CPS Violence against Women and Girls crime report 2015-16

In March 2016, the government launched a strategy to end Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). The strategy introduced new offences to tackle stalking and for forcing someone to marry against their will. There were also new offences for coercive and controlling behaviour, and new protection orders for domestic violence, sexual violence and female genital mutilation.

The latest Violence against Women and Girls crime report from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for 2015-16 covers many of these strands and reflects some positive figures in terms of the number of convictions for offences against women and girls.

Schools are perfectly placed to help to reduce these figures further in the future by working with children and young people to help them understand more about healthy relationships.  The organisations featured in this issue of the newsletter all offer support to schools in promoting well being and keeping children and young people safe.

Headlines

• CPS are prosecuting and convicting more defendants of domestic abuse, rape, sexual offences and child sexual abuse than ever before.

• In 2015/16 there were more than 8,500 convictions for VAWG crimes, an increase from 73.5% in 2014/15 to 74.2% in 2015-16.

• There was the highest volume of prosecutions ever for domestic abuse with more than 75,000 convictions with a 74.5% conviction rate (73.9% conviction rate in 2014-15).

• There were more than 200 so-called revenge pornography prosecutions since the new legislation introduced in April 2015, which is indicative of the growing number of offences occurring through social media.

• By March 2016 there were already 5 successful prosecutions for the offence of using controlling or coercive behaviour (introduced in December 2015).

• The CPS conviction rate for rape rose to 57.9% from 56.9% in 2014-15. More than 4,600 defendants were prosecuted for rape offences with convictions being secured in 2,689 of these – the highest volumes ever for some of the most complex cases handled by the CPS.

• There was an increase of almost 17% in the number of convictions for child sexual abuse, equating to 4,643 convictions in 2015-16 with a conviction rate of 74.7%.

 

Warwickshire’s conviction rates are higher than the national for all four of the categories below:

• VAWG - Warwickshire 79.5% (622 convictions); National 74.2% (87,275)

• Domestic Abuse – Warwickshire 79.4% (527 convictions); National 74.5% (75,235)

• Rape – Warwickshire 69% (20 convictions); National 57.9% (2,689)

• Sexual Offences – Warwickshire 84.3% (75 convictions); National 78.0% (9,351)