Violence against women and girls
Join our independent VAWG Voices group
It’s our priority to create an environment where women and girls can feel safe and be safe within Lincolnshire, free of fear and harassment. To do this, we need to listen to the voices of those with lived experience to shape our response.
VAWG Voices is an independent group that creates a safe space for women to speak openly, have challenging, constructive and reflective conversations, with an aim of influencing how we design and deliver our service to the public and become more inclusive as an employer.
“The VAWG Voices forum can’t change our past, but knowing that sharing our experiences can make a difference to what happens to someone else is very healing.” VAWG Voices member.
The VAWG Voices group will focus on the three key priorities of increasing trust and confidence in policing; pursuit of perpetrators; and creating safe spaces (in private, public, online and in schools).
Find out more about VAWG Voices.
Read our update on the work of VAWG Voices.
Our campaign with Crimestoppers to target domestic abuse
Research by the University of Lincoln has shown that some women, especially from some Eastern European countries, may not recognise the signs of being in an abusive relationship.
In a new campaign, together with Crimestoppers, we are spotlighting domestic abuse myths, such as believing children will be taken away or you need to be married to get help. These types of unfounded fears may stop people who need help from seeking support.
Detective Superintendent Suzanne Davies, Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls for Lincolnshire Police, said: “Domestic abuse is not inevitable or acceptable and it is never the fault of the victim. We want to break down the barriers that stop someone getting the help they need. Understanding what is abusive behaviour is vital. Abuse can be psychological or emotional – it doesn’t always involve violence. It could be control of you, your money or how you behave. This behaviour cannot be justified by mental health issues, alcohol or drug misuse, money worries or stress. Blame lays entirely with the abuser.
“There are specific barriers for Eastern European communities. It’s not true that we won’t help you unless you are English and it’s not true that we will take your children away if you report abuse to us. These are the myths that abusers will perpetuate and we want to reach victims with the truth. We will help you; we will believe you; we have translators where needed. You may not want to report to us but there is help and support for you regardless and we urge you to find out more from the Lincolnshire Domestic Abuse Specialist Service.
“We also want to reach those people who are worried about a friend, family member or neighbour. Please don’t turn a blind eye. Domestic abuse is not a private matter. Trust your instincts – talk to that person, tell us or Crimestoppers about your concerns. Nobody should have to live with domestic abuse.”
StreetSafe update: how we are using this data to inform our service
We are sharing our findings from StreetSafe responses for 2022/2023 and highlighting how this is being used to achieve our vision of making Lincolnshire the safest place to live, work and visit.
Find out what you said and what we did in our StreetSafe data analysis from the last year.
Seven minute briefing
To keep you updated, we have created a briefing on all developments, initiatives and areas of work around tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).
Read our seven minute briefing here.
Our work to tackle VAWG
We are committed to tackling violence against women and girls and making our county the safest place to live, work and visit.
Detective Superintendent Suzanne Davies is the force lead for VAWG and is committed to working with colleagues, partners and survivors with lived experience to deliver a lasting and real change to the daily lives of women and girls. Her work is supported by three tactical leads and monitored through the VAWG delivery group.
Our priorities are to:
- Design out areas where women and girls tell us they don’t feel safe
- Encourage everyone to ‘call it out’ and be upstanders, not bystanders in challenging misogynistic, intimidating and sexist behaviour
- Increase confidence in reporting VAWG crimes and incidents
- Listen to the voices of survivors and those with lived experience to shape our response
- To deliver the national delivery plan in Lincolnshire
The national framework for delivery focusses on three pillars.
Pillar One: Building Trust and Confidence
Women and girls have greater confidence in the police response to violence against women and girls, and in our culture and conduct.
Pillar Two: Relentless Pursuit of Perpetrators
Significantly improved investigations into violence against women and girls and more perpetrators facing justice.
Pillar Three: Safer Spaces
A change in how safe women feel in public places – as a result of action policing takes, but also through working with partners and Government.
Why are we focussing on VAWG?
The term ‘violence against women and girls’ refers to acts of violence or abuse that we know disproportionately affect women and girls.
The most recent statistics show that one in five women are victims of sexual assault (or attempted assault) in their lifetime (5% of victims are men), over 27% of women had experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16 (14% of men), and 20% of women aged 16-74 had experienced stalking since the age of 16 (10% of men).
