Charity in the East wants more help for hidden victims of domestic abuse
A national Police report has described violence against women and girls as a "national emergency."
A charity that works with victims in Norfolk and Suffolk is telling us that multi-agency work focussed on helping 'hidden' victims of domestic abuse, is needed now.
It comes as a Police report, commissioned by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) says violence against women and girls (VAWAG) is a "national emergency".
A leading police chief has warned that nearly 3,000 crimes are recorded every day and more than one million violent crimes against women and girls were recorded by police in 2022/23.
The National Policing Statement for VAWAG found that such crimes accounted for just under 20% of all police-recorded crime excluding fraud in England and Wales between April 2022 and March 2023.
The report estimated that at least one in every 12 women will be a victim per year - equating to two million women.
However, the exact number is expected to be much higher because of crimes that go unreported.
Local Charities experiences
We spoke to Rhys Lloyd from the Ipswich based charity Leeway. The charity provides free confidential support to adults and children experiencing domestic abuse in Norfolk and Suffolk.
He told us that their biggest concern is the "hidden victims" who either don't realise they're in an abusive relationship or have not reached out for help.
"For us it's really about trying to get to those poeple who havent yet come forward for that support."
We asked him why some people may not have come forward.
He believes a large contributing factor is peoples "concerns around the legal system and about how delays are impacting survivors that are looking to go down that avenue.
"The delays in getting cases heard has understandably put a lot of people off, perhaps even coming forward to report domestic abuse in the first place."
Rhys went on to say that people need to feel like they can come forward for support.
"They need to not be judged and know that if I pick up the phone and speak to the police or speak to a support orgnaisation, that I am going to be taken seriously and there's going to be action that happens from that."
We then asked what Rhys would like to see change to improve the likelihood of people coming forward for help.
He wants more to be done to identify problems and come up with solutions to fix them.
He added: It should be in everyone's interest to make sure we're doing all we can to support survivors of domestic abuse particularly because we know there will be many people who aren't included in those statistics."
What the Police have said
The Deputy Chief Executive of the College of Policing said violence against women and girls had "reached epidemic levels" in England and Wales and called for Government intervention in the "overwhelmed" criminal justice system.
Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said the creation of a National Centre for Public Protection would support police forces with specialist knowledge and training for investigators and officers.
She added that the data from the National Policing Statement was "staggering", with police records of violence against women and girls increasing by 37% from 2018/19 to 2022/23.
DCC Blyth said the criminal justice system was "under-performing for victims", with the report stating violence against women and girls was at such a scale "it cannot be addressed through law enforcement alone".
1 in 20 adults in England and Wales are perpetrators of such violence every year, the report estimated, with the actual number thought to be significantly higher.
Violence against women and girls was classed as a national threat to public safety by the Home Office in February 2023 and DCC Blyth said a national framework had brought the police response in line with that of counter-terrorism.
More than 4,500 new officers have been trained to investigate rape and serious sexual offences over the last year, with the report detailing a 38% increase in charges for adult rape from the year ending December 2022 to the year ending December 2023.
Child sexual abuse and exploitation offences also increased by 435% between 2013 and 2022, the report estimated - from just over 20,000 to nearly 107,000.
The NPCC said police forces were seeing "ever more complicated types of offending" causing "significant harm to victims and society as a whole".
Arrests for domestic abuse related offences increased by more than 22% in the year ending March 2023, compared with the previous period, with one in every six murders in 2022/23 being related to domestic abuse.
DCC Blyth, who is NPCC lead for violence against women and girls, said society needed to "move forward" and "no longer accept violence against women and girls as inevitable".
She added: "A centralised hub within policing that brings together specialised skill sets and capabilities would support police forces in improving their response to violence against women and girls.
"However, this will only achieve progress as part of a wider, effective criminal justice system, which at present is overwhelmed and under-performing for victims.
"Violence against women and girls is a national emergency.
"We need the support and direction of government to intervene and address the current problems within the criminal justice system and lead the way on a whole-system approach to violence against women and girls."
Sophie Francis-Cansfield, head of external affairs at Women's Aid, said the report's findings were "alarming", adding that many survivors do not report their experiences meaning the issue is "much larger than the data shows".
Ms Francis-Cansfield added: "Women's Aid agree that violence against women and girls is a national threat, and echoes calls for a whole-system approach to tackling the problem and centres the most marginalised.
"This includes co-ordination between the criminal justice system, the government, and experts, and enhanced training and education, delivered by specialist services, to those working in statutory services like the police.
"Without meaningful collaboration and action, women and children will continue to be failed when it comes to be protected and when seeking justice for the abuse they have endured."