Justice Matters - tackling sexual violence

1. Welcome, aim and introductions
2. Part 1: Supporting survivors of sexual violence
3. Part 2: Targeted Prevention – A Response to the HMIC Child Protection Findings
4. Summary of actions/close

This meeting is open to the public to attend in person or can be viewed live.

London is a diverse and tolerant city. But for all the positives, London still faces some enormous public safety challenges. Key areas such as Domestic Abuse, Rape, tackling perpetrators of violence against women and girls and Harmful Practices such as Female Genital Mutilation and Forced marriage are all themes the Mayor is adamant that he will make an impact upon. The Mayor’s is committed to building on learning and best practice through the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and will use the new Police and Crime plan to develop a better and stronger approach to tackling Violence Against Women and Girls.

According to the Crime Survey for England and Wales each year around 24,000 adults in London suffer serious sexual assaults, including rape. Of these, 85% are women and this is equivalent to 11 sexual assaults and rapes of women in each borough every week of the year. These figures disguise a marked difference between age groups. The rate of assaults for younger women 16-19 years old has been more than three times higher at 6.7% than the average for all women (2.2%).

Investigative work commissioned by MOPAC and NHS England has highlighted that survivors of sexual violence often are people with a range of vulnerabilities and, as a result, frequently experiencie multiple forms of abuse. Understandably these will be people with complex and multiple needs. Current provision is proving to be insufficient to tackle these complexities.

Firstly, Justice Matters will consider violence against women and girls from the perspective of a survivor navigating the criminal justice system, the points of attrition in the process and the support that the survivor needs or can expect. It will consider if the much publicised increase in reporting is due to increased confidence in the police; increased prevalence or or does it indicate a darker escalation in the severity of sexual violence being experienced by victims. In the second part of the event it will focus on the offender and how probation agencies work with sexual offenders and the challenges in ensuring compliance.

The data is from the Sexual assault, in London, years ending March 2013, March 2014 and March 2015 CSEW