These figures, along with recent tragic cases of female homicide including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, have had a devastating impact on trust and confidence and set us a huge challenge, along with all of our partners, to rebuild that trust, pursue perpetrators, bring them to justice and make our streets safer. We know our officers and staff work tirelessly to achieve this, but still, there is more to be done as a Force to make this happen.
While we use the term ‘violence against women and girls’, this refers to all victims of any of these offences. VAWG includes crimes such as rape and other sexual offences, domestic abuse, stalking, ‘honour’-based abuse (including female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and ‘honour’ killings), as well as offences committed online. If you have been affected, you will find information and support by following the links above to our relevant sections.
What about the police themselves?
We must make sure that within our force, there is no place for those who abuse their position. We are committed to rooting out and challenging sexist and misogynistic behaviours and have highlighted the issue though our internal #SpeakOutNow campaign which promotes being an upstander and not a bystander and challenging or reporting inappropriate behaviour.
Any misconduct hearings will be held in public, unless the Chair of the panel does not allow it, and the findings reported in the media.
You're right, that's wrong
We are promoting a behaviour change campaign that focuses on men’s behaviour towards women and improves women’s safety.
The ‘You’re right, that’s wrong’ campaign calls on men to act when they see or hear public place harassment towards women or misogynistic attitudes.
The campaign, developed in Leicestershire, is jointly supported by Lincolnshire Police and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner with our own dedicated you're right, that's wrong landing page.
Lincolnshire Women’s Centres
We are promoting the Lincolnshire Action Trust project - Women RISE (Resilient, Informed, Supported, Empowered). This is a new trauma informed service for women and girls delivered by women, to help to build resilience by providing information and support to empower women and girls at risk in Lincolnshire.
Delivered in a range of locations and involving a range of different partners, Women RISE will provide safe and confidential women-only spaces where women and girls can access a range of support, advice and training to equip them for life. Find out more about Women RISE.
Survivor #VAWGVoices
We would like to give survivors of VAWG offences a platform to speak out and to have their voices heard, in a bid to raise awareness and encourage others to come forward.
If you would like to share your experience with us, please email [email protected]
All of these stories will be handled with the utmost sensitivity and will be anonymised.
We will be promoting the experiences shared with us on social media, using the hashtag #VAWGVoices
Unwanted Prisoner Contact Service
The national Unwanted Prisoner Contact service (formerly Victims Helpline) helps protect all victims from receiving unwanted contact from prisoners.
The service is there to help if someone is suffering from a prisoner’s attempts to control, use, bully, harass or intimidate them.
Who can use it?
Anyone who wishes to stop contact from prisoners can use the service. This includes survivors of domestic abuse, all victims and witnesses. The service can stop you getting unwanted:
- Letters
- Phone calls
- Texts
- Other messages from a prisoner
How to use the service
Complete the Stop prisoner contact online form on GOV.UK
Contact the service by email:
[email protected]
Or telephone:
0300 060 6699
Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm
StreetSafe
Streetsafe is a national initiative intended to provide insight into where you have felt unsafe in Lincolnshire public spaces, and behaviours that have made you feel vulnerable.
In one area of the county, we received five reports on different dates reporting lack of lighting near a specific building. Our Neighbourhood Policing Team shared this data with the owners of that premises who committed to improving the lighting in this area and we have received no further StreetSafe reports. Without StreetSafe reporting, the owners did not realise the impact on their visitors so we would encourage you to use StreetSafe if you have similar concerns.
Is there a public place in Lincolnshire where you have felt unsafe?
You can tell us about it using StreetSafe
Whether it's being followed, being harassed, being verbally abused
Or to do with lighting, abandoned buildings or drug use
It’s quick to use and anonymous
You just drop a pin in the map and tell us about the issue there
The information you share will help us to work with partners to improve safety
Go to lincs.police.uk and search “StreetSafe”
Enough
We are supporting the Government ‘Enough’ campaign and promoting the messages on social media around coercive control, cyberflashing, revenge porn, street harassment, workplace harassment and unwanted touching.
Hollie Guard
Hollie Guard is a free personal safety app for your phone. If you ever feel threatened, you can send out an alert via the app, letting your nominated contacts know your location.
Hollie Guard is a free app designed to transform your phone into a personal safety device.
Whether you're working alone, travelling to an unknown area or simply commuting around town, having Hollie Guard on your phone can help to keep you safe.
To activate Hollie Guard, simply open the app on your phone, and it will use GPS to track where you are.
If you begin to feel unsafe or as though you're in trouble, shaking your phone will send an automatic alert to your emergency contacts. At the same time, it will begin to record audio and video, which can later be used as evidence.
