Contents

Context & Current Work

Violence Against Women and Girls has always been a concern, but in recent years and due to greater awareness and prominence of these targeted crimes, a name has been put to this abuse and this has enabled further progress to take place.

For example, an increase in the publication of data around VAWG by the authorities and the increase in VAWG-dedicated organisations bringing these issues to the forefront. The Home Office created the VAWG Strategy and Enough Campaign to address this increasing concern.

Sarah Everard was killed on 4 March 2021 in London, by a male police officer. Sabina Nessa was killed on 17 September 2021 in Greenwich, by a male garage worker. Both of these murders took place in neighbouring boroughs and by men, targeted at women. These two particularly prominent and local murders (or ‘femicides,’ i.e., the murder of a woman or girl on account of her gender) have increased the awareness of VAWG and impacted feelings of safety for women and girls.

MOPAC Public Attitude Survey

MOPAC’s latest public attitudes survey showed that females are less likely to feel safe and:

  • 1 in 5 women reported unwanted sexual attention in the last year
  • 27% of those felt harassed, threatened, or fearful and 10% felt disgust or shame
  • Of those who experienced harassment, 63% changed their behaviour in some way as a result, such as taking different routes or changing how they dressed

Bexley Domestic Abuse Services 2022 Survey

A Summer 2022 Survey across Bexley revealed similar feelings; respondents were asked to rate how safe they felt from VAWG in Bexley (with 1 being extremely concerned and 10 being not concerned).

The average response was 5.98. Of the 251 respondents, however, 223 were female and their average safety score was 5.88 in comparison to non-female identifying respondents, whose average score was 6.71.

In the year of 2022, there was an increase in the number of VAWG offences reported in Bexley, with a total of 4,538 reports to the police which may be considered VAWG.*

  • Domestic Abuse Incidents - 4,025
  • Domestic Abuse Offences - 2691
  • Domestic Abuse Violence with Injury - 612
  • Sexual Offences - 513
  • Other Sexual Offences - 346
  • Rape - 166

*The following offences will include non-VAWG crimes also. For example, Violence Against the Person might be motivated by gender, but not always:

  • Violence Against the Person - 5,753 (this includes anything from common assault to grievous bodily harm)
  • Violence without Injury - 3,890
  • Violence with Injury - 1,862
  • Homicide - 1

The increase in reporting may not necessarily reflect an increase in VAWG, but possibly an increase in awareness of and confidence in reporting gender-based abuses and crimes. Nevertheless, these statistics demonstrate an increasing need for authorities to respond to VAWG.

In the same year, the police reported an increase of 0.5% in punitive action that took place. Despite Bexley having less VAWG offences, Bexley respondents rated how well the MPS responded to VAWG lower than in neighbouring boroughs at 49%, compared with Greenwich (at 59%), Bromley (55%) and Barking and Dagenham (61%)1. Comparatively, however, Bexley is a safer borough from VAWG than other London boroughs.

Domestic Abuse has always been the highest reported form of VAWG. Domestic Incidents continue to increase monthly, from an average of 272 offences per month in 2018 to 335 in 2022. As a result of this, there are pre-existing dedicated resources, personnel, and services2 to domestic abuse and a Domestic Abuse Strategy, which new VAWG personnel and this Strategy will operate alongside and complement.

The London Borough of Bexley has signed up to the Night Safety Charter, which includes championing and communicating to the public women’s night safety, encouraging reporting and training staff on how to respond to reports. In delivering the objectives contained therein, we work with Licencing, local venues, the police and voluntary organisations, such as Street Pastors, to maintain an awareness and preparedness for safety in the night-time economy - this includes violence against women and girls, being a main form of abuse taking place at night. We will work with local organisations who operate in the Night Time Economy to sign up to the Charter and deliver against the objectives with us.

Similarly, there is a pre-existing training programme under the domestic abuse provision, which does include training on other forms of VAWG, such as stalking and harassment, honour-based abuse and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which are often but not always part of domestic abuse. To achieve the goals of this Strategy, a parallel training programme will be created to promote awareness of safety in public spaces and to increase knowledge of personal and professional safety from, prevention of, and response to different forms of VAWG.

Delivery of the objectives within this Strategy will be done in partnership with both statutory and non-statutory partners to ensure best effectiveness. There was an additional £17.7million MOPAC investment in Pan-London voluntary support services, including prevention education and specialised response services for victims and survivors. These organisations offer various projects which can be utilised in Bexley to achieve these aims, such as in-school awareness sessions and national helplines. Existing Bexley commissioned services will also be used to tackle VAWG, such as Solace.

A key focus of services is targeting the behaviour and actions of perpetrators of abuse and violence and focus on changing the behaviour of perpetrators as opposed to survivors and potential victims.

A key partner in this work is local policing. The MPS have developed their own MPS VAWG Action Plan and one of their key goals is to act to re-build confidence and trust in the police and criminal justice system, to ensure victims and survivors are supported and empowered to get the justice they deserve. Various mechanisms have been developed to make reporting to the police more accessible, including online location pinpointing via StreetSafe and the Walk and Talk scheme.

Participation in the MOPAC VAWG Co-ordinators meetings will be used to share and learn from best practice among other local authorities and partnerships. The experiences and examples can be used as models and localised to deliver against this Strategy.

To demonstrate some of the work that has been ongoing, the London Borough of Bexley, in partnership with MPS and Solace, ran an anti-VAWG campaign for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence 2022. This included print and social media communications, training and awareness sessions around VAWG, and general community outreach and engagement offering information, resources and support to residents.

The success of any Community Safety Partnership and the co-ordination of crime reduction messages can be greatly enhanced with an inclusive and planned communications approach. This includes not only promoting a zero-tolerance message and raising awareness of VAWG and VAWG services, but also promoting the good work done. This not only raises awareness but challenges the negative stereotypes of victimhood and increases trust that professionals are taking this seriously.

A communication plan should consider how different demographics will best be able to access and connect to a message and think about different methods of targeting previously underreached groups. Messaging should be diverse, powerful, and persistent. This includes:

  • Social media
  • Press releases
  • Newsletters and Bexley Magazine
  • Leafleting and canvassing
  • Community engagement events
  • Community meetings

1 MPS Crime Data Dashboard

2 Bexley Domestic Abuse Services