Conference held to tackle violence against women

A conference has been held to try and tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG).

The event in Northamptonshire brought together charities and organisations to explore different approaches to reduce the problem.

Danielle Stone, the county's police, fire and crime commissioner, who organised the event, said: "The protection of women and girls is very high on my priorities and I'm really exercised by all of us to understand what drives it.

"What is it that's making girls and women so vulnerable to violence, to stalking, to spiking, to modern slavery, to sexual exploitation, to murder?"

The government announced last year ambitions of halving VAWG in a decade.

Speakers shared their expertise and explored different approaches to tackling misogyny, addressing injustice, and supporting victims.

Michael Conroy is the founder of Men at Work, a community interest company founded in 2019, which supports professionals who work with boys and young men.

He said: "We're really talking about safeguarding, and that does include boys and young men but obviously one of the focuses is tackling misogyny and the beliefs and the values that that comes from.

"And one of the main drivers for that unfortunately is the fact that porn of all kinds is on the phone and in the pocket of every young person in the country and it is particularly aimed at the eyes of boys and we need to support them in that storm I think."

According to Home Office figures, 17, 572 domestic abuse incidents and crimes were recorded in the county in the last year, up from 15,887 three years ago.

Assistant Chief Constable for Northamptonshire, Emma James, said domestic violence is a hidden crime and victims usually only come to the police at the point of crisis, but she was hopeful that more would come forwards despite a lack of confidence in the police nationally.

"We know that trust and confidence in policing is probably the lowest it's been, I've been in the police 25 years...I am the lead for vulnerability and we have a good leadership in place, we've got Raneem's Law in place to offer specialist domestic abuse support," she said.

The conference concluded with five actions being set out for policy makers to take away including ensuring a shared language is used when talking about VAWG and developing cultural competence in the workplace.

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