£17m project to end violence against women will target aggressive teenage boys

By Sam Lister5th July 20173rd November 2018News EnglandGovernment / Politics, News England, Violence, Youth Offending

Aggressive teenage boys will be targeted to stop them turning into abusers under a £17 million wave of projects to tackle domestic violence, Home Secretary Amber Rudd has announced.

Funding is being put into 41 schemes to end violence against women and girls across England and Wales and nearly half will work with offenders to change their behaviour.

The cash will also be used to support victims, including people with mental health or drug problems, as well as children who have witnessed abuse.

Ms Rudd said the projects would help stop abuse being carried out but also called on the police to do more to deal with domestic violence cases.

She told the Women’s Aid conference in Coventry: “The police, they need to do more too. We know that the police response to domestic abuse, while dramatically improving, is still not always as good as it should be and is inconsistent across the country.

“There is still a tendency, for instance, to push too much responsibility for securing prosecutions onto victims. Downgrading the severity of domestic violence cases into less urgent categories is also totally unacceptable.”

Some £300,000 will go to a project in Hull that will work with teenager boys aged 16 and 17 at risk of carrying out abuse, while £400,000 will go on a scheme in Derbyshire working with 13 to 24-year-olds, including those who have been violent.

In Portsmouth, £226,480 will be given to expand a project tackling female genital mutilation and in Northumbria, £646,287 will be spent on a number of schemes, including one to deal with cyber-stalking.

Mr Rudd said: “Tackling violence against women and girls is everyone’s business. It needs a joined-up, collaborative response locally, providing support to victims through health, education and social care, as well as the police.

“These projects will help ensure that victims and survivors get the right support at the right time, as well as intervening early to prevent these crimes from happening in the first place.

“Violence against women and girls devastates the lives of victims and families and this Government will continue to do all it can to protect people from these horrendous crimes.”