Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG): Halving it Through Pursuing

Perspectives

Samantha Cunningham, Executive Director (Strategy) | Callyane Desroches, Head of Policy and Strategy | Rosie Margolis, Senior Analyst | Anousha Karim, Junior Analyst

Wednesday 29 January 2025

In this series, we address the government's commitment to halve VAWG. Building on our work to help shape the Policing VAWG National Framework for Delivery [1], we apply the 4P framework – Prevent, Protect, Pursue, Prepare – to identify tangible actions, beyond policing, that are needed to drive forward a consistent, unified response to VAWG.

In this third blog, we focus on the pursuit of perpetrators to deliver justice and prevent further harm.

To halve violence against women and girls, perpetrators must be relentlessly pursued. The criminal justice system must track, disrupt and hold perpetrators to account to deliver justice, and prevent further harm.

The broader failures of the criminal justice system in responding to VAWG are well-documented. From barriers to reporting to lengthy proceedings and low conviction rates, the system is letting victims and survivors down [2]. While these issues demand urgent attention, this blog focuses on key actions that will enable the pursuit of perpetrators, and disrupt further harm. Tracking offenders, disrupting dangerous behaviours, and managing risk should be key priorities, if the Government is serious about protecting victims and preventing harm. This is not just about closing gaps in the system; it is about fundamentally reshaping how we respond to the perpetrators of these crimes.

A state of failure: the current criminal justice response

As highlighted by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, “the criminal justice system was never designed to respond to the epidemic of domestic abuse” [3] - let alone the full spectrum of VAWG-related crimes. To this point, there has been a system-wide failure - across the police, prison and probation services - to track and manage VAWG offenders, which has left victims and survivors vulnerable to repeat harm.

This is compounded by a system that is fundamentally unequipped to identify who VAWG perpetrators are. With no single office type for domestic abuse, perpetrators are typically convicted for generic crimes - such as common assault or grievous bodily harm [4]. This obscures the specific risk which they pose, and prevents effective offender management. While the criminalisation of controlling and coercive behaviour marks positive progress, to halve VAWG, the Government must take further steps to define, recognise and criminalise the full spectrum of VAWG-related harms.

Learning from success: the V100 model

To identify high-harm offenders, the Metropolitan Police’s V100 initiative offers a blueprint for success. By targeting the 100 most dangerous VAWG perpetrators, the Met has delivered tangible results: 76 arrests, 51 charges, and 45 convictions [5]. This intelligence-led, proactive approach works, and must be implemented on a national scale - facilitating a consistent, national framework to flag and track all high-risk offenders, to ensure that no victim or survivor is left at risk.

Offender management: making it work

Beyond identification, the criminal justice must take responsibility for providing effective offender management, if perpetrators are to be successfully pursued. Multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPAs) are critical to managing high-risk offenders [6] - yet, many VAWG perpetrators are omitted from their scope. By expanding MAPPA to include high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators, the Government would ensure these individuals are subject to the same rigorous monitoring as violent and sexual offenders - enabling coordinated action that brings together the police, probation, and other relevant services to disrupt harm before it escalates;

For lower-risk offenders, Integrated Offender Management (IOM) provides a tested framework for multi-agency collaboration [7] - but its application to perpetrators of VAWG is inconsistent [8]. To close this gap, the IOM model must be fully adjusted to relevant VAWG offenders and integrated nationwide, driven by consistent multi-agency meetings, real-time information-sharing, and proactive disruption measures to ensure no VAWG offenders slip through the cracks.

Fixing the probation system

Smarter offender management is not only about high-risk cases, but also about identifying and intervening with repeat offenders at all levels. However, a recent inspection revealed that 30% of individuals on probation are current or previous domestic abuse perpetrators, yet only 28% had been adequately assessed for the risk of further abuse [9].

The probation system is overstretched, with high caseloads leaving staff unable to effectively manage risk. Evidence shows that when caseloads are smaller, the quality of offender management improves dramatically, and victims are better protected [10]. The Government must ensure probation services have the resources and capacity to prioritise VAWG offenders, and improve joint risk management with the police and other agencies.

Critical gaps in information-sharing between police and probation services further undermine efforts to track offenders. For example, police often reject probation inquiries due to incomplete offender histories, resulting in missed opportunities to intervene [11]. The Government must mandate seamless, real-time information sharing to ensure that every VAWG perpetrator is adequately flagged, tracked and managed.

Alternatives to custody and early release: one size does not fit all

Prison overcrowding has led to an increased reliance on community sentences, but this makes a dangerous assumption: that one size fits all. VAWG offenders pose unique risks and it is thus integral that behaviour is actively managed, through robust and tailored interventions - both in custody and upon release.

Community sentences must include strict compliance measures, such as electronic tagging, immediate recall for breaches, and targeted behaviour interventions to tackle the root causes of offending. Similarly, prisons must focus on reducing reoffending through tailored rehabilitation and robust release plans, including comprehensive risk assessments and standard victim notification processes - ensuring that victims and survivors of VAWG are informed when their perpetrators are released, with adequate protective measures put in place.

Risk management should be embedded throughout the entire criminal justice response. This requires perpetrators to be continually pursued, even when serving a community sentence, or at the point of custody release. The Government must work with criminal justice agencies to provide a joined-up response that tracks offenders, addresses their behaviours, and crucially, keeps victims and survivors safe.

Conclusion

To halve violence against women and girls, perpetrators must be relentlessly pursued. The criminal justice system must persistently identify, track and disrupt offenders at every level - scaling successful models like the V100 initiative, reforming MAPPAs and IOM and fixing probation - to deliver justice and disrupt further harm.