youth clubs can play an important role in VAWG prevention, providing young people with community, a sense of safety, and educating them about gender, sexuality, identity, violence and emotional literacy.
Comments