Preventing Violence Against Girls, and Women  

25^th November is the international day for the ‘Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls’ (VAWG). It marks the start of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.  

This is a moment to recognise the sheer scale of violence inflicted upon women and girls, predominantly by men and boys. This includes all types of physical violence, sexual violence, stalking, harassment, and emotional violence including coercion and control.  

These annual international campaigns aim to bring together individuals and organisations around the world to improve awareness, and to trigger activity and change.   

The scale of violence against women and girls

If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need convincing that VAWG is a global epidemic and that the impact of VAWG reaches far beyond the physical and emotional trauma inflicted upon victims and survivors.  

You might know that domestic abuse alone costs more than £66bn per year, and impacts upon social, health, education, and economic outcomes for individuals, families, and societies.  

This is just one statistic which conveys the impact of VAWG; police data in England and Wales shows: 

• Over 1 million violent crimes against women and girls were recorded in 2022/23. This has increased by 37% since 2018.   

• 1 in every 12 women will be a victim of violence every year – that is 2 million victims per year (at least).   

• A woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK.  

• 1 in every 20 adults in England and Wales will be a perpetrator of VAWG every year.   

Focusing on children and young people.  

At YEF our mission is to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence. Data on violence against girls is just as, if not more, concerning:  

• 41,540 offences of child sexual exploitation and abuse were committed against girls aged 10-17.  

• 52% of perpetrators of child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) were children aged 10-17. The most common age is 14 years old.  

• 16-19 years old is the most common age for perpetration of rape and serious sexual offences.  

• 26% of children responding to our survey reported seeing content on social media that encouraged violence against women and girls. 

We are beginning to discuss ‘Violence against Girls’, and how YEF’s work on preventing violence involving children contributes to keeping girls safe from relationship violence and gender-based violence. In next week’s Children, violence and vulnerability 2024 report, our survey of 10,000 teenage children will provide findings on boys and girls experiences of violence which includes relationship lessons in schools. 

What should we do to prevent it?  

Whilst the scale of violence against women and girls is vast, I’m seeking not to be overwhelmed, but to be suitably angry and emboldened by these figures, and to use these feelings to push for change.  

I lead the Youth Endowment Fund Toolkit, that summarises the best available research evidence on 32 approaches to preventing violence involving children and young people. For each approach it explains what it is, how effective it’s likely to be, how confident you can be in the evidence of its impact, as well as indicative costs and links to related resources and programmes.   

Three approaches in the Toolkit are particularly salient to preventing violence against girls:   

Relationship violence prevention lessons and activities   

• Relationship violence prevention aim to reduce violence between young people in intimate relationships. These programmes are typically delivered universally, in schools during Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) or Physical, Social, Health and Economy (PSHE) lessons.   

• On average, relationship violence prevention activities are likely to have a moderate impact on violent crime. The Toolkit estimates an average 17% reduction in violence. This is based on the findings of 16 high quality studies that measured impact on violence perpetration.  

• Over 200 evaluations collated evidence about impact on knowledge and attitudes towards relationship violence and learning from implementation of these programmes. The research shows that children and young people responded better to the programme when facilitators had high confidence in the content and materials and when the sessions were interactive, including peer discussion, debate and roleplay. Programmes were delivered more consistently and with higher engagement when they were led by external facilitators or teachers with a background in health.   

• These programmes are typically low cost at around £60 per child per intervention. This can vary, depending on the scale and duration of the programme, and may range between £30 and £115.   

Bystander interventions to prevent sexual assault  

• Bystander interventions to prevent sexual assault enable children and young people to develop the awareness, attitudes and skills necessary to safely intervene in situations of potential sexual assault.  

• The available research suggests that this training can support children and young people to act but we don’t know whether these actions lead to fewer instances of sexual violence by their peers or the broader public.  

• There is more evidence on the impact on the participants’ own behaviour. This suggests that these programmes can have a moderate impact on preventing sexual violence, with an estimated 14% reduction in sexual violence perpetration. However, this is based on weak evidence – only four studies.   

• The review included 27 evaluations of the implementation of these programmes, three of which were undertaken in the UK. The findings suggest that young people find sessions more engaging when there is a lot of interaction, when facilitators have good knowledge and confidence in their delivery, and the content is appropriate for their age group.  

• These programmes are also likely to be low cost.   

Social and emotional learning  

• Child social and emotional learning programmes encourage self-control, perspective-taking and the internal inhibition of antisocial behaviour using mainly cognitive-behavioural methods. These programmes address a range of different skills, for example, behavioural skills such as verbal and non-verbal communication, social-cognitive skills such as social information processing, and social emotional skills such as emotional understanding and communication. Many of these skills are associated with identifying and managing healthy relationships with family and peers.   

• These programmes can be delivered universally, typically in schools, or may be targeted for children demonstrating behavioural difficulties or specific needs.   

• On average, the evidence suggests that social skills training has a high impact on reducing involvement in violence. The Toolkit estimates that these programmes can reduce violence by 32%.   

• Social and emotional learning delivered in schools can be very low cost, but programmes targeted for children with behavioural difficulties or those involved in the justice system are likely to cost more.  

Take away message

1 in every 20 adults in England and Wales will be a perpetrator of violence against women or girls every year. We need to invest in prevention programmes for children and young people.  

This means increasing delivery of high-quality programmes aiming to prevent violence perpetration, supported by evaluations measuring their effectiveness.  

If this isn’t your job, who is in your network that you can reach out to, and nudge, question, discuss, or debate their approach or their investment in these types of programmes?  

What about boys? I hear some of you say. Yes, International Men’s Day does exist, it was last week.  

My colleague Chad Hemady is going to share his thoughts on this next week. It will be shared on these accounts:  

YEF Linkedin 

Laura Knight LinkedIn 

Laura Knight Bluesky   

Check out some of the stats shared above: 

NPCC Policing Statement on VAWG 2024.  

Children, Violence and Vulnerability Report 2023