As part of its manifesto, the government pledged to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade as part of its wider mission to halve serious violent crime. Although it is often considered solely a criminal issue, hence the strapline of ‘Safer Streets’, many instances of VAWG take place within the home and, sometimes, comes only before the family courts.
This briefing sets out why the family justice system must be a key part of any strategy for tackling VAWG, and presents the following recommendations for policy change and resourcing:
- VAWG must be accurately measured and recorded
- Pilot the national reporting and review mechanism
- Increase legal aid funding in family law
- Remove means testing for legal aid for alleged victims and survivors of domestic abuse
- Bring all cases involving domestic abuse within legal aid scope for both parties
- Sufficiently fund the rollout of the Pathfinder courts and the Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDAC) across England and Wales
- Improve support for those going through the family justice system
- Continue to support the Domestic Abuse Protection Orders and Notices (DAPOs and DAPNs) scheme
- Provision of perpetrator programmes following admissions or findings of fact hearings
- Better coordination between the family justice system and the criminal justice system
