CPS to train staff on ‘spectrum of abuse’ in violence against women and girls | Violence against women and girls
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will train staff to recognize a “wide range of abuse” in cases of violence against women after new data revealed domestic abuse was present in more than a third of rape cases and more than eight in 10 cases of stalking and image-based harassment.
The organization, which launched its five-year Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, said its key aims were to improve the quality of casework and increase trust in the CPS.
CPS data revealed significant overlap in the types of crimes related to violence against women and girls; 93.5% of “honor” crimes are linked to domestic abuse, as well as 35.1% of rape charges, 82.8% of stalking charges, and 85.6% of image-based sexual abuse charges known as “revenge porn.”
“The nature of violence against women and girls continues to evolve, and while it is true that people are more aware of the broad spectrum of abuse, it is underappreciated that abuse often involves different layers of offending,” said Stephen Parkinson, director of public prosecutions. “It is our responsibility to present to the court the full picture of the criminality that occurred so that the courts can impose the appropriate sentence.”
“We often see many layers to what is presented as a domestic abuse case involving physical violence, including strangulation, controlling or coercive behavior, and revenge porn,” she added. “It is vital that we train our staff to understand the full picture of abuse, so that the charges we make reflect the full extent of the crime.”
As part of its new strategy, CPS said it would launch new training on “honor”-based abuse, forced marriage, female circumcision, stalking and harassment. It will also develop a follow-up action plan to include cyberstalking.
The strategy also says the CPS will include academic research on the overlap between domestic abuse and sexual offending, place dedicated victim liaison officers in the Rape and Serious Sexual Offenses Units within the CPS, and offer pre-trial meetings for adult victims of sexual offences.
Under the news plans, the CPS will also introduce an enhanced service for high-risk victims and survivors of domestic violence and hold annual national review panels on rape, “honor”-based abuse and modern slavery.
“I think it’s really important that the strategy raises the standards of communication in the CPS, and I think the report is quite honest that the strategy has not always got that right,” Attorney-General Ellie Reeves told a press conference at the agency’s London headquarters.
“Empathy was often lacking in communication with victims and [been] “It’s a consistently high standard, and one of the things that this strategy has brought about is a determination to improve those communications and raise those standards.”
Referring to the broader VAWG strategy, Reeves said “these crimes are often complex and often interconnected, and so it’s really important that this strategy recognizes that complexity and interconnectedness.”
With the number of suicides following domestic violence now outpacing homicide rates, Baljit Ubhey, policy director and senior officer responsible for VAWG strategy at the CPS, said: “We definitely need to be more curious and think: can we create these cases?”
“In complex cases like this where the family might suspect that it wasn’t a suicide, we definitely want the police to come to us very soon so we can start looking into all of those avenues of investigation,” Ubhey said, “because you can tell that story and if the evidence is there then we will definitely, definitely prosecute that.”
Asked whether the government would consider introducing new legislation to make it easier to prosecute perpetrators following a domestic violence death, Reeves said it was a “really important area that needs some thought”.
The crown court backlog in England and Wales stands at a record high at more than 78,000 cases, with some cases listed until 2029, and “we can’t magically make the delay go away,” Ubhey told the press conference.
But Parkinson said better understanding the links between crimes and prosecuting criminals for the full extent of their crimes would help reduce crime rates.
“Only by doing this and ensuring that perpetrators face the full force of the law can we get our message out, especially to young men and boys,” he said, “and we will begin to see progress in reducing these crimes.”
