National Delegate Conference 19-22 June 2007

Campaign for statutory definition of violence against women

Katrina Murray

Conference called for a statutory definition of violence against women as a step towards eliminating domestic violence. One in four women in Britain will experence domestic violence in their lives, and it is now the second biggest category of violent crime - with 13 million incidents each year.

While as many as 80,000 women are raped each year, conviction for rape has dropped to 5.3%, the lowest for 30 years. "What we must never forget is that every single one of those statistics represents a woman's life, and behind every number is a woman with a story of abuse and violence to tell,” said Cath Elliot of the national woman's committee.

Scotland's Katrina Murray welcomed Cath's 'eloquent' words and stressed, "We need a stautory definition of violence against women - all gender based violence", she said. "Without a statutory definition, organisations, courts and juries have to make their own".

"Some of them are progressive - such as the Glasgow Community Safety Partnership who manage the Glasgow 'Routes out of Prostitution' partnership recognising that prostitiution is an of gender based violence against women.

"Others are less progressive like the courts and juries who year on year convict fewer rapists", said Katrina.

"Without a definition we don't have a blank page. We have all of our prejudices, our perceptions of a victim of a crime", added Katrina.

Guest speaker Baroness Scotland, minister of state for the criminal justice system and law reform, said both employers and trade unions had a key role to play in combating "this pernicious crime”, not least because many perpetrators of domestic violence "have stalked, harassed and murdered their victims in the workplace.”

Conference also heard moving stories from speakers' first hand experiences.

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