The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has unveiled a five-year strategy to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG), with a focus on training staff to recognise the 'wide spectrum of abuse'. The move follows analysis showing domestic abuse was present in more than a third of rape cases and over 80% of stalking and image-based abuse cases.
Launching the strategy, the CPS said its main aims were to improve casework quality and increase public trust. Data revealed significant overlaps in crime types: 93.5% of 'honour' crime charges were linked to domestic abuse, along with 35.1% of rape charges, 82.8% of stalking charges, and 85.6% of image-based sexual abuse charges.
Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said: 'It is our responsibility to present to the court the full picture of criminality that occurs, so that courts can sentence appropriately.' He noted that domestic abuse cases often involve multiple layers, including strangulation, coercive behaviour, and revenge porn.
The strategy includes new training on honour-based abuse, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and stalking. It also plans to embed academic research on the overlap between domestic abuse and sexual offences, install dedicated victim liaison officers in rape units, and offer pre-trial meetings for adult sexual offence victims.
Solicitor General Ellie Reeves acknowledged past shortcomings in victim communications, stating the strategy aims to 'drive up those standards'. Baljit Ubhey, CPS director of policy, emphasised the need to be 'more curious' in building cases, particularly where suicides follow domestic abuse.
The strategy comes amid a record crown court backlog of over 78,000 cases in England and Wales, with some trials listed as far as 2029. Parkinson said that better recognising links between crimes and prosecuting for the totality of offending would help reduce crime rates.
