Read Handbook on Sexual Violence Online
Authors: Jennifer Sandra.,Brown Walklate
Handbook on Sexual Violence (104 page)
The marginalisation of victims’/survivors’ needs
I worked in a prison; perpetrators are treated so well in prison. Human rights have gone mad; they are given more rights than the actual victim. I was sexually abused, I’m 36 now, and I’m still suffering from the effects. You get a few months put on the sex offenders register, for what? They get protection, who is giving us protection? In prison I used to work alongside these people, you see the grin on their faces, there is no rehabilitation. You see the same faces every time. My dad interfered with
me for years from 6 months old, my dad got 3 years, and he served 18 months. I’ve got a lifetime.
Dealing with court case
The police were great right up until the court case; then I felt like I was a villain and he was the victim. They asked my sister not to have screens round on the day we went to court. She is quite fiery; they said it would look better if she didn’t have screens up. I said it’s not a circus. My partner wasn’t allowed in the court, it’s a crown court anyone can go in. That’s when I would fault the police, the trial. Up until then, they were great.
Sentencing
They need to review the sentencing. You go through years of abuse. You get 10 years for fraud. Are our lives worth less than money?
A sentence should be a sentence; you shouldn’t be allowed to get out on good behaviour, and given new identities. We need higher sentences.
Inadequate statutory responses
I asked for a security button and bars on the windows after he got out last year, but I was completely banned from going to London for about 4 months. My sister went to my house to pick up my post and it was smashed up. I asked for help so I could stay in my own home, they said if you don’t move, your kids are gone. It’s like I’ve done something wrong. They wonder why you don’t report. It’s not just the police, it’s all of them, social services, housing, it’s the whole response. I couldn’t get any safe housing because I’d been raped.
Supportive response
I was lucky, I had support in the court from a women’s service and they were lovely. I wasn’t brought through the main entrance, I was brought in the side entrance which meant I didn’t risk bumping into him or anyone connected to him, which was good. It was a closed court. I had a screen up, I said I’ll give evidence but I want a screen. I went into the court first and then he was brought in, and then he left and then I was brought out. But my sister had to face him give evidence in front of him and he started taking the piss out of her. The judge warned him, and told his barrister to tell him to stop. She should have been given the option of a screen, she tried to kill him and then he tried to kill her and her daughter. He threatened to kill my two eldest boys as well, but this wasn’t taken into account. It was just luck that he got 8 years, the judge put the maximum sentence on him; he is so dangerous. Armed police had to arrest him.
Screens in court
Screen or no screen you know they are there.
Women said they wanted the following, in particular, to change and improve services for women:
Male/female officers
There really could be females all the way through. It’s simple things like, a male liaison officer returned my clothes, I don’t particularly want them but he knocked on the door. There he was, holding up my underwear, ticking it off. It was awful. Females all the way through the system are desperately needed. Then again, some female officers can be right bitches towards you. Some male police officers can be great though. One of my officers was great. He told me he would get him and make sure he went down, and he did. Everybody has good and bad in them.
Mandatory police training
I want mandatory training for all law enforcement officers. So at least they have an inkling, if there is a rape they have some knowledge of how to go about it. They faff about, you are already depressed, you are already terrified. Mandatory training for all police; basic common sense. It doesn’t take much. Everybody reacts differently, just because I’m not crying doesn’t mean I’m not hurting. From what I’ve seen, these paedophiles, these rapists know more about the system than we do. Lawyers talk down to you, la de da, I’m not illiterate, I’m not stupid, I’m just stressed.
BME women’s needs
In Asian communities, it’s really shut away. There is this idea that you can deal with rape in the community. If you keep it inside the family, patterns repeat themselves. Asian doctors adhere to the view that children should keep quiet, parents know best. If we’re going to work within communities we need to be sensitive, disbelief is common. There needs to be somewhere to go, like a refuge, specialist women’s services. It’s not safe leaving it with family members or reporting to the police, women end up committing suicide because they haven’t got access to specialist women’s services and BME women’s services.
Effectiveness of the law
Many women are affected by the changes in the new laws – but in practice we haven’t really seen any changes at all. The law is good enough, it’s who is implementing that law.
Specialised women’s services
There has to be help along the way, we need help immediately, from specialist women’s services, not just a phone call in 6 months to say the case has got to court. There has to be more done for the women; and children too, because they are victims as well, but the court don’t see it like that.
I need closure, I wouldn’t be able to report, I haven’t got the courage or the strength. I just know I wouldn’t. The person who abused me has got away with it, and he has got children, and I can’t have children because of what happened to me. I just couldn’t do it though, I couldn’t sit there in court, with him staring at me, knowing what he did to me. Only one person in my life knows what happened to me, that is my husband. My
family don’t know. And there is no support for women like me. Except for from women’s services. I’m not going to go anywhere else for help. And there are loads of women like me.
Six sessions of counselling is not enough. We need safe women-only services for women who’ve been abused; many women don’t report to the police or won’t ever go to health or other services. More women’s services are needed so that these women can get help.