A second shake of the phone will sound an alarm and flashing lighting to deter any attacker.
There's also a stealth mode, allowing you to raise an alert silently whilst displaying a default home screen, giving the impression that no alarm has been triggered.
Hollie Guard is available in many different languages and is made to work all around the world.
Make Hollie your guardian angel.
Text on screen: Nearly three quarters of the UK population will experience at least one form of sexual harassment in their lifetime.
Two-in-five people have experienced at least one form of sexual harassment in the last 12 months.
The most common behaviours reported are unwelcome sexual jokes, staring or looks, and sexual comments.
Yet only a third of the sexual harassments experienced in the last 12 months were reported.
Dialogue: That's why it is so important that we are all aware of what sexual harassment is and how to report it.
Sexual harassment is defined as unwanted conduct of the sexual nature that has the purpose or effect of violating an individual's dignity or creating an intimidating hostile degrading humiliating or offensive environment for the victim.
These behaviours have lasting effects with many preparing themselves for harassment before leaving the house or even now coming to expect they may be a victim of these behaviours on evenings out.
There is a story to tell every weekend.
It can happen anywhere; in a workplace, on campus, in a social space, at home and can be a one-off or repeated behaviour.
For example, making sexual comments, jokes or gestures about someone's body clothing or appearance, spreading sexual rumours, staring or leering at someone's body, following or stalking someone, calling someone sexual names like whore or slut without their consent, sending unwanted text messages or emails of a sexual nature, asking questions about somebody's sex life telling sexually offensive jokes, making sexual comments or jokes about someone's sexual orientation or gender reassignment, touching someone against their will for example hugging or groping them, sexual assault or rape.
No matter how severe you think this harassment may be, if it made you feel threatened it can be reported.
This can be either directly to the venue you're in, to the police or even anonymously to Crime Stoppers.
You can also make anonymous reports via the StreetSafe service, which allows anyone to anonymously report places where they feel or have felt unsafe due to environmental issues such as street lighting or behaviours such as being followed.
Sexual harassment is never okay. It's not a compliment and it's not just a joke.
Don't be a bystander; call this behaviour out. Increase your awareness. We can all be active bystanders that raise our voices against sexual harassment.
Woman one
I was alone and walking home when suddenly there was a man following me.
I don't know how old he was - maybe 30 so nearly double my age.
When I went straight, he went straight, when I went to the right he went to the right.
He suddenly disappears but I have no clue where he went.
I managed to make it home safe, but I still heard noises. I could not sleep the whole night.
I was so scared, but I didn’t tell the police. Why would I? Nothing happened.
Woman two
Why would I tell the police? I don't think it's really that serious.
I mean if something happened yeah, I'd tell them but otherwise I wouldn’t because well what would I say?
I don't have any evidence, no proof of anything.
They'd think it was just all in my head and I’m sure if I went to them because a man is following me they’d be like ‘why would you come to us with this?
The message is loud and clear - unless something happens then you’re on your own.
Woman three
Men sometimes walk behind me or next to me. They're probably in their 30s or maybe 40 years old.
They try to reach out to me by saying hello or asking for my name.
It's uncomfortable because I’m just trying to get home and they won’t leave me alone.
This is the kind of thing that women have to put up with but hey what can you do about it?
Police Officer Kat Szaban
Stalking and harassment is never OK. If you feel you're being followed, and you feel in danger please call Lincolnshire Police on 999.
Alternatively if you get home and if you’re safe to do so you can call us on 101 or you can report online.
You can also download the StreetSafe app where you can tell us exactly where and why you don’t feel safe within Lincolnshire.
Force Control Room call-taker Tara Conner:
“When you call Lincolnshire Police, you’ll come through to the Force Control Room where you’ll either speak to me or one of my colleagues.
“We will handle your call with compassion and sensitivity. We will record everything on an incident that you tell us and this will be in total confidence.
“We understand that you may be in personal crisis when you make the call but we will remain calm and offer you guidance.
“We will then let you know what will happen to your incident and we will make sure that you have regular updates.”
Detective Sergeant Katie Moore:
“Once you have reported your incident a specially trained officer will arrange to contact you to discuss the details of everything that has happened.
“They will also explain what support services are available and with your agreement they can make referrals to those support services.
“The investigation process will be explained.
“This way you can make an informed choice of how you provide your evidence to us.
“Your crime will be allocated to a dedicated officer who will keep you updated throughout the investigation process.”