Women's Views on News |
| Domestic abuse: insufficient police response Posted: 06 Jun 2016 06:08 AM PDT
Speaking at the Police Federation's annual conference recently, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, said that "victims of abuse are still being let down and reports are not being taken seriously enough". In 2013, May commissioned a review of the police response to domestic abuse, and the results were damning. And when a report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) called 'Everyone's business: Improving the police response to domestic abuse', was released the following year, the Home Secretary herself said that it made "depressing reading". HMIC inspects policing in the public interest. The author of the report, Zoe Billingham, said at the time: "The service provided to victims of domestic abuse by the police is too often unacceptable. "Police leaders told us tackling domestic abuse is important, but in the majority of forces it is a priority on paper only and not in practice. "It is deeply disappointing that the stated intent is not translating into an operational reality. "The police service urgently needs to improve its overall response." At this year's Police Federation conference, May said that while improvements have been made since the 2013 review, "examples of the same shameful behaviour persisted." ‘This shameful behaviour’ includes victims being referred to as 'bitch' and 'slag' by police officers, and comments from responding officers responding to calls saying for example, 'it's a DV, we'll be a few minutes and we'll go to the next job'. She also spoke out against the officers "who put victims of serious domestic violence into a room with their attacker in the name of restorative justice, with no consideration of the psychological and emotional damage that can cause. "I know that restorative justice is meant to be victim-led and I know that guidance says it should be considered in all cases," she said, "but I simply do not believe it follows either the evidence or common sense to sit vulnerable victims across from perpetrators who for months and years may have destroyed their confidence, manipulated their mind, and beaten their bodies." May also told the conference, "the right skills, training and commitment to protect the vulnerable are still not held by every single police officer", and spoke of "officers who couldn't spot dangerous patterns of abuse." As a result of the 2013 review, every police force in England and Wales now has an action plan to tackle domestic abuse and they are collecting standardised data. However, as May said at the conference, "not a single one of these police forces is outstanding at protecting those who are vulnerable from harm and supporting victims, and 31 forces are judged to be either inadequate or requiring improvement." The Home Secretary also highlighted an extremely worrying issue with regard to the way in which police officers treat domestic abuse cases and victims. "We know of officers who develop inappropriate relationships with victims of domestic abuse. "They have ignored their professional duty and their moral responsibility and instead abused their position of power to exploit victims. "We do not know the true scale of this, but everyone in this room will know it goes on far more than we might care to admit". In response to this, May has asked HMIC, headed by Sir Tom Winsor, to investigate this issue. It is certainly a relief, and a moment of significance, to see the inadequacy of the way in which domestic abuse is dealt with properly recognised by a government minister. We have to ask however, is this down to the fact that the Home Secretary is a woman? Would it be taken as seriously if the Home Secretary were a man? And does David Cameron, or the other male members of Parliament, regard domestic abuse as the urgent matter that it is? Unfortunately, the government’s response to domestic abuse and the way it is handled has tended to be all talk and no action. With an average of two women a week killed by a partner, spouse or ex we cannot afford to take a lax attitude – and the government and the police need to cooperate to take effective action immediately. The increase in the number of victims actually reporting perpetrators to the police is of course a positive step, however it is meaningless if these reports are not dealt with properly. Particularly as many of those reporting abuse are potentially risking their lives by coming forward. Thus far the attitudes towards domestic abuse and its victims within the police, which can only be described as utterly disgraceful, are, sadly, reflections of those in wider society, and there are many organisations and services, not just the police, that need to make changes so that victims get proper help, protection, and justice, and perpetrators appropriate punishments. Hopefully, the Home Secretary will now lead the way in making sure these changes are made. And soon.  |
| Report says Britons dying needlessly Posted: 11 May 2016 01:20 PM PDT
Thousands of British citizens are dying needlessly each year because of the government's failure to tackle food poisoning, health and safety breaches and pollution, according to a new report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. The report – Better Regulation: Better for whom? – by Professor Steve Tombs, of The Open University, argues that lax regulation and weak enforcement have created avoidable business-generated, state-facilitated 'social murder'. Each year, the report says, some 29,000 deaths are attributable to airborne pollution. A further 50,000 people die as a result of injuries or health problems originating in the workplace – and most of those deaths are caused by diseases that may cause many years of illness before their victims die. There are around one million cases of foodborne illness in the UK each year, and food poisoning leads to some 20,000 people being hospitalised and 500 deaths each year. And, says the report, in each of these areas, the majority of these deaths originate in profit-making businesses. This is not just a problem of infrequent inspections and lax enforcement. In the name of cutting red tape, governments of all political persuasions have, for over a decade, undermined independent and effective business regulation. And budget cuts under the austerity programme have compounded the problem. So too have moves to outsource and privatise regulatory and enforcement activity. And these staggering figures, Professor Tombs said, are probably underestimates. They are also largely avoidable. Successive governments have undermined the independent inspection of business over many years, the Better Regulation report points out. An average business can now expect a local authority health and safety inspection only once in every 20 years. Between 2004 and 2013, there were 34 per cent fewer food standards inspections and 28 per cent fewer prosecutions; 53 per cent fewer health and safety inspections and 40 per cent fewer prosecutions; and 56 per cent fewer environmental health inspections and 40 per cent fewer prosecutions. More recent figures, not included in the briefing, show that between 2004 and 2015, at Local Authority level, there were 35 per cent fewer food standards inspections and 35 per cent fewer prosecutions; 69 per cent fewer health and safety inspections and 60 per cent fewer prosecutions; and 55 per cent fewer environmental health inspections and 30 per cent fewer prosecutions. Recent years have also seen the privatisation of regulatory and enforcement activities, and a shift to business self-regulation. Regulation is widely derided, a dirty word now equated with red tape, rules, burdens and bureaucracy. Yet we would do well to recall that regulation of business emerged ostensibly to provide some levels of 'social protection' for workers, consumers and communities from the worst excesses of the industrial revolution. The emergence of neo-liberalism provided the context for a concerted attack on regulation in the name of freeing business from the burdens of red tape. But as the diesel emissions scam currently engulfing Volkswagen and other motor manufacturers, or the recent scandal over horsemeat in food, tell us businesses cannot simply be trusted to act in the public interest without robust, independent, state-backed regulation. And as the report documents, the cumulative trends away from regulation and enforcement may 'mark the beginning of the end of the state's commitment to, and ability to deliver, social protection'. Will McMahon, deputy director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said: 'The public is led to believe the greatest harms faced by citizens are dealt with by the police and courts. 'Professor Tombs' Briefing makes clear that this is far from the case. 'The harms he writes about are not random happenings but the result of political and economic decisions,’ McMahon continued. 'Policy makers need to urgently address the radical reduction in local authority inspections and enforcement'. 'This is not about rules, regulations and red tape,’ Professor Steve Tombs said. ‘It is about lives lost and shortened and the health of communities, workers and consumers made poorer. 'This is avoidable business-generated, state facilitated social murder. ‘And quite remarkably, it proceeds daily, met largely by political silence.'  |
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