Home / Crime and Justice / VAWG Funding Gap: A National Threat Ignored?
VAWG Funding Gap: A National Threat Ignored?
2 Dec
Summary
- Funding for violence against women lags behind other high-priority crimes.
- Lack of consistent data hinders spotting patterns in sexual offense patterns.
- Calls for a Good Samaritan law and improved public safety measures intensify.
A critical report has revealed that funding and preventative measures for violence against women and girls (VAWG) significantly trail behind those allocated to other high-priority crimes. This disparity leads to questions about whether VAWG is genuinely treated as a national priority, despite official designations. The report underscores the urgent need to address this funding gap to ensure credible prioritization.
Further concerns have been raised regarding gaps in national data collection, particularly concerning the reporting of rape and sexual assault in public spaces. Without consistent data across all police forces, identifying patterns of offending becomes extremely challenging, hindering effective intervention. This lack of comprehensive data obscures the true scale of the problem.
In response, new recommendations include encouraging public intervention in instances of bad behavior, possibly through a Good Samaritan law, and improving the collection and sharing of crime data. Enhanced street lighting and targeted public messaging on reporting indecent exposure are also proposed to bolster safety for women and girls.
