‘Help us stop hidden crimes against women and girls’

By Victoria Atkins

AS SAFEGUARDING MINISTER, I often have the privilege of meeting inspiring peo­ple who have overcome horrific abuse to rebuild their lives.

I am all too aware that offences such as domestic abuse, sexual violence and “honour”-based abuse are hidden crimes by their nature and can leave victims feeling isolated and controlled by the peo­ple hurting them.

Where there is data, it reveals the scale of the problem. For exam­ple, we know that 2.3 million adults experi­enced domestic abuse last year, while one in five women will experi­ence sexual assault in their lifetime.

The pandemic has shone a light on the plight of some of the most vulnerable people in the country. That is why the government has invested £27 million in keeping support ser­vices and helplines available during this challenging period.

As a government we have made real progress in tackling those crimes that disproportionately affect women and girls. We have provided greater legal protections to victims of stalking, forced marriage and fe­male genital mutilation (FGM); invested more than £100m in tackling violence against women and girls; and soon our landmark domestic abuse bill will become law, strengthening our response to tackling of­fending and going even further to keep victims and survivors protected.

We want to do much more, however, and the home secretary and I are determined in our mission to keep vulner­able people safe and ensure that perpetrators are punished.

That’s why last month we launched a nationwide call for evi­dence which asks the public for their views and experiences of vio­lence against women and girls. These crimes touch every region and every community in the UK. And while violence against women and girls is already under-reported, we know un­der-represented com­munities can face addi­tional hurdles to seek­ing help. It may come from control exercised by family members, fear of rejection from your community, or lan­guage barriers with those who can help. But we’re clear that crimes which disproportion­ately affect some Asian communities, such as forced marriage, are not sanctioned by any ma­jor religion, and that culture is never a justifi­cation – it is against the law and perpetrators will not get away with it.

We want to do every­thing we can to make support services acces­sible to people of all backgrounds. In recent months, we boosted funding to charities in­cluding Vavengers and Karma Nirvana to ad­dress the challenges faced by victims of “honour”-based abuse during the pandemic, and we continue to pro­vide funding to its hel­pline. Information from our domestic abuse campaign #YouAreNot Alone has been trans­lated into 16 languages and we worked with a specialist agency to reach diverse commu­nities to ensure they knew exactly how to get advice and support.

We are not compla­cent, and we know that our new strategy to tackle violence against women and girls, due in the spring, needs to ad­dress the concerns of victims from every race, every age, and every part of this country.

We also want our new strategy to respond to newer forms of crimes against women and girls, such as cyber flashing and revenge porn.

Our new strategy will put victims and survi­vors at its heart, which is exactly why we want to hear from those di­rectly affected by crimes from every background.

While these crimes largely affect females, we know that men and boys can also be affect­ed. Our call for evi­dence is an opportunity for you to share your views and experiences on what you regard as abuse against women and girls.

Your responses will help shape the further actions we need to take to reduce this harm to society. Our independ­ent advisor, Nimco Ali OBE, a courageous campaigner and survi­vor of FGM, is helping us lead the charge to reach as many people as possible so they can have their voices heard.

There is much more we want to do to im­prove victims’ experi­ences and ensure the punishment fits the crime. That is why I am urging readers to share your views and experi­ences and help us to stop these crimes for all of our sakes.

The call for evidence is open until February 19. Go to www.gov.uk/government/ consulta­tions/violence-against-women-and-girls-vawg-call-for-evidence for more information.