Women's Confidence in Policing: A FiLiA Survey
To coincide with International Women's Day, FiLiA conducted a survey of women, with the aim to find out how confident a snapshot of the female population in the UK feels in the police force and its ability to protect women, not just from male violence but also from harassment and abuse directed at women because of their sex.
The overwhelming conclusions of the survey are that women do not feel confident in the police.
Policing in the UK is modelled on the framework of 'policing by consent.' It is a model which works only when those who are policed have some measure of trust and confidence that they will be dealt with fairly, if suspects, and adequately supported, if complainants.
Lack of confidence in the police has serious repercussions for women. A population which lacks confidence and trust in the police will be reluctant to engage with them. This can be displayed as
not reporting crimes or incidents
not disclosing the 'full picture' at the outset, leading to a self-perpetuating cycle of loss of trust
suspicion of official figures and statistics
not believing that the police have women's best interests at heart
taking the law into one's own hands
When women do not report crimes or incidents against them because they have no faith that the police will be fair or effective at dealing with them, it leads to a false picture that fewer crimes are taking place. Of the women surveyed here, more than half had not reported VAWG crimes or incidents against them.
When fewer crimes are believed to have taken place than in fact have, it is easy for the authorities to become complacent about crime numbers. This survey suggests that there are far more crimes of VAWG committed than are reported.
There was also a perception amongst respondents that the police were overenthusiastic about non-crime incidents which took place online, such as the 'advice' given to Harry Miller over his use of Twitter, except when those incidents were directed at women. There was a perception that the police are willing to support other communities, particularly the trans community, who experience online abuse, but that equally or more serious abuse directed at women is ignored when reported.
FiLiA is aware that some of the most egregious abuse directed at women online is not investigated or prosecuted when it is reported, and we have previously raised concerns about this double standard.
The results demonstrate that where women have a positive experience of reporting crime, they are much more likely to trust the police. Where that experience is negative, trust and confidence plummet.
The primary way to increase women's confidence in the police is to ensure that strenuous efforts are made to support women and that abuse of women on or off line is taken seriously, and suspects pursued. If a prosecution is not possible, a coherent explanation must be provided so that women understand that they are not being ignored due to their sex.