Refuge reiterates domestic abuse ‘is a crime’

Refuge has issued a comment responding to the scale of domestic abuse and violence against women and girls (VAWG) after stating that ‘we must reiterate domestic abuse is a crime’ and it is a social issues that needs tackling and is not irreversible.

Abigail Ampofo, Interim CEO at Refuge said:

“Whilst it is important to highlight the scale of online misogyny, which is generating headlines and conversation today, there is a danger that some of the narrative suggests that the scale of violence against women and girls (VAWG) is beyond fixing – or that we can point the blame purely at toxic ‘manfluencers’. Refuge is extremely concerned about online misogyny and the ‘radicalisation’ of young men, however we must reiterate domestic abuse is a crime. It is a social issue that needs tackling and it is not irreversible.”

She added that individual perpetrators of VAWG “must see the full weight” of the law with a criminal justice response. She continued:

“Whilst it’s correct to acknowledge the dangers of online misogynistic ‘influencers’, we must also have faith in the police to deal with these crimes when survivors report them. When women report rape, domestic abuse and other VAWG offences, we must believe them, and the police must be at the forefront of this response. We believe it is vital that society comes together to tackle VAWG with preventative measures such as changing attitudes through education, and removing harmful, hateful, misogynistic content online. Women must have faith that when we report male violence, the perpetrators are punished. Refuge campaigned for women and girls to be better protected from online harms in the Online Safety Act, and whilst we saw some positive changes in this legislation it did not go far enough.

Today we reiterate our calls to the new Government to make misogyny a hate crime, as promised in the general election manifesto. The response to VAWG must focus on the root cause of why this crime takes place – that is rampant misogyny and perpetrators seeking power and control over women. We need a zero-tolerance culture to VAWG if we are to halve incidents over the next decade.”

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