CPS to train staff to spot 'hidden crimes' when investigating domestic abuse

Cases of violence against women and girls need broader interrogation so investigators do not miss other "often hidden" crimes, prosecutors have warned.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said there was a "significant overlap" between some offences, with data showing a "growing relationship" between domestic abuse and crimes including rape, strangulation, so-called revenge porn and stalking.

But it was "not sufficiently appreciated that abuse often involves different layers of offending", director of public prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said.

Mr Parkinson said it was his personal priority to improve prosecutions for violence against women and girls (VAWG) as the CPS launched a five-year strategy to tackle such crimes in England and Wales.

The term violence against women and girls includes offences such as harassment, stalking, rape, sexual assault and murder,

While men and boys also suffer from many of these forms of abuse, they disproportionately affect women, the National Police Chiefs' Council says.

"It is vital we train our staff to recognise the full picture of abuse so the charges we make reflect the totality of the offending," he added.

Over the past five years, on average more than a third of rape charges were linked to domestic abuse, the CPS said.

According to the CPS data, more than nine in 10 charges of honour-based abuse, and of strangulation or suffocation, were flagged as relating to domestic abuse.

So were more than eight in 10 stalking and revenge porn charges, and more than six in 10 harassment charges, it said.

As part of its strategy, the CPS will develop and roll out new VAWG training modules on honour-based abuse, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and stalking or harassment.

And it said it will review and update prosecution guidance on domestic abuse to incorporate learning and understanding.

Baljit Ubhey, director of policy and the senior responsible officer for the CPS's VAWG strategy, said prosecutions were a "deterrent".

He said investigators must not be "blinkered" or put crimes into boxes while ignoring the overlap between some offences.

"Evidence shows these crimes are a complex web of harm which are often hidden, often repeated and too often overlooked," he said.

He continued: "What this means in practice is when a victim reports an offence, there may be a much deeper pattern of offending across a range of crime types and it is vital this is explored as part of a prosecution."

The government has pledged to halve VAWG in a decade.

In July, the ONS estimated that around one in eight women were victims of sexual assault, domestic abuse or stalking in the last year. It was the first time the ONS had given an estimate of the combined prevalence of the three crimes, after being asked by the Home Office to help monitor the government's ambition.

A report at the start of this year found the Home Office's response to the "serious and growing problem" of VAWG had been ineffective.

The National Audit Office report in January said the department had "not led an effective whole-system response" to the rising incidence of rape and sexual assault recorded by police.

A Home Office spokesperson said at the time the report had looked at the previous government's "failure to deliver systemic change", and that Labour was "delivering a step-change in the government's response".