Women’s Aid respond to the Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan launched by the National Police Chief’s Council and Crown Prosecution Service
Sophie Francis-Cansfield, Head of Policy at Women’s Aid, said:
“It is a sad reality that survivors of domestic abuse often feel extremely let down by the justice system, and with only 5.3% of domestic abuse cases reported to the police resulting in a charge, and even less leading to a conviction, it isn’t surprising that they feel this way. Women’s Aid welcomes the much-needed Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan (DA JJP), launched in an attempt to transform the handling of domestic abuse cases, but worries that the plan focuses too heavily on the wrong things.
The DA JJP talks about transforming the culture between Police and the CPS, and while this is important, it overlooks the deep-rooted and problematic cultural issues that these institutions have within themselves. Urgent action needs to be taken to end the culture of sexism and misogyny, that has been proven to exist in policing time and time again, as this is acting as a blockade to women and girls seeking justice. We know that only 1 in 5 women reporting abuse to the police. The lack of confidence in reporting, means that perpetrators are able to continue abuse with impunity. Women needs to know that when they take reports to the police, they are going to be treated appropriately and with the seriousness they deserve.
For Black and minoritised women, racism creates an additional barrier when it comes to reporting crimes, which is ultimately limiting their access to justice. Police forces must immediately accept Lady Angiolini’s recommendation to commit to being anti-sexist, anti-misogynist and anti-racist. The criminal justice system must work with organisations that centre the experiences of survivors and have sector-specific knowledge to help ensure that prosecution rates increase and that women’s faith in the system grows.
The joint plan has an overt focus on ‘high risk’ victims and cases – a focus we have also seen from other statutory agencies. We know that professionals can misinterpret the risk indicators or not recognise their severity, which can result in a proportion of ‘high risk cases’ staying under the radar or being assessed as medium or standard risk. Women’s Aid has long recommended a needs-led approach that fully acknowledges the fluidity of risk and the impacts of coercive control.
Women’s Aid are pleased to see that the commitments to work with specialist services and organisation have been made throughout the plan and look forward to working with both the Police and CPS to improve the justice outcomes for all survivors of domestic abuse.”
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