THE Crown Prosecution Service has launched a new strategy to tackle violence against women and girls, with specific action planned for so-called 'honour'-based abuse, forced marriage and female genital mutilation, as exclusive data reveals the complex, layered nature of abuse cases.
The strategy, launched on Tuesday (25), comes as CPS figures expose for the first time the significant overlap between domestic abuse and other serious crimes.
According to data, domestic abuse relates to 93.5 per cent of 'honour'-based abuse charges, alongside 92.4 per cent of strangulation cases, 85.6 per cent of revenge porn charges and 82.8 per cent of stalking cases.
The strategy acknowledged that adopting an intersectional approach to violence against women that recognises diverse identities and experiences of victims is vital to understanding the different ways violence is perpetrated and experienced, and to removing barriers within the criminal justice system.
Stephen Parkinson, director of Public Prosecutions, said prosecutors must recognise the full picture of criminality in abuse cases.
"The nature of violence against women and girls continues to evolve and although it is true that people are more aware of the wide spectrum of abuse, it is not sufficiently appreciated that abuse often involves different layers of offending," he said.
"All too often, in what is presented as a domestic abuse case involving physical violence, we see many layers including strangulation, controlling or coercive behaviour and revenge porn."
The five-year strategy includes several commitments specifically addressing 'honour'-based abuse, forced marriage and FGM. The CPS will develop new training modules on these crimes, review and update guidance on 'honour'-based abuse to reflect the expansion of offending, and create an action plan to strengthen oversight and governance of these cases.
This will include hosting a national multi-agency conference to share best practice and promote partnership working.
Annual national scrutiny panels will be held on 'honour'-based abuse cases including FGM, providing a collaborative forum for consideration, discussion and learning to help develop best practice.
The strategy highlights a groundbreaking case where a man became the first person in England and Wales to be convicted of conspiring to commit FGM. He arranged for a child to travel from the UK to Iraq, where he had organised for her to undergo FGM and marry someone against her will.
Alan Murphy, Specialist Prosecutor, described it as "a complex case involving vulnerable witnesses, jurisdictional issues and very important communications evidence in local dialects of a foreign language".
He explained that key to the successful prosecution was the early downloading and screenshotting of conversations between the defendant and others, with quick translations alongside early instruction of a cultural expert enabling the CPS and jury to fully understand the planning and intentions.
Murphy said the prosecution had to prove FGM was illegal in Iraq and demonstrate that the defendant had committed a crime in England and Wales. By instructing a legal expert in the law of Iraq, prosecutors pointed to the Iraqi penal code which outlined FGM as an offence, forcing the defence to drop their argument.
The prosecution then presented evidence showing the defendant had booked and paid for the trip while living in England. The former PhD student was initially sentenced to four and a half years' imprisonment, but this was subsequently increased to seven years in the Court of Appeal.
According to CPS data, more than a third of rapes charged occur as part of domestic abuse, while more than one in 10 charges of coercive or controlling behaviour link to rape. Domestic abuse also relates to nearly seven in 10 instances of harassment.
Baljit Ubhey, director of Policy and Senior Responsible Officer for the CPS's violence against women and girls strategy, said prosecutors must recognise how different crimes intertwine.
"The new CPS violence against women strategy is about confronting the full, layered, painful reality of abuse faced by so many victims, so we can prosecute it with the seriousness required," she explained. "We cannot be blinkered. We cannot put these crimes into boxes. We cannot ignore the overlap."
Under the strategy, prosecution guidance and training will be updated to reflect the complexity of cases where rape is part of a broader pattern of abuse, such as coercive control, stalking or 'honour'-based abuse.
Prosecutors will embed academic findings into cases, undertake further training and scrutinise cases to understand how they present in real situations.
The strategy aims to improve support for victims throughout the criminal justice process, including piloting an enhanced service for victims of high-risk domestic abuse and creating victim service standards. The CPS has committed to working with partners to understand intersectionality – how different aspects of a person's identity can create unique experiences of violence and abuse, and affect their experience of the criminal justice system.
The strategy also includes work to improve the accuracy and completeness of data collected on the protected characteristics of victims and suspects.
Solicitor general, Ellie Reeves MP, described violence against women and girls as "abhorrent" and said the government is "absolutely committed to halving these heinous crimes over the next decade".
She described the CPS strategy as "a positive development in demonstrating their commitment to understanding how different VAWG crimes are connected, improve how they prosecute violent offenders and better support victims".
All prosecutors in England and Wales will now work under the new CPS violence against women and girls strategy to deliver justice for victims.
The CPS first published a violence against women and girls strategy in 2008, and the new strategy will run until 2030 as a key contributor to the government's Safer Streets Mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
