Serious violence, including domestic abuse and violence against women and girls. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act 2022 places a duty on local authorities to work in a multi-agency approach to prevent and reduce serious violence. The Home Office serious violence strategy defines serious violence as specific types of crime such as homicide, knife crime, gun crime and areas of criminality where serious violence or its threat is inherent, such as in gangs and county lines drug dealing, and Staffordshire County Council is overseeing a whole-system approach to understand the causes and consequences of serious violence. The approach focuses on prevention and early intervention and the Serious Violence Duty allows flexibility to include other types of serious violence such as domestic abuse, sexual offences and other related types of serious violence, such as alcohol-related violence, modern slavery or gender-based violence. In South Staffordshire more serious violence figures are relatively low with 35 reported in the year April 2021-March 2022. During the same time frame 69 serious sexual crimes along with 252 less serious violence crimes were reported. In South Staffordshire serious violence will focus on domestic abuse, county lines, violence against women and girls (including harassment and stalking) and sexual violence. Domestic Abuse is any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence, or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. It is estimated that 65% of all domestic abuse is not reported to the police or to other support services. In rural communities it is estimated that this increases to around 90%. In South Staffordshire Domestic Abuse increased by 29% between 2019-2022 to 597 reported incidents and crimes and during the pandemic many of those providing Domestic Abuse support services and those in safeguarding roles, commented that cases became more complex and increasingly high-risk. Domestic Abuse affects all communities to some extent and presents a significant risk to victims, but also has a wider impact where children are present, who through the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, are recognised as victims if they have been a witness of or experienced domestic abuse for themselves. Also, within the Act, local authorities have a duty to ensure that victims (adults and children) in Safe Accommodation settings are appropriately supported.
Stalking and Harassment
Although there has been an increase in the number of Stalking and Harassment incidents it is considered that due to police training and reporting of the offences that the national and regional rates have caught up with the local area.
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