Provision
All statutory services require a culture change where women and girls are not disbelieved or seen as to blame for violence perpetrated against them. Women are as concerned with how a service is delivered as with what is being delivered, and want to be treated with dignity and respect whomever they came into contact with. Existing legislation, strategies, policies and action plans developed to address different forms of violence against women and girls need to be effectively and consistently co-ordinated, implemented and monitored across the country. All services and partnerships should be required to prioritise the safety of women and girls at all stages of intervention, and to provide effective, co-ordinated and well-resourced approaches to ending violence against women and girls.
Prevention
Prevention work needs to be undertaken on a societal, institutional, community and individual level that also addresses the multiple forms of inequality different groups of women experience because of their ethnicity, age, sexuality, disability, gender identity, religion or belief. Government needs to invest in a sustained national high-profile multimedia awareness campaign to educate the public on what constitutes violence against women and girls and the help available, to challenge perpetrators’ attitudes to, and use of, violence and to reduce social tolerance of violence against women and girls. A co-ordinated response is needed between statutory and voluntary agencies so that all women who experience violence but who have no recourse to public funds have equal access to protection and can access safety, support and living expenses to minimise their dependence on their abusers.
Finally, any strategy on violence against women and girls needs to establish and implement a comprehensive legislative, policy and service framework to prevent violence against women and girls, and be underpinned by clear responsibilities, targets and review mechanisms, and sustainable resources for national and local specialist services for women and children experiencing violence and abuse.
Key recommendations
Specialist police officers and prosecutors trained on all forms of violence against women should be available in every area, and systems also need to be introduced to enable anonymous third-party reporting in neighbourhoods and communities.
Court services need to ensure consistent access to safety mechanisms and special measures to help women and girls give evidence in cases of violence and abuse. Women need to be regularly updated about the progress of their case, and cases of rape and sexual violence should be fast-tracked.
Probation and prison officers in women’s prisons need to be trained on violence against women and girls, to enable them to ask women about experiences of abuse on entry to the prison; to deliver discussion groups on violence prevention and the help available, and publicise services available on their release into the community.
Women’s services that are independent of statutory provision and that specialise in responding to violence against women need to be available in every area. These services need to be accessible for the most marginalised and vulnerable women, and provide timely, safe services that respond to complex and multiple needs, which focus on women’s safety and empowerment without labelling or judging women or limiting the service to times of crisis or high risk.
Statutory agencies, partnerships and service commissioners need to recognise the crucial role of specialist women’s services and BME women’s services in providing longer-term therapeutic and group support for women and girls, which in turn promotes women’s self- esteem and empowerment as a means of preventing violence in the short and longer term.
Health services (such as health visitors, GPs, practice nurses, A & E consultants, midwives, dentists, opticians, sexual health and psychiatric services), social services, community mental health and drug and alcohol rehabilitation services should be required to routinely ask about violence as part of existing procedures and be trained to respond effectively on disclosure, referring to specialist support services where necessary.
Health professionals should be trained to identify girls at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) and to respond sensitively and appropriately to women who have undergone FGM. Health services should employ professionals who can speak community languages to avoid the use of interpreters.
GP surgeries need to play a greater role in identifying and responding to violence against women and girls, including the on-site provision of information and support for survivors provided by specialist women’s services.
The Department of Health should run a national public health campaign on identifying and preventing all forms of violence against women and girls.
Women and girls who experience child sexual abuse need access to
support as children and as adults, to aid their recovery and to minimise its devastating impact in later life. All professionals who work with children and young people should be trained in identifying and responding appropriately to violence against women and girls, particularly childhood sexual abuse.
Social services should adopt a believing stance on disclosure of violence and provide support to women in response. For those women who are mothers social services should focus on the mother’s safety as a means of safeguarding and protecting children and young people from harm.
Publicity campaigns need to be accessible, to target specific communities and groups, and to address all forms of violence against women and girls. Specialist women’s services should be involved in the development of campaign materials.
Statutory services (health, justice system, local government and local strategic partnerships) should address all forms of violence against women and girls through effective leadership, training, policy and performance standards, as part of their statutory duty to comply with public sector equality duties. Their work on the prevention of violence against women and girls should be measured in terms of increasing women’s safety, empowerment, and access to specialist women’s support services.
Men need to be engaged to speak out against violence against women and girls and to take an active part in the prevention of violence against women and girls.
Schools should be required to introduce a ‘whole school’ approach to preventing violence against women and girls which includes implement- ing policies to address violence, gender bullying and sexual harassment, and the compulsory teaching of violence against women prevention within a gender equality framework, from a very early age.
Every school should have a lead professional responsible for policy and training on violence against women and girls prevention, and disseminating information to others about training, guidance and services available.
References
Women’s National Commission (WNC) (January 2010)
A Bitter Pill to Swallow
. Report from the WNC Focus Groups to inform the Department of Health Taskforce on the Health Aspects of Violence against Women and Girls.
Women’s National Commission (WNC) (January 2010)
Still We Rise
. Report from the WNC Focus Groups to inform the Cross-Government Consultation ‘Together We Can End Violence against Women and Girls’.
Web resources
South Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre:
www.sericc.org.uk Rape Crisis England and Wales: www.rapecrisis.org.uk
The Women’s National Commission: www.wnc.org.uk
