Overview of CPS South West Community Engagement during 2012
Below, Equality, Diversity and Community Engagement Manager Jane Gibney gives a summary of how we engaged with our diverse communities in the South West during 2012
Violence Against Women (VAW)
At the beginning of the year, SEEDS (Survivors Empowering and Educating Domestic Abuse Services) in North Somerset published research on women victims views of voluntary, statutory and criminal justice sector services. In February Jane Gibney and Lesley Ness represented the CPS at a conference to share these results in Weston Super Mare. They joined partners from the Courts, Police, Witness Service and Witness Liaison to hear feedback, answer questions and take part focus groups. As well as hearing about victims positive experience of the CPS, there was also feedback that our decision to drop or change charges in some cases not been very well explained.
Also in February, Jane met with the Bristol and Avon Chinese Women's Group. The organisation runs an advice surgery, which provides direct help or referrals to specialist agencies on a wide range of issues including domestic violence, anti-social behaviour, housing, education, health and asylum seeking. They also run a carers respite break service.
In March, Jane met with Cezara Nanu who heads up the Platform 51 centre in Bristol. Platform 51 works across the country to support women in a range of difficult situations. They may have been involved in crime in the past, or face drugs or alcohol issues or be victims of trafficking or domestic and sexual abuse. She told Jane about some of their work, which includes facilitating regular groups for Somalian women where the once taboo subject of domestic violence can be aired and perhaps challenged. She also told Jane about a case involving a Roma woman who bravely reported she was a victim of abuse despite threats to her child.
Also in March, Jane Gibney attended a workshop and panel session co-ordinated by the Bristol Domestic Abuse Forum with Roma, Christian, Muslim and other faith leaders, former survivors of domestic violence and specialist workers to look at specific community and faith perspectives on domestic violence. While robust police investigation and CPS prosecution were seen as key, education, awareness raising and places of safety for all sections of the community were seen as vital in longer term solutions. Local partners and faith leaders will continue to work together on the wider family and community issues underpinning domestic violence.
In September, Jane Gibney represented the CPS on a domestic violence question and answer panel in North Somerset. Many of the participants had been victims of serious abuse and had experienced the criminal justice system at a traumatic time in their lives. Other participants included local councillors, social workers and voluntary sector specialists. Questions and messages to the CPS included:
Why did you drop a charge relating to breach of Restraining Orders? We feel these are our only protection against violent and dangerous former partners. We need to know more about why you have dropped or changed a charge.
We need you and the police to understand how important a breach of such an order feels to us and how vulnerable we feel. We need confidence that you will tackle it together.
We need to be sure our children are protected. Information needs to be shared with police and social services to avoid circumstances where a violent partner has access to children.
The use of agents for some domestic abuse cases in Somerset would appear to have led to delays and its not clear that agents understand the issues - what is CPS policy on deploying agents?
Sometimes curfew orders at the point of sentencing can inadvertently overturn bail conditions (i.e. perpetrator curfew at the home address). Can the CPS play a part in challenging this?
Specialist Domestic Violence courts in Bristol on Tuesdays are sometimes working well, but there appears to be inconsistency in magistrates understanding of domestic violence issues
Please can we have more copies of the CPS domestic violence policy?
Please continue to keep us in the loop about conviction rates and issues faced by the CPS
How is the CPS working with partners to understand wider VAW issues like Female Genital Mutilation?
Disability Hate Crime
The CPS works with partners like mental health charity Mencap to fight disability hate crime and support the needs of learning disabled people caught up in the criminal justice system. In August, Jane met with representatives of Mencap to discuss some of the issues and areas of interest they have identified.
In 2013 Mencaps Stand by Me campaign enters its third year and they plan to focus on the work of the CPS and our partners as we manage Special Measures, Intermediaries and Pre trial meetings. They are looking into commissioning research on how victims with learning disabilities experience the criminal justice system, from reporting an alleged hate crime through to the end of the trial process. In particular they want to explore:
The difficulties victims and witnesses of hate crime with a learning disability experience at all stages of the criminal justice system including lack of support and difficulty in accessing services;
The support available to police, CPS and courts for victims and witnesses of hate crime with a learning disability;
The extent to which the additional support available to victims and witnesses of hate crime with a learning disability is taken up by the police, CPS and courts;
Whether increased levels of support lead to more suspects being charged, prosecuted and convicted.
In June, Jane held a workshop with approximately 150 disabled young people at the National Star College Student Union in Gloucestershire. Together, Jane and participants explored questions such as: What is disability hate crime? and How can the CPS, police, the National Star College and the public work together to deal with disability hate crime?
Jane explained key aspects of CPS disability hate crime policy and briefly described some of the cases that had come to us from across the region, asking for students views on whether these were indeed disability hate crimes. When discussing how to tackle disability hate crime, the majority of students agreed it was crucial for disabled people to understand hate crime, report incidents and educate people on disability issues and disability equality. They also invited CCP Barry Hughes to contribute to a DVD they were working on with Gloucestershire police to raise awareness of disability hate crime across the county.
In March, CCP Barry Hughes invited representatives from a wide range of voluntary and statutory organisations working on hate crime and equality issues to a conference where the following question was discussed:
How can the CPS tackle hate crime more effectively? What are the particular issues involved in addressing disability hate crime?
The CPS Hate Crime report published in February revealed that CPS South West was one of the highest performing CPS Areas in successfully prosecuting hate crime, with a conviction rate of 83.5% compared to the national average of 82.8% (March 2012). Since the CPS started collecting data on hate crime prosecutions in 2005, the number of cases brought to court and successfully prosecuted has risen. However, we know there is still some distance to travel in encouraging the reporting of hate crimes and in bringing offenders to justice. This is particularly true of disability hate crime.
In the run up to the event we asked participants to submit questions on how they thought the CPS, and our criminal justice partners could tackle hate crime more effectively. These questions centred how disabled victims could best be supported to give their best evidence and have full access to justice.
Concerns were voiced about how financial constraints might impact on CPS ability to support disabled victims. We were also questioned on our understanding of the different ways that people with learning disabilities may be targeted, abused and exploited by those who pretend to befriend them, a pattern of some describe as mate hate crime.
Barry addressed these questions and told participants about recent CPS South West disability hate crime cases. We were able to share good news about how we had successfully identified a disability hate crime case where a learning disabled man had the word FOOL shaved into his heard and brought section 146 to the attention of the Court, achieving an uplift in sentence.
Barry also shared other examples where, despite some excellent work, we had not identified disability hate crime and so missed opportunities to prosecute appropriately, in line with our Disability Hate Crime policy and legal guidance.
We then discussed the use of intermediaries and special measures and explored some specific issues experienced by victims of disability hate crime in the region. Voluntary organisations working with victims to help them report crimes explained how funding cuts were impacting on their ability to support victims at the earliest stages of incidents.
As DPP Keir Starmer said in a speech in 2011, we may still be in the foothills when it comes to prosecuting Disability Hate Crime, but working together with police and partners, we can learn to better identify and address issues and ensure that disabled people have equal access to justice.
